Homelessness in a Scandinavian welfare state: The risk of shelter use in the Danish adult population

Lars Benjaminsen

Urban Studies, 2016, vol. 53, issue 10, 2041-2063

Abstract: This article analyses the risk of homelessness in the Danish adult population. The study is based on individual, administrative micro-data for about 4.15 million Danes who were 18 years or older on 1 January 2002. Homelessness is measured by shelter use from 2002 to 2011. Data also cover civil status, immigration background, education, employment, income, mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse, and previous imprisonment over five years prior to the measurement period. Prevalence of shelter use shows a considerable risk of homelessness amongst individuals experiencing multidimensional social exclusion. Nonetheless, even in high-risk groups such as drug abusers and people with a dual diagnosis, the majority have not used shelters. A multivariate analysis shows significantly higher use of homeless shelters amongst immigrants and individuals with low income, unemployment, low education, mental illness, drug or alcohol abuse, or a previous imprisonment. The highest risk of shelter use is associated with drug abuse, alcohol abuse, mental illness and previous imprisonment, whereas the risk associated with low income is smaller than for the psychosocial vulnerabilities. The results show that homelessness in Denmark is widely concentrated amongst individuals with complex support needs, rather than associated with wider poverty problems.

Keywords: homelessness; mental illness; poverty; risk factors; shelter use; substance abuse (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098015587818 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:53:y:2016:i:10:p:2041-2063

DOI: 10.1177/0042098015587818

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().