Methodologies for examining homelessness and their application to a mandated statewide study

Using findings from a federally mandated statewide study of homelessness in the state of Iowa, this paper presents methodologies developed to address various aspects of homeless research, including enumeration of the populati on, screening for reporting duplications, estimating the annual number of i ncidents of homelessness, and exploring county-level estimates of homelessn ess. After implementing an algorithm to eliminate duplicate reporting, and using the baseline unduplicated reported number of homeless persons, a stat ewide estimate of the number of homeless individuals was derived. Following further adjustments for differences in agency reporting practices and afte r extrapolating for nonreported time periods, we Estimated the number of un ique incidents of homelessness experienced in the state during the year of the study (1997). The policy implications of these findings are discussed.