We all count: Homelessness count rapid literature review and deep dive
This report is one of the steps the Government is taking to investigate how we can improve data collected on the homeless population in New Zealand.
This review of international literature includes a deep dive into methods for counting the ‘without shelter’ category of the homeless population and how these methods might be implemented in New Zealand.
Our research found that two approaches are best suited for counting without-shelter homeless:
- Point in time counts, which give a snapshot count of people who are homeless during a short period of time.
- Named-list approaches, which involve a real-time register of homeless individuals identified by name which can be used to link homeless people with homes.
Point-in-time counts could be used to assess the need for services at an area or at a national level, identify trends over time, assess the impact of policy changes and characterise without-shelter populations demographically. Named-list methods used in key New Zealand cities could achieve this too and could also support service providers to move homeless individuals and families into housing, producing rich descriptive data as a secondary outcome.
