RESEARCH BACKGROUND

A review of the literature indicates that Belfast City has been struggling with the problem
of homelessness in the recent times. Today, homelessness remains a priority concern to the
people and government of Northern Ireland and the Belfast City (Ravikumar, Vaughan and Kelly
(2022). There are cases where people stay in unsuitable housing or illegally occupy where they
are staying. The situation of homelessness is becoming devastating in the Northern Ireland
region. While there has been a critique for poor data on homelessness in Northern Ireland
(Fitzpatrick et al., 2016), reports of varying organisations have shown an increase in the number
of people who are homeless in the region. The Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) indicated a
visible increase in “street activities”, such as street drinking, street begging and street smoking
(NIAO, 2017). Also, a report by Homeless Connect (2022) stated that about 15,758 households
were homeless in Northern Ireland for 2021/2022.

Majority of the literature on homelessness in Belfast City and Northern Ireland generally
shows that homelessness is caused by different and many factors which include loss of private
rented accommodation (Focus Ireland, 2017), family dispute, relationship breakdown, domestic
violence, mortgage default and release from prison (Fitzpatrick, et al, 2016). In such cases, it
becomes important to ensure the minimisation of domestic violence, family dispute and
relationship breakdown in the region.

It is also in the literature that Belfast City Council often fails to execute the homelessness
strategy, which was “intended to progress Northern Ireland towards a vision of eliminating long-
term homelessness and rough sleeping by 2020” (Fiona and Nicholas, 2017). An evaluation of
the homelessness strategy shows that the strategy fails due to lack of commitment, increase in
population, inflation and economic crisis (Fiona and Nicholas, 2017). There is therefore the
need for a more comprehensive strategy that will reduce the levels of homeless presentations as
well as the number of homeless people in Northern Ireland and Belfast City.

From the literature reviewed, it is observed that there also specific researches on
feminisation of homelessness in Northern Ireland. O’Reilly et al, 2015; Mayock and Bretherton,
2017; and the National Women’s Council of Ireland had carried out various researches focusing
on the rate of homeless women and the consequences of homelessness on women’s health and
safety. However, research on homeless males and children are often overlooked. This gap needs
to be closed if Belfast City Council is to alleviate homelessness in Northern Ireland. The
homelessness strategy should catch all categories including homeless aged, young, males and
females.

Another gap identified in the literature is the limited research on homelessness in the
Belfast City. It is clear to the mind that most of the studies on homelessness focused on other
areas of Northern Ireland with limited focus on Belfast city, which is the capital city of Northern
Ireland. In this sense, there are gaps in the literature assessing the impact of homelessness in
Belfast City with a specific focus on wellbeing and safety in the urban environment. This study
seeks to fill this gap by assessing the extent to which homelessness affect the wellbeing and
safety of individuals in the urban environment.

Not only that, most of the studies conducted in the past focused on the causes of
homelessness and it impact on women’s health (O’Reilly et al, 2015), on young people’s
wellbeing (Boyle and Pleace, 2017), other focused on linkage between homelessness and poor
health outcomes in other cities of Northern Ireland. There have also been cases where studies
only provided theoretical explanations of homelessness without the application of a sophisticated
methodology. Those that applied a cross-sectional approach strictly utilized a face-to-face
interview technique for data collection. The implication is that most of these studies were only
able to gather information on the “demographics and disabilities” (Snow et al. 1994) of the
homeless. There is a need for a research into homelessness with a befitting methodology. This
study intends to close the gap by adopting a mixed method approach to assessing the impacts of
homelessness on the wellbeing and safety of individuals in the urban environment. This study
seeks to fill this identified gap by collecting empirical data from both primary and secondary
sources. It is the intention the researcher to construct a practical framework which the Belfast
City Council can adopt to eradicate homelessness in Northern Ireland.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The essence of this section is to provide a detailed account of the procedures or

techniques that can be used in this study to identify, select, process and analyze data and
evidence. Firstly, the research strategy chosen for the study will be discussed. The reminder of
the section discusses the sources of data, data analysis, credibility and reliability of the research.

