Methodological Issues in Research on the Homeless and the Homeless Mentally Ill

In this in-depth review of the research methods that have been used to study the homeless, we shall examine the characteristics of the homeless samples, the study sites, the study chronologies, the conceptual frameworks, and the methods that have been used by previous researchers. The purpose of the review is to identify the types of homeless people studied by social scientists and the advantages/limitations of their various research strategies. The issue of homelessness is not a new subject of study for social scientists: a wide range of literature has been published on this topic. Very old accounts can be found in historical and literary pieces [1-6]. Sociological and anthropological research in the form of observational studies began in the United States and Great Britain during the early