The DFG funds project about homelessness

Why do people in Germany become (and remain) homeless despite an extensive range of social policies? This project, lead and managed by Prof. Timo Weishaupt, Ph.D. aims to not only advance sociological research on the topic of homelessness theoretically and methodologically, but also to enrich it empirically with new data. Its focus lies on a systematic assessment of individual behavioural patterns within different local social care systems and urban structures over time.

The relevant empirical data are to be collected by means of a qualitative panel analysis over a period of 18 months. Approximately 12 people per city will be interviewed three times (i.e. every six months) in order to explore the experiences of homeless people over time. In addition, semi-structured interviews will be performed with practitioners in order to capture the experts’ perspectives as well as local (regulatory) practices and structural context conditions. Using the software MAXQDA, the interview material will be evaluated in a systematic and category-forming way, allowing us to then generate hypotheses about concrete inclusion and exclusion mechanisms.