BCAN (Bristol Christian Action Network) Helping Christians Respond To Social Needs Bristol Homeless Forum Survey

Introduction

The intention was that the BCAN Homeless Forum would organise a survey of homeless people in Bristol each year. We managed to do it for two years, but then other priorities got in the way. We started again in 2012.

We are now organising another survey in 2013, from Monday 18 to Sunday 24 November. Please note that this is two weeks later than we had originally planned to run the survey: the date has been changed to fit in with the council's enhanced count this year.

The basic idea is to record each point of contact a homeless (or ex-homeless) person has with each of the homeless services in Bristol over the course of one week, and to gather some basic information about each of these individuals.

The information about people only needs to be collected once, so after the first point of contact the service only needs to record the person's name and when and where they answered the questions. Of course, they don't need to give their real name: a street name, or even a completely made-up one, will work, as long as they give the same name each time they are asked to complete the survey.

The week runs from the Monday to the Sunday, so that the people doing the breakfast and soup runs at the weekend should mainly meet people who have filled in the survey earlier in the week. This should make their task easier.

Homelessness Survey Documents 2013

• The Survey Questions: PDF.
• Guidance Notes: PDF.