Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-14T13:09:37.795Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hidden Homelessness: A Scoping Review and Avenues for Further Inquiry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2021

Harm Deleu Open the ORCID record for Harm Deleu [Opens in a new window] ,
Mieke Schrooten Open the ORCID record for Mieke Schrooten [Opens in a new window]  and
Koen Hermans
Harm Deleu
Affiliation:
Social Work Department, Odisee University of Applied Sciences, Brussels, Belgium. Centre for Research on Environmental and Social Change, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium. E-mail: [email protected]
Mieke Schrooten
Affiliation:
Social Work Department, Odisee University of Applied Sciences, Brussels, Belgium. Centre for Research on Environmental and Social Change, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium. E-mail: [email protected]
Koen Hermans
Affiliation:
Centre for Sociological Research/LUCAS, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Traditional interpretations of homelessness focus on people living on the streets or in shelters. However, homelessness encompasses many more living situations. This article reports on a scoping review of studies on hidden homelessness. A systematic search in scientific databanks was combined with an exploration of Google Scholar. The results of the review reveal a lack of consensus regarding the definition of the concept. Moreover, since most studies focus on a certain subgroup in the population, it is hard to compare profile characteristics of people living in different forms of homelessness. The applied research methods prove to be valuable, although they often underestimate the number and/or character of the phenomena. Very little longitudinal research on hidden homelessness seems to be available. Based on the findings of the scoping review, the article draws up an agenda for further research in order to capture the complex reality of contemporary forms of homelessness.

Keywords

Homelessnesshidden homelessnessscoping reviewsofa surfingnon-conventional housing
Type
Article
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 22 , Issue 2: THEMED SECTION: Mapping the Shifts in Russian and European Welfare Polities , April 2023 , pp. 282 - 298
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agans, R. P., Jefferson, M. T., Bowling, J. M., Zeng, D., Yang, J. and Silverbush, M. (2014) ‘Enumerating the hidden homeless: strategies to estimate the homeless gone missing from a point-in-time count’, Journal of Official Statistics, 30, 2, 215–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agans, R. P. and Liu, G. (2015) ‘Public attitudes toward the homeless’, Global Journal of Science Frontier Research: E Interdisciplinary, 15, 3, 1–8.Google Scholar
Amore, K., Baker, M. and Howden-Chapman, P. (2011) ‘The ETHOS definition and classification of homelessness: an analysis’, European Journal of Homelessness, 5, 2, 19–37.Google Scholar
Anthopoulou, T., Partalidou, M. and Kourachanis, N. (2019) ‘Hidden homelessness and poverty trajectories in rural areas: stories of crisis counterurbanization in Greece’, Greek Review of Social Research, 2019, 152, 229–56.Google Scholar
Arksey, H. and O’Malley, L. (2005) ‘Scoping studies: towards a methodological framework’, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 8, 1, 19–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, K. (2011) ‘Homeless at home in East Durham’, Antipode, 43, 4, 960–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloch, A. (2014) ‘Living in fear: rejected asylum seekers living as irregular migrants in England’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 40, 10, 1507–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Busch-Geertsema, V., Benjaminsen, L., Hrast Filipovič, M. and Pleace, N. (2014) Extent and Profile of Homelessness in European Member States (4th edn.), Brussels: Feantsa.Google Scholar
Center for General Welfare (CAW) (2020) ‘Geef jonge sofasurfers een gezicht en geen masker’, CAW, https://www.caw.be/wat-beweegt-er/nieuws/geef-jonge-sofasurfers-een-gezicht-en-geen-masker/ [accessed 04.06.2021].Google Scholar
