LA Homelessness Demographic Survey

Standardized Records from the Demographic Survey of Unsheltered Individuals

economicrt.org-demographic_survey-1

Resources | Packages | Documentation| Contacts| References| Data Dictionary

Resources

• combined_survey. Combined survey data from 2011 to 2017, with all columns, naievely combined
• multiyear_survey. Data from Demographic Surveys and HMIS Records 2011 to 2017, with a normalized subset of common columns

Documentation

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) conducts annual in-person surveys of the unsheltered homeless population in Los Angeles. This data package includes the standardized versions of the annual survey data for 2011 through 2017, combined into a single file (combined_survey) and another multi year file that was produced by UCLA, which includes only the common columns from the multi-year files. (multiyear_survey)

The combined_survey includes all of the columns from all of the years, although many columns only exist for one year. The result is that many of variables are null for one or more of the survey years.

The source for the multiyear_survey file was produced by UCLA and includes only a subset of the columns available in combined_survey, but the variables have many more non-null values.

The best way to compare these files is to look at the EDA notebooks for the files, and in particular, the Null map at the end of the notebook.

Processing

Both files have some additional processing

• ‘NA’ values are converted to blank cells
• A new sex column which codes the genders Male as ‘M’, Female as ‘F’, and all others as ‘U’
• A new raceeth variable for census race and ethnicity categories with values for black, white, asian, aian, aian, nhopi, hisp and other, based on keywords in the Race_Full variable.
• Strip trailing spaces from Race_Full
• A new geoid variable that holds the census tract variable converted to a format Census geoid.
• A new year variable that holds an integer version of the `Survey_Year“ variable

Documentation Links

• 2011 Codebook2011 Codebook for Standardized Records from the Demographic Survey of Unsheltered Individuals
• 2011 Methodology White Paper
• 2013 Codebook2013 Codebook for Standardized Records from the Demographic Survey of Unsheltered Individuals
• 2013 Methodology White Paper
• 2015 Codebook2015 Codebook for Standardized Records from the Demographic Survey of Unsheltered Individuals
• 2015 Methodology White Paper
• 2016 Codebook2016 Codebook for Standardized Records from the Demographic Survey of Unsheltered Individuals
• 2016 Methodology White Paper
• 2017 Codebook2017 Codebook for Standardized HMIS Records of Sheltered Individuals
• 2017 Methodology White Paper
• CodebookCodebook for Multi-Year Data Set
• Download Page

Contacts

• Wrangler

  Eric Busboom, Civic Knowledge

• Publisher

  The Economic Roundtable

• Creator

  Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

Packages

• zip http://library.metatab.org/economicrt.org-demographic_survey-1.zip
• csv http://library.metatab.org/economicrt.org-demographic_survey-1.csv
• source https://github.com/metatab-packages/metatab-packages.git

Accessing Packages in Metapack

import metapack as mp
pkg = mp.open_package('http://library.metatab.org/economicrt.org-demographic_survey-1.zip')

# Create Dataframes

combined_survey_df = pkg.resource('combined_survey').dataframe()
multiyear_survey_df = pkg.resource('multiyear_survey').dataframe()

