"...only people who actually agreed to be questioned were counted this year. "

Butte County was my home away from home for quite some time, both when I was using heroin heavily and while I was attending college and grad school. I spent plenty of time in both Chico and Oroville, as well as the outlying areas where migrant work camps proliferate. There are huge numbers of folks who are homeless in this county but they are extremely difficult to count, since many of them avoid detection whenever possible and large numbers of them "camp" alongside highway 70's large tracts of orchards, on the western slope of the Sierra as the mountains dwindle into foothills, and way the hell out on the backroads and fields of the area. Many of them wouldn't sign anything from a government agent in any shape or form if their lives depended on it, and tracking folks down in Butte County's rugged areas would take the skill of a mountain lion hunter, the determination of a Jehovah's Witness, the patience of Job and the stamina of a world-class mountain climber. Additionally, there is a large population of illegal immigrants in the area who are also homeless and wandering aimlessly while trying to find work in the orchards. Suffice it to say, Butte's homeless counts have always missed substantial numbers and have been lowball estimates. I was never once counted there and lived in the area off and on for years. a Now, the new criteria enacted for this year's count took the situation from bad to worse and frankly made the effort - and results - nothing short of laughable. Shame on you, Butte County. Number of homeless youth in Butte uncertain

By LARRY MITCHELL - Staff Writer

Article Launched: 06/22/2008 12:00:00 AM PDT

CHICO -- It's hard to know exactly how many homeless teenagers there are in Butte County.

The number depends partly on how "homeless" is defined.

Each year, a team consisting of volunteers and people who work with the homeless conducts a census late in January. This year's census counted 178 homeless children. Of those, 134 were living with their homeless families, and 44 were living on their own.

The 2008 report says that of the 44 "unaccompanied youth," three were "unsheltered" and three were living in shelters. The remaining 38 youngsters were classified as "other," which meant they were living "doubled-up," possibly sleeping on friends' couches or making use of some other temporary, shared housing.

Corla Bertrand, who serves on the committee that organized the census, said the three "sheltered" youngsters were probably staying in temporary housing that had been arranged for them, since the new Chico youth shelter, Coleen's House, had not yet opened when the census was taken. "There probably are more (homeless) kids than this reflects," she said.

Overall, this year's census came up with a total of 999 homeless people in Butte County. The totals for individual communities were as follows: Chico, 683; Oroville, 244; Paradise, 38; Gridley, 16; Magalia, 10; and Biggs, 2. The total count last year was 1,812. The totals for the three largest cities were as follows: Chico, 1,144; Oroville, 345; and Paradise, 227.

Bertrand said this year's count was lower than last year's for a number of reasons.

One factor was local organizers' decision not to use estimates in counting homeless people as had been done in the past.

Previously, census takers were allowed to make estimates, Bertrand said. For instance, if people who appeared to be homeless refused to be surveyed, the census takers would count them anyway.

This practice wasn't necessarily invalid, she said, but organizers decided it would be best to "switch to harder data."

As a result, only people who actually agreed to be questioned were counted this year.

In fact, although the total numbers dropped significantly from 2007 to 2008, many more surveys were actually filled out this year. In Chico this year, 635 surveys were filled out compared to 435 last year.

Bertrand said bad weather on the day of the census this year also appeared to contribute to the lower overall count.

"It was harder to contact people on the streets or in the creek bed," she said.