Double jeopardy : a socio-demographic profile of homeless jobseekers aged 18-35

This article reports on socio-demographic research that was\ud undertaken as part of a broader project to improve service\ud delivery to homeless jobseekers aged 18-35 years (Grace et\ud 01 2005). The broader project, known as Yp4, is a randomised\ud controlled trial of joined up services and programs for young homeless jobseekers. Yp4 is an initiative of four organisations: Hanover Welfare Services, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Melbourne Citymission and Loddon Mallee Housing Services This paper does not provide detailed information about the Yp4 trial, rather it reports on socio-demographic research undertaken to set the context in which Yp4 operates. For further details regarding Yp4 please see Horn (2004). When we set out to prepare a socio-demographic profile of homeless jobseekers aged 18-35 years, we found two main ways to count homelessness and at least two ways to quantify unemployment. Obtaining data and assessing its quality was far from easy, and this research was an exercise in frustration and perseverance. In this article we discuss the complexities of counting homelessness and unemployment, and the educated guesswork involved in estimating numbers of homeless jobseekers. We present a tentative socio-demographic profile; and we make suggestions regarding better access to data in\ud the future