Summary. Chronic Homelessness in Sociodemographic Survey MRPiPS 2013

Summary of an analysis of the largest Polish dataset on the homeless population, generated as a result of the Sociodemographic Study conducted by the Ministry of Family, Labour, and Social Policy (MRPiPS) during the National Homeless Count carried out on 7/8 February 2013. Analysis provided results in two areas: chronic homelessness and methodology of a socio-demographic study. According to the adopted definition, the chronically homeless in Poland, referred to as the “target group” for the purposes of the analysis, constitute 19% of the adults covered by the sociodemographic study (5,338 persons: 4,926 (23%) adult men and 412 (10%) adult women).

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Both men and women from the target group, i.e. persons experiencing homelessness for more than three years and suffering from a disabling condition (addiction), differ from the homeless persons from the benchmark groups in terms of many features marking the potential clients of the “Housing First” programmes. These differences are not very considerable, but they are clear. In comparison with persons from the benchmark group, people from the target group:

• have a housing situation which is more frequently non-institutionalised (non-inhabitable places, abandoned dwellings, allotments);
• generate income mostly from non-formal sources (collecting things, begging, black work) and social welfare benefits, while at the same time declare a total absence of any income less frequently;
• more often use low-threshold and short-term forms of assistance (clothes, meals);
• have a more limited access to health services financed from the state budget;
• have a disability status more often.