Measuring of homelessness in Belgium: pitfalls and challenges Prof. - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

measuring of homelessness in belgium pitfalls and
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Measuring of homelessness in Belgium: pitfalls and challenges Prof. - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Measuring of homelessness in Belgium: pitfalls and challenges Prof. dr. Koen Hermans Belgian homelessness policies Federal level : Social assistance Health care (including mental health care) Regional level : Housing


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Measuring of homelessness in Belgium: pitfalls and challenges

  • Prof. dr. Koen Hermans
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Belgian homelessness policies

  • Federal level :

– Social assistance – Health care (including mental health care)

  • Regional level :

– Housing policies (including housing measures for vulnerable groups)

  • Communal level:

– Welfare services (including residential services and floating support)

  • Local level :

– Night shelters and winter plans – Implementation of social assistance

 Complex division of competencies impedes coherent monitoring strategy

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Baseline measurement in 2014 in Flanders

  • Starting point : ETHOS
  • Method :

– Additional registration in services by social workers

  • Category 1 and 2 :

– Unique users of 11 winter shelters during two weeks in january – Amount of refusals

  • Category 3:

– Characteristics of users of residential services – Characteristics of users of transitional supported accomodation

  • Category 9

– Characteristics of persons with an eviction claim

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Measurement difficulties

  • Category 1 & 2 :

– Inclusion criteria of shelters differ – Night shelter is last solution (based on participant observation in shelters) – Regions without winter plans (rural areas) – Hidden homelessness (‘couch sleepers’) – Reluctance to measure in winter shelters

  • Category 3 & 4:

– Questionnaires filled in by social workers and users – Only stock data

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MEHOBEL: measuring of homelessness in Belgium

  • 2-year research project financed by BELSPO
  • Policy-oriented goal: development of Belgian monitoring

strategy

  • Scientific goals:

– ‘Static’ definition of ETHOS vs ‘homeless trajectories’ – Definition and measurement of ‘hidden homelessness’ – Relevance of the use of available administrative (social security) data and linking of administrative databases – Street counts vs capture-recapture methods ? – Different methods  different results and measurement errors

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Scientific challenges

  • Goals  measurement strategies

– The amount of homeless persons – The characteristics and trajectories of homeless persons – The way policies shape homelessness – Monitoring of the effectiveness of a national or local homelessness strategy

  • European coordination and streamlining of

measurement strategies

  • Participation of users in measurement strategy