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No home, no justice? The legal needs of homeless people  

, 2005 This report into the legal needs of homeless people explores the capacity of homeless people in NSW to obtain legal assistance; to participate effectively in the legal system; and to obtain assistance in legal processes from non-legal advocacy and support agencies. It also examines the role of non-legal support workers and agencies in assisting homeless people to identify and address their legal issues. It is based on a review of existing literature and consultations with legal and non-legal service providers and homeless people themselves....

Ch 2. Methodology


As discussed in Chapter 1, the purpose of this study is to explore the legal needs and access to justice issues facing people who are homeless in NSW. In order to do this, we have sought the views of homeless people, their advocates and legal and non-legal service providers to homeless people. Information was also drawn from recent and relevant literature and policy documents, legislation and statistical data collected on homelessness and service provision to homeless people.

Because the aims of this study are exploratory in nature, qualitative methods of data collection were employed. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were used to gather the insights of service providers and other stakeholders. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather the insights of homeless people themselves. Case studies provided by service providers, stakeholders and drawn from the literature were also used.



Data collection


The literature

Information has been drawn from a range of disciplines and fields of study that have considered the issue of homelessness. These include law, social justice, sociology, criminology, and social work, housing and family studies. While some of the literature used in this report has addressed ‘homelessness’ specifically, other material has focused on the accessibility of the legal system more broadly, and been applied to the homeless context.

To ensure relevance, in general only Australian literature from the late 1990s onwards has been used. The exceptions to this are seminal pieces of work that demonstrate shifts in thinking on homelessness in Australia since the 1970s (see Chapter 1) and material describing overseas models of legal service delivery to homeless people, pertinent to the Australian environment.

Use of existing quantitative data

In this project we have drawn heavily on two comprehensive ongoing data collections concerning homeless people in Australia: census-based data on homelessness and SAAP data. In addition, we have drawn on data provided by service providers consulted for this study and the findings of relevant research studies identified in the literature review. These sources will be briefly described below.

Census data

In a series of reports based on the 2001 Census and other data, Chamberlain and Mackenzie have provided a comprehensive overview of the nature and extent of homelessness in Australia.1 Their most recent report, on the estimated numbers of homeless people in NSW, is entitled Counting the Homeless 2001, NSW. It should be noted that estimates rather than actual numbers are used because of difficulties in identifying, defining and counting this highly mobile population.2

SAAP data

Comprehensive data are also collected by SAAP services.3 The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) collates the data collected by SAAP services regarding the characteristics and circumstances of their clients, and the services provided to those clients. Data are reported annually within 12 months of the reference period. The Homeless People in SAAP, National Data Collection annual report series provides national data and statistics for each State and Territory.4

Law and Justice Foundation of NSW data

This report also refers to preliminary analyses of data from the Legal Needs Survey,5 conducted by the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW in late 2003. This was a quantitative telephone survey of more than 2400 people living in six localities in NSW identified as socially and economically disadvantaged. One hundred and twenty respondents to this survey indicated they had been homeless in the last 12 months. This small but important sample reported the numbers and types of legal issues they had faced in the previous 12 months. A separate report based on the Legal Needs Survey will be available from the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW in 2005.

Other data

Several legal services consulted in this study provided statistics reflecting the demographic characteristics of their client group and/or the types of legal matters the service dealt with in a given period. No information that could identify individual clients was provided. These services include the Legal Counselling and Referral Centre (LCRC), Women’s Legal Services (WLS), Shopfront Youth Legal Centre (Shopfront) and the Blake Dawson Waldron (BDW) legal clinics at Lou’s Place and Exodus. These data have been incorporated, where appropriate, in the report.

Consultations with service providers, advocates and other stakeholders

Agencies, organisations and individuals who provide services to and/or advocate for homeless people were consulted for this study. These agencies included:


These organisations are listed in Appendix 2.

Focus groups

Consultations for this project commenced in August 2003, with two ‘roundtable’ focus groups held at the Law and Justice Foundation’s premises with legal service providers and non-legal service providers. Each focus group consisted of approximately 12 participants and lasted for approximately four hours. The questions used to prompt discussion are listed in Appendix 3.

Further focus groups were conducted at the annual forum of the Newcastle Hunter Homeless Interagency Network (NHHIN) held in February 2004. The topic of the forum was ‘the legal needs of homeless people’. Approximately 40 agencies (as well as different offices of the same agency) were represented at the forum. They included State and local government organisations and non-government agencies supporting homeless people in the Hunter region (see Appendix 4). Following presentations, the project team conducted four focus groups with the NHHIN members. Each group consisted of approximately 12 people, and sessions ran for 75 minutes. Each group addressed a different set of questions covering the four following areas:


Stakeholder consultations

Sixty semi-structured interviews with stakeholders were conducted, most between September 2003 and March 2004. Twenty-two of those interviewed were from legal services, 19 were non-legal services, 14 were from government departments and five were from the courts. Interviews were conducted both with individual workers and in groups. The majority of interviews were conducted face-to-face and at the person’s workplace. A small number were conducted by telephone. Interviews lasted between 30 and 90 minutes.

The rationale for conducting semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions was to facilitate in-depth discussion with stakeholders. This approach allowed researchers to cover a set of pre-determined issues, while still being able to tailor questions to the particular expertise of the stakeholder, and to explore particular issues raised by the interviewees in greater detail. The broad areas covered in the interviews were:


Non-legal service providers were also asked about:
Consultations with homeless people

Thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted with people who were currently homeless, had recently been homeless or were facing imminent homelessness. Interviewees (also described as ‘participants’ in this report) were contacted through a range of organisations providing services to homeless people or people facing homelessness in Sydney, Newcastle and Walgett (see Appendix 2).

