Can We Measure Homelessness? A Critical Evaluation of ‘Capture-Recapture’

Abstract

Homeless people constitute a rare and elusive population, but additionally counting the numbers homeless is made more difficult as a result of the absence of agreed definitions, across time and place, of what constitutes homelessness. This paper reviews some of the methods of counting used and critically evaluates one particular method, that of ‘capture-recapture’. Projects undertaken by the author and his colleagues, in the UK, are used as illustrations of the possibilities and limitations of the method.

Keywords

Homelessness rare and elusive populations capture-recapture

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