Clapham, D. (2002) ‘Housing pathways: a post modern analytical framework’, Housing, Theory and Society, 19, 2, 57–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clapham, D. (2003) ‘Pathways approaches to homelessness research’, Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 13, 2, 119–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, A. (2016) ‘The prevalence of rough sleeping and sofa surfing amongst young people in the UK. Social Inclusion, 4, 4, 60–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawley, J., Kane, D., Atkinson-Plato, L., Hamilton, M., Dobson, K. and Watson, J. (2013) ‘Needs of the hidden homeless – no longer hidden: a pilot study’, Public Health, 127, 7, 674–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Daudt, H. M., van Mossel, C. and Scott, S. J. (2013) ‘Enhancing the scoping study methodology: a large, inter-professional team’s experience with Arksey and O’Malley’s framework’, BMC Medical Research Methodology, 13, 1, 48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Demaerschalk, E., Hermans, K., Steenssens, K. and Van Regenmortel, M. (2019) ‘Homelessness. Merely an urban phenomenon? Exploring hidden homelessness in rural Belgium’, European Journal of Homelessness, 13, 1, 101–20.Google Scholar
Demaerschalk, E., Italiano, P., Mondelaers, N., Steenssens, K., Schepers, W. and Bircan, T. (2018) Measuring Homelessness in Belgium – Final Report, Brussels: Belgian Science Policy, 250.Google Scholar
Elander, I., Davelaar, M. and Walliser, A. (2012) ‘Faith-based organisations, urban governance and welfare state retrenchment‘, in Beaumont, J. and Cloke, P. (eds.), Faith-Based Organisations and Exclusion in European cities, Bristol: Policy Press, 81–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elwell-Sutton, T., Fok, J., Albanese, F., Mathie, H. and Holland, R. (2017) ‘Factors associated with access to care and healthcare utilization in the homeless population of England’, Journal of Public Health, 39, 1, 26–33.Google ScholarPubMed
Fazel, S., Geddes, J. R. and Kushel, M. (2014) ‘The health of homeless people in high-income countries: descriptive epidemiology, health consequences, and clinical and policy recommendations’, Lancet, 384, 9953, 1529–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Findlay, I. M., Holden, B., Patrick, G. and Wormith, S. (2013) Saskatoon’s Homeless Population 2012: A Research Report, Saskatoon: Community-University Institute for Social Research, University of Saskatchewan.Google Scholar
Gaetz, S., Barr, C., Friesen, A., Harris, B., Hill, C., Kovacs-Burns, K., Pauly, B., Pearce, B., Turner, A. and Marsolais, A. (2012) Canadian Definition of Homelessness, Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press, https://www.homelesshub.ca/sites/default/files/COHhomelessdefinition.pdf [accessed 05.01.2021].Google Scholar
Haan, M. (2011) ‘Does immigrant residential crowding & reflect hidden homelessness?‘, Canadian Studies in Population, 38, 1–2, 43–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hermans, K., Dyb, E., Knutagård, M., Novak-Zezula, S., and Trummer, U. (2020) ‘Migration and homelessness: measuring the intersections’, European Journal of Homelessness, 14, 3, 13–22.Google Scholar
Kauppi, C., O’Grady, B., Schiff, R., Martin, F. and Ontario Municipality Social Services Association (2017) Homelessness and Hidden Homelessness in Rural and Northern Ontario, Guelph: Rural Ontario Institute.Google Scholar
Lancione, M. (2016) ‘Beyond homelessness studies’, European Journal of Homelessness, 10, 3, 163–76.Google Scholar
Lee, C. T., Guzman, D., Ponath, C., Tieu, L., Riley, E. and Kushel, M. (2016) ‘Residential patterns in older homeless adults: results of a cluster analysis’, Social Science and Medicine, 153, 131–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levac, D., Colquhoun, H. and O’Brien, K. K. (2010) ‘Scoping studies: advancing the methodology’, Implementation Science, 5, 1, 69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liddy, N., Sanders, S. and Coleman, C. (2010) Australia’s Hidden Homeless: Community-Based Approaches to Asylum Seeker Homelessness, Melbourne: Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project.Google Scholar
Lister, R. (2004) Poverty, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
MacKenzie, D. (2012) ‘Homelessness: definitions’, in Smith, S. J. (ed.), International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home, Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 25–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marpsat, M. (2005) ‘The problem of definitions: points of similarity and difference’, Constructing Understandings of the Homeless Population (CUHP) Thematic Network Conference, 3 November, Brussels.Google Scholar
Mayock, P. and Corr, M.-L. (2013) Young People’s Homeless and Housing Pathways: Key Findings from a 6-Year Qualitative Longitudinal Study, Dublin: Department of Children and Youth Affairs.Google Scholar
