Profiles and Trends in Danish Homelessness

Due to an increased visibility in homelessness from the late 80s and onwards many political initiatives have been taken to reduce homelessness and to improve the situation for the homeless. The aim of this article is to try to describe the development in homelessness in Denmark since the late 80s and on the basis of this to discuss whether the initiatives seem to have had an impact. Due to inconsistent definitions and dissimilar date sources it is, however, not possible to give a precise description of the development. The figures do not seem to support a general assumption that there has been an increase in homelessness. The composition of the group has changed, as the proportion of young and elderly seems to have decreased and the proportion of the middle-aged to have increased. There is probably an increase in the proportion of ethnic minorities, whereas a change in the gender composition is difficult to verify or falsify.