Crowding, Risk and Homelessness

This thesis by Dr Paul Stoltz at Swinburne University examines residential crowding and the possible risk of homelessness it may pose to young people.

In Australia, residential overcrowding is considered homelessness and is included among the Australian Bureau of Statistics definitions of homelessness.

Most countries that measure crowding in relation to homelessness utilise a statistical or space-based measure. Space-based measures fail to account for the impact of the social dimension on members of households feeling crowded. The literature addressing crowding often fails to conceptualise crowding within the social and the spatial. On integrating the social and the spatial within the research on risks that homelessness crowding poses for young people, a more complex picture emerges of the impact of crowding.