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