The following is the first of a new series of articles in which the Amarillo Pioneer news team will investigate questions you have about Amarillo to get you the answers you deserve. If you have a question you would like answered, please email us at amarillopioneereditor@gmail.com.
Question: How many homeless persons live in Amarillo? What is the ratio of homeless persons to non-homeless persons?
Answer: The true number of homeless persons in Amarillo and non-homeless persons in Amarillo will be difficult to figure out exactly.
According to Yellow City Community Outreach director Sherrie Ferguson, the most recent survey estimated 675 homeless persons in Amarillo. Ferguson also said that those numbers might not be exactly correct, but are the results from a survey by the PIT survey.
Meanwhile, the most recent census conducted in Amarillo in 2010 reported Amarillo's population to be 190,666 people, while 2016 estimated reported around 199,000 people living in Amarillo. 2016 estimates also reported 74,780 households in Amarillo, with 2.62 persons living in each household. This number would mean that about 196,000 people are living in households in Amarillo.
This would mean that there is about one homeless person in Amarillo for every 49 people who live in a household. However, these numbers are likely not totally correct, as many of these numbers are based on estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
