 The city will be giving pre-paid Visa cards to people to pretend they're homeless to test the efficiency of the city's street-needs assessment, scheduled for April 15. Critics argue the money spent on the assessment should be put into homeless shelters and other services. (Craig Robertson/Sun Media files)
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TORONTO -- Don't fire off that resume just yet, the City of Toronto has all the homeless decoy applicants it needs.
But staff are still looking for volunteers to help count the homeless -- and the $100-a-pop fakers.
Patricia Anderson, manager of partnership development and support, said yesterday staff are sifting through applications now to find 50 to 100 decoys to roam the streets during its street-needs assessment.
Each one will be given a $100 pre-paid Visa card as an honorarium.
The Sun revealed yesterday staff had sent out an e-mail asking for "tons" of people to sign up to be decoys for the April 15 survey -- the city's second homeless head count.
The decoys are a method to ensure the survey methodology is being followed properly, Anderson said. The city has received applications from a variety of residents including former homeless people, actors and community service group workers.
ASK QUESTIONS
Interviewers are instructed to ask every person on the street if they have a place to stay that night. If the answer is no, they are asked to answer 10 questions.
Decoys are instructed to say "no" and then go through the survey. At the end, they are to indicate they are decoys and the survey is not counted towards the city's homeless total.
The survey is important, Anderson said.
"You need to know what's working and not working," she said.
The city is still looking for 750 volunteers to conduct the survey and team leaders.
Street nurse Cathy Crowe, of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, called the survey irresponsible during a recession.
"What's it going to tell us that we don't already know?" Crowe asked. "They don't in any way catch all the hidden homeless."
DON.PEAT@SUNMEDIA.CA