Research Strategy
The present study is set to assess the impact of homelessness in Belfast City Centre on
wellbeing and safety in the urban environment. This study will fill the gap in knowledge by
understanding the major ways through which homelessness affects human wellbeing and safety
in the urban environment. In such a case, this study requires a highly sophisticated method to
gather and analyze data. This study opted for a mixed methods approach. By a mixed methods
approach, the researcher combines both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection
and analysis. As described by (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 2003), a mixed methods approach
implies the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods in a single research. It has also
been defined as "the collection, analysis, and integration of quantitative and qualitative data in a
single or multiphase study" (Hanson, et al. 2005). By definition, a quantitative research method
is a research design that enables the researcher to collect numerical data that could be subjected
to statistical analysis (Garwood, 2006), while on the other hand, a qualitative method is
conversational method of obtaining data about human behavior or opinion without the use of
statistical analysis.
The adoption of this method is seen from that a mixed methods approach provides the
researcher with accurate directions for data collection and analysis. Using this method, the
researcher will be able to gather information from multiple sources (Creswell and Clark, 2011) in
a single research study. As a method of enquiry, the mixed methods approach comes with many
benefits and drawbacks. The approach offers the researcher the opportunity to integrate both
post-positivism and interpretivism (Fetters, 2016) frameworks to providing meaningful
explanation of homelessness in Belfast City. A complex issue such as homelessness is better
researched using a mixed method approach due to the fact that the approach is methodologically
flexible and offers an in-depth understanding of social phenomena (Maxwell, 2016). As argued
by Enosh, Tzafrir, and Stolovy (2014), a mixed methods approach “enables researchers to
answer research questions with sufficient depth and breadth and helps generalise findings and
implications of the researched issues to the whole population.” In such case, the researcher will
be able to collect statistics data and also provide deeper understanding of homelessness. In other
words, the adoption of a mixed methods approach will enable the researcher to understand the
incidence of homelessness in Belfast City through convergence of data or information from
varying sources (Carter et al., 2014).
However, the mixed methods approach has been criticised of being difficult to apply by
modern researchers. Logically, it has been questioned as to combine both quantitative and
qualitative methods in a single study. This is why some scholars (Maxwell, 2016; Morgan, 2014)
were of the opinion that researchers may find it difficult to incorporate both qualitative and
qualitative methods in a research study. Notwithstanding this shortcoming, this study finds the
mixed methods approach suitable for this study as the researcher will endeavour to learn how to
handle both methods.

Sources of Data
Data are often considered facts or figures from which basic conclusions can be drawn
(Victor, 2017). They are also a set of values of qualitative or quantitative variables. In any
research work, the collection of data is essential as it is one of the cardinal stages of a research
process. Data need to be collected or retrieved before they can be processed or analyzed.
Generally, data can be gathered through a primary source or a secondary source (Mesly, 2015).
Primary data are the set of data that the researcher is the first person to obtain, while on the other
hand, the secondary data are set of data the researcher obtains from an existing data depository.
The study will utilise both primary and secondary data. For quantitative aspect of the
study, the researcher will utilise secondary source of data. These types of data are easy and quick
to gather. According to Mugenda and Mugenda, 2013), “secondary data are considered to be of
higher quality and more feasible than that of an individual researcher.” In this case, statistical
data will be extracted from the Homeless Connect database and Belfast telegram. These two data
depositories abode extensive data on homelessness in Northern Ireland and Belfast City. The
essence of these statistical data is to identify the number of homeless people in the region and
also determine the socio-demographic characteristics of homeless people in Belfast City. Put
differently, the statistical data could be used to narrate and discuss the historical trends of
homelessness in Belfast City.
For the qualitative aspect of the study, the researcher will utilise in-depth interview as a
primary source of data. This method is useful in exploring and examining what people think,
how they think and why they think the way they do about issues of importance to them without
pressuring them into making decisions or reaching a consensus. According to Kitzinger (1994),
“the interview method is an ideal approach for examining the stories, experiences, point of view,
beliefs, needs and concerns of individuals.” This view is supported by Patton (2002) who argued
that “the qualitative method facilitates exhaustive study of issues”. In this sense, this study seeks
to understand the impact of homelessness on wellbeing and safety in the urban environment by
interviewing 10 public health workers in the urban cities. These individuals will be purposively
selected because they are equipped with the knowledge of homelessness, heath, safety and
wellbeing in the urban areas. A face-to-face interview will be conducted on a stated date and
time. Each of the interviews will be approximately 45 minutes long and the interviews will be
recorded, transcribed and analyzed.
The interviews will be conducted in English language and then transcribed into word –
for – word transcript. The research instrument will be a self-structured interview protocol, which
will serve as the main data collection instrument for the study. The interview protocol will
consist of two major parts. The first part will elicit the date and time for the interview, location,
name of interviewee, etc. The second part will consist of 8 questions which are essentially
developed from the problem of the study. As it must be noted, all participants are meant to
answer the same questions and these questions are open-ended questions which allow the
participants to thoroughly give their views about the phenomenon. Variables for this study
include wellbeing and safety.

