Visualisations of homelessness

Different definitions of homelessness have serious implications where the homeless community is concerned, often deciding who is and isn’t eligible for assistance (Neale, 1997; Burrows, et. al., 1997). Quantifying homelessness is problematic because of changing and easily manipulated definitions and ‘hidden’ homelessness (Widdowfield, 1998). It was expected that stakeholders would conceptualise homelessness differently and this consequently would impact on how they interacted with the homeless population of Oxford. A visual methodology is used to show conceptualisations of homelessness by specific stakeholders in Oxford. It attempts to understand the impact conceptualisation has on these various stakeholders’ interactions by comparing them. Recurring themes are academically situated by referring to the most prevalent academic debates in homelessness literature on structure and agency and questions of “deserving” and “undeserving” homelessness