It's one of those years that ends with a "zero" again. And we all know what that means.

Everyone thinks the start of a decade is a pretty neat thing in January. We feel kind of special. The media has a field day with productions of "Looking back on the last 10 years" and "What will the next decade bring?"

Then March roars in, and along with the yearly stress over taxes, we've also got the federal government annoying us with The Census every 10 years.

But this year, for the first time, The Census had a new angle. The government tried to generate accurate statistics on the nation's homeless.

No one knows for sure how many homeless exist on America's streets. Estimates range from a low of 250,000 -- by the federal government -- to more than three million by the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Tuesday night and yesterday morning the government made an attempt to count the homeless. The Census Bureau sent out 15,0000 enumerators -- federal jargon for headcounters -- in a nationwide, overnight survey of America's forgotten population.

Although many consider this a landmark move, criticism arose immediately over the $2.7 million effort. Many homeless activists complained that the overnight count was dangerously inaccurate.

Reports of incomplete efforts by the census takers began to pour in yesterday morning. The Associated Press gave reports of enumerators in New York City taking what seemed like half-measures.

In New York City's Port Authority Bus Terminal, a popular place for the city's homeless, enumerators supposedly hovered on the ground level near the newsstand and ignored the upper levels where many people sleep in the stairways and on the floors.

In Manchester, New Hampshire, a man sleeping on the steps of city hall went uncounted because he was outside the specified census area.

The Census Bureau dubbed the endeavor a success yesterday, but the government's effort fell short of the expectations of some homeless people.

A 28-year-old homeless man in Toledo, Ohio echoed the frustrations of many street residents.

"What are they going to use the numbers for anyway, to tell us there ain't no homeless problem?" complained Robert Allen yesterday morning to Associated Press reporters. "Hell, I'm a living example that there is a problem,"

In State College, few people are seen sleeping on the streets. But Centre House, the largest local shelter, accommodated 251 people last year and had to turn away almost as many -- 248, according to director Ron Quinn.

Turning away nearly as many people as were housed last year hardly indicates success. To give aid to those who have nowhere else to go, money from the government is needed.

Our federal government, however, wants to be sure of the scope of the problem before it starts to hand out money. So it spent $2.7 million nationwide in 14 hours to count the homeless.

Crews were sent out to count the Centre County homeless on Tuesday night, although on a much smaller scale than in the cities. A total of roughly 28 people roamed the streets of State College and Bellefonte in two shifts.

From 6 Tuesday evening until midnight, the Census Bureau claims "about 20 people" visited area shelters asking the standard seven questions of the census's short form.

"What's your name?"

"Where do you usually live?"

"Are you Spanish/Hispanic?"

These were the probing questions asked in attempts to define the scope of the street-dwellers' strife. Of course, if an apparent homeless person was found sleeping, the headcounters were instructed not to wake him.

We can only assume they devised the most accurate information possible on the status of these folks.

A second team of two four-person crews did further counting in the region early Wednesday morning. They spent two hours visiting open-all-night establishments, such as bus stations and laundromats, and a single abandoned building.

How much tangible good will the census do? No one is sure at this point. Many fear the census counters will conveniently overlook some areas, making the count inaccurate. Lower numbers will facilitate the continued lack of federal funding for the homeless.

But millions of our fellow men and women have nowhere to live. We cannot let our government siphon billions of dollars into a defense budget and drug wars while people lie shivering and dying in the streets of our cities.

The census is a good start. No help will come from the government without acknowledgment first. But counting the homeless is far from a monumental answer to a complex problem.

As the homeless man in Toledo concluded, "We need jobs, not surveys."