Data Analysis

When data have been gathered, it becomes important to analyze the data using
appropriate data analysis technique(s). Data analysis refers to the process of performing certain
calculations and evaluation with the aim to extract relevant information (Muhammed, 2015). It is
a method of putting facts and figures together to answer the research question.
For quantitative data, the researcher will adopt the descriptive mode of analysis. What
this suggests is that the researcher will make use of table, graphs and pie charts to present the
data. Frequencies and percentages will be used to present the numerical data gathered from both
the Homeless Connect database and Belfast telegram. The Statistical Packages for Social
Scientists (SPSS) version 23 will be used to sort, code and analyse the fact or data.
For qualitative data, the researcher will utilise the thematic analysis. This method of
analysis, according to Braun and Clarke (2006) “involves a method of identifying, analyzing, and
reporting patterns and themes found within the data.” First, the researcher will transcribe the
recorded interviews and later review each respondent’s data file. At this stage, the researcher
will correct grammatical errors and eliminate overlapping or repetitive data. After then, the data
will be collated into themes which will be later analysed thematically.

Credibility and Reliability of the Research

Credibility and reliability of a research work should be maintained by the researcher
(Polit, Beck and Polit, 2012). This can be achieved through the maintenance of the truth of the
data. As agreed by Bloomberg and Volpe (2008), a researcher must handle data in a way that it
enhances credibility and reliability of the research. In this study, the researcher ensured that the
research design and analysis help to answer the main research question. The research ensured
that biases inherent in data collection and data analysis do not affect the credibility of the
research. The information derived from the both primary and secondary sources will be
presented as they appear. Efforts will not be made to change the content of the reports because
this will jeopardize the credibility of the research. Instead, the researcher ensured that the data
are analyzed using different methods of data analysis with the aim to derive meaning from it.
With the manner in which the data will be presented and analyzed, it is very likely that
the same research, if conducted by someone else, will lead to similar conclusion. A step by step
guide will be utilized by the researcher on how the data are secured from the source up to when
they are interpreted. None of the information used in the research will be based on assumptions.

ETHICAL AND PRACTICALITIES

The importance of ethical issues to modern research cannot be overemphasized. Many

scholars have emphasized on the relevant of ethical considerations in any form of research
(Bryman and Bell, 2011). In this research, the researcher gives a serious thought to ethical
aspects in every stage of this study. In other words, ethical issues will form an essential
component throughout this study.
 First, the researcher will submit an ethic application to the school in order to obtain
ethical approval for the research project to be carried out. After when the proposal is being
approved, the researcher will obtain an ethical clearance from the relevant authorities to
undertake the study. This will enable the researcher to obtain the necessary permission to gain
access to the site and to the potential respondents.
After that, researcher will duly inform the respondents about the purpose of the research
and write letters to seek for their consent. Here, the participants will not be pressurized into
signing the consent forms. The participation will be voluntary. If necessary, the identity, names
and demographic information of the respondents will be confidential. The researcher will be
open and honest in dealing with the respondents and avoid deceiving them. Those respondents
who may want to withdraw from the study would be allowed to do so to avoid involuntary
responses. For the secondary data, the researcher will ensure that all third parties information and
data are well quoted and referenced. Also, information and data retrieved from the Homeless
Connect and Belfast Telegram are handle with confidentiality.

Last but not least, the researcher will avoid information plagiarism and fraud through
acknowledgement of all sources that will be used in the study. The researcher will not falsify
authorship, evidence, data and findings. Information that will harm the respondents will not be
disclosed and appropriate language will be used throughout the study.

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