I recently saw the results of a homeless study in Fort Wayne, Indiana where there were far more people involved in finding the homeless than there were actual homeless.
Here in Lubbock, earnest young social science students have actually been forced to start rationing the homeless among themselves, since duplication is frowned upon, and there aren't enough to go around for all the term papers, theses and dissertations that seek "hard-core, first hand" evidence of their "plight". The Salvation Army says that there are no more than 30 people living on the streets permanently here, and about half that number who are temporarily homeless and in immediate need at any particular time.
This reminds me of a joke that an old Army buddy of mine, a Navajo who was born and raised on a res, told me:
(Q) "How many people in the average Navajo family?
(A) Four: Mom, dad, baby, and the anthropologist."