This week, workers for the United States Census Bureau will try to count homeless Americans.The U.S. Constitution requires that a full census, or count, of the country's population take place every 10 years.The numbers help officials to shape congressional representation and decide how to spend federal money.Al Fontenot is the associate director of the U.S. Census Bureau. He spoke to an advisory committee last week.He said the Bureau has identified about 49,000 places across the U.S. where homeless people will be counted.The places include more than 33,000 camps, almost 10,000 shelters and 5,000 soup kitchens.Counting the homeless is one of the hardest jobs for the U.S. Census Bureau.The effort is beginning six months later than planned because of the COVID-19 health crisis.Fontenot said, "We are making every effort to make sure that no one is left out of the count."
