Open AccessHomelessness and Unemployment During the Economic Recession: The Case of the City of Girona
Author(s) -
Fran Calvo,
Xavier Carbonell,
Marc Badia
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
european scientific journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1857-7881
pISSN - 1857-7431
DOI - 10.19044/esj.2018.v14n13p59
Subject(s) - unemployment , recession , great recession , unemployment rate , economics , sample (material) , demographic economics , catalan , observational study , demography , economic growth , labour economics , sociology , medicine , macroeconomics , humanities , philosophy , chemistry , chromatography , pathology
Although the research suggests that the main causes of homelessness are classified in individual and structural factors, there are few scientific articles which evaluate the impact of structural factors such as unemployment during periods of economic recession. The objective of this study is to compare the evolution of the total rate of homelessness with the total rate of unemployment in the city of Girona (Catalonia) during the economical recession (2006-2016) and to determine if unemployment is a predictive factor of homelessness. This is the first study with a Catalan sample comparing unemployment and homelessness. The design was longitudinal, retrospective and observational. The correlation tests between unemployment and homelessness indicated strong connections in the combination of the sample (r = .914, p <.001), men (r = .924, p <.001), and women (r = .716, p = 0.013). The results of the different models of simple linear regression used to determine the predictor variables of homelessness indicate that the rise of global unemployment is a predictor variable of the rise of global homelessness (ß = 2.17, p = .002) and male homelessness (ß = .82, p <.001). However, it does not predict specific female homelessness (ß = .88, p =.68).