Abstract
Although homelessness is inherently associated with social exclusion, homeless individuals are rarely included in conventional studies on social exclusion. Use of longitudinal survey data from a cohort study on homeless people in four major Dutch cities (n = 378) allowed to examine: changes in indicators of social exclusion among homeless people over a 2.5-year period after reporting to the social relief system, and associations between changes in indicators of social exclusion and changes in psychological distress. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was applied to investigate the associations between changes in indicators of social exclusion and changes in psychological distress. Improvements were found in various indicators of social exclusion, whereas financial debts showed no significant improvement. Changes in unmet care needs, health insurance, social support from family and relatedness to others were related to changes in psychological distress. This study demonstrated improvements in various indicators of social exclusion among homeless people over a period of 2.5 years, and sheds light on the concept of social exclusion in relation to homelessness.
Highlights
Defining homelessness is not as straightforward as it may seem, and the definition of homelessness often varies between countries and/or institutions
Abstract homelessness is inherently associated with social exclusion, homeless individuals are rarely included in conventional studies on social exclusion
Improvements were found in various indicators of social exclusion, whereas financial debts showed no significant improvement
Summary
Defining homelessness is not as straightforward as it may seem, and the definition of homelessness often varies between countries and/or institutions. Homeless people are those that do not have their own living accommodation and have no fixed address, sleep rough on the streets, in homeless shelters, in public buildings, or are staying with relatives or friends (Dutch Government and Four Major Cities 2006; Statistics Netherlands 2013; Wolf et al 2002). Homeless people live in residential homelessness services, such as accommodations for homeless people (e.g. hostels, pensions) (Dutch Government and Four Major Cities 2006; Wolf et al 2002). Most of them were literally homeless (e.g. sleeping in a night shelter, transitional accommodation or staying temporarily with friends, relatives or acquaintances), a minority were residing in an institution (e.g. a residential care facility) and were residentially homeless, or were housed but were about to be evicted
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