ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the key issues around the questions of definition and particularly, the measurement of urban homelessness. It offers some observations on the usefulness of the approach used in Plymouth as a general method for the estimation of the size of homeless populations. The chapter describes some attempts at measuring the extent of homelessness in England and argues that the limited success of these studies in terms of numeric accuracy, results from both inadequate definition and the lack of reliable enumeration techniques. The research operated on the key assumption that most people so categorised would come into contact with one or more of the agencies collecting data. The accuracy of the resulting estimations is of course critically linked to the quality of the data collection. Just as importantly the city is geographical compact and is bounded by sea and river to the south and west and a very sparsely populated rural area to the north.
