homelessness and housing exclusion data-collection standard biwm

9th European Research Conference

Homelessness in Times of Crisis

Warsaw, Friday 19th September 2014

Homelessness and Housing Exclusion

Data Collection Standard BIWM

Julia Wygnańska

Camillian Mission of Social Assistance

www.misja.com.pl/ category/activities

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Data collection context in PL

� National

� Strict personal data protection rules

� Success of Pomeranian Survey influencing national decisions on

monitoring homelessness – headcount methodology dominates

thinking – mimetic isomorphism (Powell, Di Maggio 1983).

� No funding for informatisation in ngos sector, although quite a lot of

funding for public administration in that field (ESF, government)

� Ngos value their independence and perceive data sharing as a threat

� Local for Warsaw (true for some other communities):

� Scattered service provision – services provided and funded by

local government as ngo projects (80%) not public tasks or

public welfare, or services to individual clients etc.

� Controversy over „central data base” on homeless people




Consequences

� Only few counts conducted locally eg. Pomerania, Krakow, Białystok

� Concentration on headcount metohology

� Flow and prevalance measures not available

� NHPC 2011 (roofless 9789, CLQ for the homeless 11851, CLQ for mothers 4133

� MPiPS counts 2010, 2013 (inhabitable 8445, facilities 22158, training apt. 1330

� Ngo service providers do not engage in constructing internal data collection

registers on their clients:

� Research in Mazovia 2011: all services for the homeless do collect basic

information but none does it electronically, instead they use paper registers and

spreadshits

� Available research results in crooked picture of the

homeless population in Poland = typical homeless

person is modal service(h) user




Data Collection Standard BWIM

– goals of the project

� Demonstrating that data sharing between independent agencies is

possible without violating data protection rules and independence of

institutions.

� Demonstrating the nature of the flow measure to service providers

� Demonstrating that generating flow and prevalance measures is

possible

� Showing how it can be done technically – methodology and software

� Testing Data Collection Standard on Homelessness and Housing

Exclusion based on European recommendations, in particular

MPHASIS Core Variables on Homelessness and ETHOS

� Project cost: 30 000 PLN = 7200 E




Data collection from agencies

� Engaged agencies: different sectors (ngo, public) and services

(nightshelter, shelter, long term, health clinic, municipal hospital, for

the homeless/mainstream),

� All agencies from one district – all kinds of services for the homeless

available in town. 1/3 of all.

� Common data base in MS ACCESS provided to agencies

� Two software tools meeting data protection regulations:

� On agency level for anonimisation = unique code based on name,

surname, date of birth and sex

� On project level for aggregation (allowing for 3% error in excluding

duplicates)

� Statistical analysis based on available data (not all data could be

aggregated).




Data Collection Standard BIWM

� Based on MPHASIS and ETHOS (paper copy)

� Differences to Polish tradition in data collection on homelessness:

� Substance abuse defined as a cause to homelessness (MPiPS count,

PFWB) not a support need

� PL: no tradition of researching support needs – no variable

� Important in PL and not available in MPHASIS – detailed geographical

and administrative origin




cd.

� Biggest difficulties observed in agencies using the standard:

� Substance abuse is treated as a cause to homelessess.

� Inability do diagnose suspected mental health problems, identify

symptoms of potencial disease

� Accepting ETHOS as definition of homelessness eg. even if client’s

housing situation is one of Ethos types (living in a shelter), it is

questioned if she/he is really homeless. => housing situation as

additional variable not necesairly defining the fact of being homeless.

� Social apartament is believed to be a stable housing situation – not

housing exclusion, not part of ETHOS




Results – data on homelessness � 4380 unique people used services located in Wola district due to

homelessness in three year long period, over 2000 people each year,

(municipal data = stock at the end of the quarter for the whole town – about

1700); avarage daily stock 342 of which 308 in shelters

� Avarage quarterly flow in the district twice as big as stock at the end of each

quarter.

� Data on sex, age, administrative and geographical origin, family status,

length of homelessness, migrations between services, stock on each day of

the research period.

� Only one third of all service users were clients of District Welfare Centre

� Chronic homelessness:

� Over 200 unique service users were registered for four or more stays in Wola

shelters in period of three years

� Some people stay in shelters for excesively long time – over 5 years

� 120 clients of the DOM Drop in Centre – over 5 years, many over 10




Results – mainstreaming of the standard

Rather poor, but:

� 10 institutions declared using the biwm standard and received

relvant software and training

� 8 reports for individual services including services serving mostly

people residing in public space and unconventional dwellings

� Lekarze, CMSA, Caritas Wola, one municipal hospital use it with no

extra funding

� Cooperation with Municipality of Warsaw on analysing data on

homelessnessA CMSA was chosen to be a partner.

� Data on chronic homelessness and service avoiders – pro housing

first awarness raising.

� Methodology used in „Housing First – Evidence based Advocacy”




Follow up 2013

� CMSA Position on Measuring Homelessness and Housing

Exclusion in Poland, 2013:

� ETHOS as a framework for national data collection

� Replacing ministerial national „no-cost” count by research resulting in flow and

prevalence measures

� Obliging service providers to implement electronic registers based on national

standard for example BIWM and obliging ministry to provide incentives for that

� Living the process of planning, analyzing and interpreting results of ministerial

research to social researchers

� Position in EN (short version): http://www.misja.com.pl/cmsa-position-on-

measuring-homelessness-and-housing-exclusion-in-poland/

� CMSA Position on Reporting Effectiveness of Shelter for the

Homeless in PL & Template for Quantitative Report

� CMSA Annual Quantitative Report 2013: http://www.misja.com.pl/wp-

content/uploads/2014/02/2013-Quantitative-Report-of-the-Saint-Lazarus-

Boarding-House.pdf




Projects on Data Collection Standard on Homelessness

and Housing Exclusion (2010 and 2011) were implemented

by Foundation for Social Innovation and Research

Shipyard http://stocznia.org.pl/about-us/ and funded by the

Voivodship Office of the Mazovia Region.

2010 – Wola Pilot Study

2011- Data registers on homelessness in Mazovia

Voivodship;

homelessness and housing exclusion data-collection standard biwm

Government & Nonprofit