ABSTRACT
The Crime Analysis Unit understands that the most common complaint of the average citizen or business involves "visible" problems such as public intoxication, aggressive panhandling, and sleeping on public benches—not necessarily harmful or malicious incidents. Data on public perceptions of the homeless reveal both sympathetic and hostile views. Exposure to media coverage of homelessness does not appear to affect people's opinions of the homeless as dangerous, net of all other factors. A final line of analysis that can be pursued with the Link data is the perceived rights of homeless people to occupy and use public space. One of the more interesting sequences in the Link survey was the series of questions asking people to estimate demographic characteristics of the homeless. The survey contained numerous questions on public awareness of and opinions about the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness, and the Homeless Services Network.
