Methodologies for Examining Homelessness and Their Application to a Mandated Statewide Study |
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| Authors: | Paula W Bail Mack C Shelley II Scott T Fitzgerald |
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| Institution: | research associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Iowa State University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has published on the topics of homelessness and poverty. Prior to coming to Iowa State University, she was director and head of the Research Program at the Center for the Study of Poveny at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.;professor at Iowa State University in Statistics, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, and Political Science. He is Director of Research for the Research Institute for Studies in Education.;a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Iowa. He received his MA from the Department of Political Science at Iowa State University. |
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| Abstract: | 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. |
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