Individual interviews were conducted by five Law and Justice Foundation researchers at, or near, the contact organisation or at the participant’s accommodation, between October 2003 and April 2004. To ensure the sensitive and appropriate conduct of the interviews, all of the interviewers received additional training from St Vincent de Paul Learning Services in interviewing people with complex needs.

In terms of procedure, arrangements were made for the researchers to meet with participants through the agencies. In some cases Law and Justice Foundation interviewers spoke to clients who were at the agency at the time the researchers were present, and who agreed to an interview. In other cases, appointments were made ahead of time, to meet with interested participants.

All interviews were undertaken with the informed consent of the participant. Prior to gaining consent, participants were told that their participation was anonymous and voluntary, that they could choose not to answer any questions, and they could stop the interview at any time. The interviews were recorded with the permission of the participants, with the understanding that the tape and transcribed material would be kept securely, and the tape erased once transcribed. All participants were reimbursed $20 for their time.

Of the 30 people who were interviewed, 16 were men, and 14 were women (including three transgender). Four participants were Indigenous and five were living in rural or regional NSW at the time of the interview. Four young people under the age of 25 were interviewed. Efforts were made to recruit more young people, but two and three potential interviewees did not turn up at each of the two of the contact agencies (supporting young people) as arranged.

In terms of accommodation, 14 participants were currently living on the street and/or in crisis accommodation. Four participants were living in boarding house accommodation, two were staying with family or friends, one did not want to disclose where he was living and another was ‘moving around’. One participant was about to be evicted from a Department of Housing (DOH) property. Six participants had been homeless, but were now living, alone or with friends, in private rental or DOH accommodation.

The interview schedule was semi-structured, using open-ended questions (see Appendix 5). This allowed researchers to explore issues raised by participants in greater detail.

The interview schedule was informed by initial roundtable consultation with stakeholders in August 2003. Briefly, participants were first asked if they had a recent legal problem or issue in their life. They were then asked a range of questions covering different areas of the law that had been identified by stakeholders as being particularly relevant to homeless people in NSW. These included housing, income and employment, debt, fines, family issues, crime and victim of crime issues, relationships with police and health issues.

If the interviewee indicated that they had a ‘legal issue’ (either identified as such by themselves or according to the list provided by the interviewer), participants were then asked what they had done about it, who they had sought help from if they hadn’t done anything about it, why this was the case, and what happened in the end. This order of questions was adopted so a distinction could be drawn between matters identified by interviewees as ‘legal’ issues and issues that have a legal solution but were not identified as such by the participant.

Limitations of the methodology

A range of homeless people (in terms of age, gender, Indigenousness, accommodation and location) were consulted in this study. However, this group of participants cannot be considered as representative of the homeless population as a whole. Furthermore, due to the relatively small number of homeless people who were interviewed for this study, the types of legal issues and experiences should not be treated as definitive of the entire NSW homeless population. Rather, the insights and views of these participants, and the other stakeholders consulted, were used to gain a deeper understanding of the legal issues homeless people face and the challenges they encounter in engaging with legal processes.

A second issue to bear in mind when reading this report is that qualitative research relies heavily on the reported (subjective) experiences of those interviewed. The experiences or perception of legal services and processes reported by interviewees (homeless participants and other stakeholders) may differ from the law or processes as described in documents or policies. For instance, interviewees may not fully understand or be aware of laws, legal and bureaucratic processes or legal services. Generally, the research team has reported people’s views in the belief that they reflect the reality for those participants. However, where possible we have sought to verify some of the statements made by interviewees (e.g. by examining possible fines for particular offences, when somebody speaks of a penalty received for that offence).

It is also important to bear in mind that the law and legal processes may be applied differently, depending upon the circumstances surrounding an event and the characteristics of the person, office or officer responsible for enforcing that law. This may account for differences between what the reader knows about the law or a legal process and how interviewees have experienced its impact.



Data analysis


The transcribed interviews with homeless participants and stakeholders, focus groups, literature and administrative documentation were analysed using QSR NUD*IST Vivo (NVivo). NVivo is a qualitative analysis software program that facilitates the organisation and coding of textual data for thematic analysis. Information is categorised under particular ‘nodes’ (or themes) that can be developed prior to coding or as the analysis progresses. In this case, most nodes were developed before data was entered into the NVivo database. Nodes were grouped by research question and based on themes identified in earlier research, particularly as part of the A2J research program (e.g. areas of law/legal issue, types of barriers to accessing legal assistance). New nodes were added where required.



1  Chamberlain & MacKenzie, Counting the Homeless 2001. See also Chamberlain & MacKenzie, Counting the Homeless 2001: NSW.
2  For a discussion of these difficulties see Chamberlain & Mackenzie, Counting the Homeless 2001: NSW, pp.1314.
3  FaCS, SAAP The Supported Accommodation Assistance Program, <http://www.facs.gov.au/internet/facsinternet.nsf/aboutfacs/programs/house-saap_nav.htm#saap4> (accessed November 2004). See Chapter 1 for a description of SAAP and Appendix 1 for definitions related to SAAP.
4  See <http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/series/63> (accessed November 2004).
5  The Law and Justice Foundation, Legal Needs Survey 2003 (unpublished data). The overall results from this survey are due to be published in late 2005. For description, see Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, Access to Justice and Legal Needs Program, Background Paper, 2002, <http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/access/background.html>.