Mayock, P. and Parker, S. (2019) ‘Homeless young people ‘strategizing’ a route to housing stability: service fatigue, exiting attempts and living ‘off grid’’, Housing Studies, 35, 459–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNaughton-Nicholls, C. (2009) ‘Agency, transgression and the causation of homelessness: a contextualised rational action analysis’, European Journal of Housing Policy, 9, 1, 69–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Metraux, S., Manjelievskaia, J., Treglia, D., Hoffman, R., Culhane, D. P. and Ku, B. S. (2016) ‘Posthumously assessing a homeless population: services use and characteristics’, Psychiatric Services, 67, 12, 1334–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Minich, K., Saudny, H., Lennie, C., Wood, M., Williamson-Bathory, L., Cao, Z. and Egeland, G. M. (2011) ‘Inuit housing and homelessness: results from the International Polar Year Inuit Health Survey 2007–2008’, International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 70, 5, 520–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Minnery, J. and Greenhalgh, E. (2007) ‘Approaches to homelessness policy in Europe, the United States and Australia’, Journal of Social Issues, 63, 3, 641–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J. and Altman, D. G. (2009) ‘Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement’, Annals of Internal Medicine, 151, 4, 264–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mostowska, M. and Dębska, K. (2020) An ambiguous hierarchy of inequalities. The political intersectionality of older women’s homelessness in Poland’, Journal of Gender Studies, 29, 4, 443–56.Google Scholar
Mostowska, M. and Sheridan, S. (2016) ‘Migrant women and homelessness’, in Mayock, P. and Breterthon, J. (eds.), Women’s Homelessness in Europe, Brussels: Macmillan, 235–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munn, Z., Peters, M. D. J., Stern, C., Tufanaru, C., McArthur, A. and Aromataris, E. (2018) ‘Systematic review or scoping review? Guidance for authors when choosing between a systematic or scoping review approach’, BMC Medical Research Methodology, 18, 143.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neale, J. (1997) ‘Homelessness and theory reconsidered’, Housing Studies, 12, 1, 47–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicaise, I. and Schockaert, I. (2014) ‘The hard-to-reach among the poor in Europe: lessons from Eruostat’s EU-SILC survey in Belgium’, in Tourangeau, R., Edwards, B., Johnson, T., Wolter, K., and Bates, N. (eds.), Hard-to-Survey Populations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1246–79.Google Scholar
O’Carroll, A., Irving, N., O’Neill, J. and Flanagan, E. (2017) ‘A review of a GP registrar-run mobile health clinic for homeless people’, Irish Journal of Medical Science, 186, 541–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O’Flaherty, J. and Phillips, C. (2015) ‘The use of flipped classrooms in higher education: a scoping review’, The Internet and Higher Education, 25, 85–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogden, J. and Avades, T. (2011) ‘Being homeless and the use and nonuse of services: a qualitative study’, Journal of Community Psychology, 39, 4, 499–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osanami Törngren, S., Öberg, K. and Righard, E. (2018) ‘The role of civil society in the integration of newly arrived refugees in Sweden’, in Lāce, A. (ed.), Newcomer Integration in Europe: Best Practices and Innovations Since 2015, Brussels: Foundation for European Progressive Studies, 13–24.Google Scholar
Parsell, C. (2018) The Homeless Person in Contemporary Society, Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsell, C. and Clarke, A. (2019) ‘Agency in advanced liberal services: grounding sociological knowledge in homeless people’s accounts’, The British Journal of Sociology, 70, 1, 356–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Patterson, M., Moniruzzaman, A., Frankish, C. and Somers, J. (2012) ‘Missed opportunities: childhood learning disabilities as early indicators of risk among homeless adults with mental illness in Vancouver, British Columbia’, BMJ Open, 2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, E. (2012) ‘‘I like to let them have their time’. Hidden homeless First Nations people in the city and their management of household relationships’, Social and Cultural Geography, 13, 4, 321–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pham, M. T., Rajić, A., Greig, J. D., Sargeant, J. M., Papadopoulos, A. and McEwen, S. A. (2014) ‘A scoping review of scoping reviews: advancing the approach and enhancing the consistency, Research Synthesis Methods, 5, 4, 371–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Phillipot, P., Lecocq, C., Sempoux, F., Nachtergael, H. and Galand, B. (2007) ‘Psychological research on homelessness in Western Europe: a review from 1970 to 2001’, Journal of Social Issues, 63, 3, 483–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pleace, N. and Bretherton, J. (2013) Measuring Homelessness and Housing Exclusion in Northern Ireland: A Test of the ETHOS Typology, Belfast: Northern Ireland Housing Executive.Google Scholar