Data Dictionary

combined_survey | multiyear_survey

combined_survey

Column Name	Data Type	Description
year	integer
gender	string
sex	string
raceeth	string
race_full	string
race_recode	string
ethnicity	string
age	integer
birth_year	integer
census_tract	string
census_tract_or_shelterid	string
spa	integer
adult_probation_involvement	integer
adult_with_child	integer
age_first_homeless	integer
alcohol_abuse_ever	integer
alcohol_abuse_past_year	integer
automobile_past_6mnths	integer
automobile_past_year	integer
car_past_6mnths	integer
car_past_year	integer
chronic	integer
chronic_condition	integer
chronic_time	integer
current_stint_duration	string
current_stint_duration_detailed	string
currently_access_dropin	integer
currently_alcohol_drug_counseling	integer
currently_case_management	integer
currently_emergency_shelter	integer
currently_housing_placement	integer
currently_job_training	integer
currently_legal_assistance	integer
currently_mental_health	integer
currently_pay_shelter	integer
currently_transitional_housing	integer
day_labor	integer
depression	integer
depression_past_year	integer
developmental_disability_ever	integer
drug_abuse_ever	integer
drug_abuse_past_year	integer
drug_alcohol_history	integer
encampment_past_year	integer
er_past_year	string
er_times_past_3mnths	string
foster_care_involvement	integer
full_time	integer
gov_assist_calworks	integer
gov_assist_capi	integer
gov_assist_child_support	integer
gov_assist_food_stamps	integer
gov_assist_general_relief	integer
gov_assist_medical	integer
gov_assist_medicare	integer
gov_assist_social_security	integer
gov_assist_ssi_ssd	integer
gov_assist_unemployment	integer
gov_assist_vet_disability_payment	integer
gov_assist_vet_other_benefit	integer
gov_assist_vet_pension	integer
gov_assist_women_infants_children	integer
hardship_from_substance_abuse	integer
have_child	integer
have_had_child	integer
hiv_positive	integer
hospital_times_past_year	string
indoor_majority_last_month	string
jail_prison_involvement	integer
justice_system_homeless	integer
justice_system_past_year	integer
juvenile_probation_involvement	integer
la_community_before_current_stint	string
la_county_years	number
location_before_current_stint	string
location_before_current_stint_raw	string
long_term_health_past_year	integer
mental_illness_ever	integer
mental_illness_past_year	integer
msshelter_past_6mnths	integer
new_to_homelessness	integer
observed_mental	integer
observed_physical	integer
observed_substance	integer
outside_la_county	integer
outside_majority_last_month	string
panhandling	integer
parole_involvement	integer
part_time	integer
performance	integer
physical_disability_ever	integer
physical_disability_past_year	integer
physical_illness_ever	integer
physical_sexual_abuse	integer
ptsd_ever	integer
reason_homeless_breakup	integer
reason_homeless_child_support	integer
reason_homeless_death_illness_fam	integer
reason_homeless_dv	integer
reason_homeless_eviction	integer
reason_homeless_family_hmls	integer
reason_homeless_foster_care	integer
reason_homeless_hh_conflict	integer
reason_homeless_immigration	integer
reason_homeless_jail_prison	integer
reason_homeless_job	integer
reason_homeless_medical	integer
reason_homeless_mental	integer
reason_homeless_no_fam	integer
reason_homeless_previous_housing_program	integer
reason_homeless_released_treatment	integer
reason_homeless_safety	integer
reason_homeless_sexual_orientation	integer
reason_homeless_subs_abuse	integer
reason_previous_housing_program	integer
reason_previous_uninhabitable_housing	integer
recycling	integer
retired	integer
rv_camper_past_6mnths	integer
rv_camper_past_year	integer
seasonal	integer
severe_depression_ever	integer
severe_depression_past_year	integer
sex_traffic	integer
sex_worker	integer
sexual_orientation	string
student_vocational	integer
temp_work	integer
tent_past_6mnths	integer
tent_past_year	integer
times_homeless_3yrs	string
times_homeless_past_year	string
tobacco_past_year	integer
total_time_homeless_life	string
traumatic_brain_injury_ever	integer
turned_away_age_requirement	integer
turned_away_criminal_record	integer
turned_away_drug_alcohol	integer
turned_away_ever	integer
turned_away_had_children	integer
turned_away_had_pets	integer
turned_away_immigration	integer
turned_away_lack_housing	integer
turned_away_last_month	integer
turned_away_mental	integer
turned_away_no_beds	integer
turned_away_noid	integer
turned_away_not_foster	integer
turned_away_partner	integer
turned_away_physical	integer
turned_away_pregnant	integer
turned_away_previous_stay	integer
turned_away_strictness	integer
unable_to_work_disability	integer
unemployed_looking	integer
unemployed_not_looking	integer
van_past_6mnths	integer
van_past_year	integer
veteran	integer
work_barrier_experience	integer
work_barrier_gaps	integer
work_barrier_lack_ed	integer
work_barrier_no_access	integer
work_barrier_no_interview	integer
work_barrier_turned_down	integer
weights	number

multiyear_survey

Column Name	Data Type	Description
geoid	string
survey_year	string
survey_type	string
year	integer
birth_year	integer
age	number
gender	string
sex	string
ethnicity	string
race_full	string
race_recode	string
raceeth	string
veteran	integer
chronic_time	integer
chronic_condition	integer
chronic	integer
adult_with_child	integer
times_homeless_3yrs	string
times_homeless_past_year	string
current_stint_duration	string
spa	integer
census_tract	integer
physical_sexual_abuse	integer
physical_disability	integer
mental_illness	integer
alcohol_abuse	integer
drug_abuse	integer
drug_alcohol_history	integer
hiv_positive	integer
part_time	integer
full_time	integer
unemployed_looking	integer
unemployed_not_looking	integer

References

Urls used in the creation of this data package.

• demo_survey_2011. 2011 Homeless Count Unsheltered Adult and Youth Demographic Survey – Individuals – Standardized Records
• demo_survey_2013. 2013 Homeless Count Unsheltered Adult and Youth Demographic Survey – Individuals – Standardized Records
• demo_survey_2015. 2015 Homeless Count Unsheltered Adult and Youth Demographic Survey – Individuals – Standardized Records
• demo_survey_2016. 2016 Homeless Count Unsheltered Adult and Youth Demographic Survey – Individuals – Standardized Records
• demo_survey_2017. 2017 Homeless Count Unsheltered Adults and Youth Demographic Survey – Individuals – Standardized Records
• demo_survey_2011_2017. Data from Demographic Surveys and HMIS Records 2011 to 2017

Last Modified 2019-07-17T00:48:21

Packages

• zip http://library.metatab.org/economicrt.org-demographic_survey-1.zip
• csv http://library.metatab.org/economicrt.org-demographic_survey-1.csv
• source https://github.com/metatab-packages/metatab-packages.git

Accessing Packages in Metapack

import metapack as mp
pkg = mp.open_package('http://library.metatab.org/economicrt.org-demographic_survey-1.zip')

# Create Dataframes

combined_survey_df = pkg.resource('combined_survey').dataframe()
multiyear_survey_df = pkg.resource('multiyear_survey').dataframe()