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Methodologies for Examining Homelessness and Their Application to a Mandated Statewide Study
Author(s) -
Bail Paula W.,
Shelley Mack C.,
Fitzgerald Scott T.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
policy studies journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1541-0072
pISSN - 0190-292X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-0072.2000.tb02039.x
Subject(s) - agency (philosophy) , baseline (sea) , state agency , population , state (computer science) , psychology , political science , medicine , public administration , environmental health , sociology , regulatory agency , computer science , law , social science , algorithm
Using findings from a federally mandated statewide study of homelessness in the state of Iowa, this paper presents methodologies developed to address various aspects of homeless research, including enumeration of the population, screening for reporting duplications, estimating the annual number of incidents of homelessness, and exploring county‐level estimates of homelessness. After implementing an algorithm to eliminate duplicate reporting, and using the baseline unduplicated reported number of homeless persons, a statewide estimate of the number of homeless individuals was derived. Following further adjustments for differences in agency reporting practices and after extrapolating for nonreported time periods, we estimated the number of Unique incidents of homelessness experienced in the state during the year of the study (1997). The policy implications of these findings are discussed.