Advocacy and Enumeration: Counting Homeless People in a Suburban Community

Enumerating or estimating the numbers of homeless people has become an important research activity in the past few decades. The methodologies of almost all efforts to count homeless people have been closely linked to advocacy activities such as providing shelter and food to those in need. Yet the ef...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills) 2001-09, Vol.45 (1), p.105-120
Main Author: Bogard, Cynthia J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advocacy
Affordable housing
Censuses
Community
Demographics
Economic policy
Estimates
Estimation
Food
Homeless people
Homelessness
Human behaviour
Local communities
Methodological Problems
Methods
New York
Research Methodology
Research methods
Social problems
Suburban areas
Suburbs
U.S.A
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Summary:Enumerating or estimating the numbers of homeless people has become an important research activity in the past few decades. The methodologies of almost all efforts to count homeless people have been closely linked to advocacy activities such as providing shelter and food to those in need. Yet the effect of advocacy work on estimating or enumerating homeless populations has not been much examined in the enumeration literature. This work reviews the methodology of enumeration as it has been influenced by the work of advocates both in general terms and through examining the methods used to conduct a study of a suburban homeless population in New York in 1994. Enumeration methods that overtly take local advocacy activities into account can provide an enriched assessment of homelessness as it exists in relation to surrounding structural conditions. In this case, advocacy work actively prevented literal homelessness for most families in the local community.
ISSN:0002-7642
1552-3381
DOI:10.1177/00027640121957042