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 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

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

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

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