Gift cards draw homeless to participate in survey
More than 120 volunteers compile data to create snapshot of demographic in city
As four volunteers left the Friendship Inn in Riversdale on Wednesday with stacks of blank homeless count surveys in hand, they were quickly approached by people eager to answer questions and collect a reward.
More than 120 people volunteered to help conduct this year’s “point in time” survey, which is meant to create a snapshot of the extent to which people in Saskatoon are experiencing homelessness.
A couple stopped volunteer Erin Elsner, asking to take the survey. She and Erica Spracklin spoke with each of them individually. Then a man approached Graham Reid to ask if he could take it. Volunteer group leader Bill Holden was also approached by people asking about the survey — and the free gift cards. At one point, a short line formed.
To get one of the cards, people had to identify themselves as homeless.
“I don’t know how widespread (the quick reaction) is,” said Holden, who is also the community co-director of the CommunityUniversity Institute for Social Research (CUISR). “But I know it’s happened. I think some people were earlier engaged in the survey and we didn’t have cards.”
This is the fourth survey conducted by CUISR in partnership with Saskatoon Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP). In previous years, they didn’t offer gift cards because they didn’t think it was ethical — but the federal government disagreed, Holden said.
Federal funding paid for the gift cards, which can be redeemed at Tim Hortons and Giant Tiger.
In response to an interview request, Employment and Social Development Canada responded with a prepared statement, mirroring information posted on its website. The statement said the use of “honoraria” is a way to engage a person, express thanks for participating, or both.
“Honoraria are not to be used to incentivize people experiencing homelessness to participate in a Point-in-Time Count. Rather, honoraria should recognize and thank participants for their time and contributions,” the ESDC said in the statement.
The Point-in-Time Counts are funded by the government’s Homelessness Partnering Strategy, spokesman Josh Bueckert said in a statement.
“The fact of the matter is, word got out quickly that there are gift cards,” Holden said, acknowledging there was a chance that people approached the volunteers just because of the incentive. He said volunteers would have to be “hard” with the survey questions.
Holden said the organization will go through all of the survey responses to look for inconsistencies, and he doesn’t think the gift cards will present a problem.
Jason Disano, director of research laboratories at the University of Saskatchewan, said research literature indicates that people who receive honorariums typically don’t bias the results.
“We’re talking about surveys that are done by more traditional means like telephone surveys, mail surveys or online or web-based surveys,” he said.
The homelessness count, however, is non-traditional in the sense that the people conducting the survey were out in the community recruiting respondents, he said.
“I wouldn’t be too concerned about potential bias in terms of how people are responding to questions in this particular case, but I think there may be a slight inherent risk that folks might misconstrue themselves as falling into your criteria for inclusion in the survey, by virtue of the fact of the incentive that you’re giving,” he said, adding the extent to which this could happen is quite small.
Survey teams covered 25 neighbourhoods and another 25 “stationary” locations in Saskatoon, such as shelters.
Reid said the data collected will help with the formation of policies and programs to end homelessness.
“I don’t think everybody necessarily sees it. They live in a certain neighbourhood, go to work, go back home and don’t spend time in certain neighbourhoods or recognize it as big of an issue as it actually is. This highlights how big an issue it really is,” he said.
Elsner said homelessness is generally brushed under the rug.
“Ultimately, the amount of homelessness and poverty in the city and the province directly relates to the health of the whole community,” she said.
CUISR has been the research arm of all four of the counts so far — in 2018, 2015, 2012 and 2008. In 2015, the count identified 450 people experiencing homelessness.
Similar counts happened in Regina and Prince Albert on Wednesday.
More than 60 communities in Canada took part this year.
The numbers will be tabulated and some will be shared nationally. Some questions in the survey are required by the national Homeless Partnering Strategy, but individual communities can add questions with a local focus.
The initial results for this year are expected to be released early next week; the final report is expected in June.