Pleace, N. and Hermans, K. (2020) Counting all homelessness in Europe: the case for ending separate enumeration of ‘hidden homelessness.’ European Journal of Homelessness, 14, 3, 28.Google Scholar
Preece, J., Garratt, E. and Flaherty, J. (2020) ‘Living through continuous displacement: resisting homeless identities and remaking precarious lives’, Geoforum, 116, 140–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quittelier, B. and Horvat, N. (2019) ‘Homeless and inadequately housed people in the Brussels-Capital Region’, Brussels Studies, 140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeve, K. and Batty, E. (2011) The Hidden Truth About Homelessness, London: Crisis and Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research.Google Scholar
Rodrigue, S. (2016) ‘Hidden homelessness in Canada’, Insights on Canadian Society, Ottowa: Statistics Canada.Google Scholar
Rose, A. and Davies, B. (2014) Not Home: The Lives of Hidden Homeless Households in Unsupported Temporary Accommodation in England, Manchester: IPPR North.Google Scholar
Schrooten, M. and Meeus, B. (2020) ‘The possible role and position of social work as part of the arrival infrastructure’, European Journal of Social Work, 23, 3, 414–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snow, D. A., Anderson, L. and Koegel, P. (1994) ‘Distorting tendencies in research on the homeless’, American Behavioral Scientist, 37, 461–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sorensen, M. (2010) 2010 Edmonton Homeless Count, Edmonton: Homeward Trust.Google Scholar
Stevinson, C. and Lawlor, D. A. (2004) ‘Searching multiple databases for systematic reviews: added value or diminishing returns?’, Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 12, 4, 228–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swyngedauw, K. (2019) ‘Informele netwerken als welzijnsactoren rond verborgen thuisloosheid in het Brussels Gewest’, in M. Schrooten, R. Thys, and P. Debruyne (eds.), Sociaal Schaduwwerk. Over Informele Spelers in Het Welzijnslandschap, Brussels: Politeia, 195–201.Google Scholar
Van Acker, K., Claes, E., Deleu, H., Gulinck, N., Naessens, L., Schrooten, M., Flachet, T. and Moustatine, A. (2021) ‘Participatory action research and urban social work: strategies for navigation the challenges of participation and reciprocation’, Journal of Social Intervention: Theory and Practice, 30, 1, 3–21.Google Scholar
Vázquez, J. J., Panadero, S. and Zúñiga, C. (2017) ‘Content and uniformity of stereotypes and meta-stereotypes of homeless people in Madrid (Spain)’, Journal of Community Psychology, 45, 1, 128–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, J., Crawley, J. and Kane, D. (2016) ‘Social exclusion, health and hidden homelessness’, Public Health, 139, 96–102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watts, B., Fitzpatrick, S. and Johnsen, S. (2018) ‘Controlling homeless people? Power, interventionism and legitimacy’, Journal of Social Policy, 47, 2, 235–52.Google Scholar
Welsh Government. (2020) ‘"Homelessness doesn’t always live on the streets” – major new campaign launched to tackle hidden homelessness’, 6 January, https://gov.wales/homelessness-doesnt-always-live-streets-major-new-campaign-launched-tackle-hidden-homelessness [accessed 04.06.2021].Google Scholar
Weng, S. S. and Clark, P. G. (2017) ‘Working with homeless populations to increase access to services: a social service providers’ perspective through the lens of stereotyping and stigma’, Journal of Progressive Human Services, 29, 1, 81–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Widdowfield, R. (1999) ‘The limitations of official homelessness statistics’, in Dorling, D. and Simpson, S. (eds.), Statistics in Society: The Arithmetic of Politics, London: Arnold, 181–88.Google Scholar
Zufferey, C. (2017) Homelessness and Social Work: An Intersectional Approach, London: Routledge.Google Scholar