What we did

The New Zealand Ministry of Social Development (MSD) engaged us to provide a literature review to contribute to their evidence base by providing an overview of the methods used to estimate the size, scale, and nature of the full homeless population in New Zealand.

How we did it

The literature review included a high-level description of the different methods and approaches that have been developed, tested, and implemented to estimate the size and nature of homeless populations. The review also involved an assessment of the role of national and local government and non-government organisation responsibilities and involvement in monitoring the size and nature of homelessness internationally. The team also undertook a ‘deep-dive’ analysis of identified methods to collect data on people “living without shelter”. The ‘deep-dive’ includes an assessment of study design and a detailed description of the methods of quantification, with an analysis of the suitability of the quantification methods for the New Zealand context.

Benefits for the client

The review was published on the Ministry’s website; https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/literature-reviews/we-all-count/we-all-count.html.