Life Sciences Librarian
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Welcome to our topic guide on researching the unhoused/homeless. Use the side navigation tabs to get started!
Getting Started with Unhoused vs. Homeless
Before you get started with conducting research, it's important for you to understand that the term 'unhoused' and 'homeless' have been used interchangeably for the past few years. While advocates and activists encourage the transition from 'homeless' to 'unhoused', many government agencies and research institution, both state and federal, still use the term 'homeless' to describe people experiencing homelessness. This matters for when you are conducting research. If you are only using the term 'unhoused' in your research, articles that use the term 'homelessness' may not pop up as a result. So, what can you do to help in your searching process? Use Boolean Operators! Here's an example using the OR operator:
unhoused OR homeless OR houseless OR unsheltered OR "person experiencing homelessness"
It might also be helpful to do some preliminary searching before picking or focusing on one aspect of the unhoused/homeless. Using one of these two database, do a basic search for 'unhoused OR homeless' to get some background information or learn about current issues and trends surrounding the unhoused/homeless.
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CQ Researcher This link opens in a new windowThis database covers the most current and controversial issues of the day complete with summaries, insight into all sides of the issues, bibliographies and more. Full text of all articles published since 1991.
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Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowThis database provides full-text articles from over 600 reference sources, as well as access to a wide range of information sources that include images, audio, and video. Topic Pages are informative overviews, and Mind Map assists narrowing and focusing research topics to improve database searching.
Here are some additional reports that might be of interest: