Begging and homelessness in the Brussels Capital Region: the intersection between multidimensional deprivation and (in)visibility

The Brussels Capital Region is an example of the “urban paradox”: a centre of capital growth, income acquisition and innovation, but also of harsh living conditions, substandard housing and poverty. Concurrently, there is little reliable evidence to underpin policy regarding (extreme) poverty. Together with stakeholders, this project aims to fill the gap between the visibility, public concerns and policy importance of the problems, on the one hand, and the lack of evidence about the group that participates in begging and (invisible) homelessness, on the other. Our research aims to provide five outcomes with a potential for a more evidence based policy: (1) a better understanding of the living situation, multidimensional deprivation and size of the population and subgroups; (2) the deprivation depth and breadth compared to the mainstream population; (3) an in-depth analysis of homelessness and housing exclusion of people begging; (4) the income from begging and others sources of the group; and (5) the effects of begging on the public valuation of the public space. A new generation of capture-recapture techniques, so-called “trace-contrast models”, allow for the estimation of hidden populations with only partial or no identification of the observations. In this paper, we will be the first to apply these techniques to a human population. The project aims at collecting four types of empirical evidence necessary to produce the intended output: (1) a standardized questionnaire survey from people begging; (2) in-depth interviews; (3) data from observations of begging; and (4) discrete choice experiments from the general public. The questionnaire will mainly tackle different dimensions of poverty and social exclusion, begging activities, social capital, housing situation, living standard, health and access to healthcare, social services and police. The survey is mostly taken from two sources, as we aim to maximize the potential to compare the response of our sampled population with two existing sources of survey data: a 2005-6 questionnaire of people begging in Brussels developed previously by part of the promoter team (Adriaenssens & Hendrickx, 2011; Clé & Adriaenssens, 2007) and the European Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). We isolate the effect of the living conditions on the multidimensional poverty through techniques such as propensity score matching. Because people who beg are foremost identifiable by their activities in the public space, a so-called “venue-based sampling” will be put in place. An indirect sampling frame (a comprehensive list of all begging locations) allows to approach people begging in every location. We will construct this frame with the input from several key witnesses: volunteering students, commuters, residents, social workers and the police. We conduct a limited number of in-depth interviews with people who beg, focusing on the main points of interest covered in the questionnaire. Respondents are selected with the help of the most important groups identified in the population in terms of ethnic background and gender. As a replication and extension to the research conducted by Adriaenssens and Hendrickx (2011), the income of the agents will be triangulated between survey measures from working time, observational data of naturally occurring begging activities and mimicking of begging in the public space. These results will be compared to self-report measures and to the differences in deservingness criteria between these groups in the eyes of the general public. The novelty of this contribution is fourfold. First, we will produce more robust estimations with bootstrap estimations next to the Delta method. Second, we will be the first to estimate total turnover of begging in Brussels, by combining the results of average proceeds with the trace-contrast estimations of the size of the population of beggars. Third, we look at trends compared to the first estimation a decade and a half ago, estimating how the average income of subgroups evolves, absolutely and between the groups studied. Fourth, we aim to contribute to the methodological literature, by comparing our results with the self-reported income measures from the survey. Finally, we will be able to understand the relationship between yields of begging and the general public’s deservingness criteria by documenting the latter through a discrete choice experiment (DCE). In the first design, respondents make a choice between areas to pass through, probably commercial areas for shoppers. This allows us to assess to which extent users of the public space have a (dis)like for begging and rough sleeping. The second design documents the deservingness criteria to decide whether a person begging is worthy of alms. This allows to test whether social distance or other criteria contribute to the deservingness heuristic of passers-by. We valorise the project at three levels: policy, practitioners and society at large. Results are published in professional outlets aiming at policy regarding Brussels, social problems and urban policy, in outlets for practitioners and disseminated during activities with a two-way interaction with stakeholders. This project has been developed in close collaboration and coordination with different policy stakeholders in the region with an interest in the outcome (The Brussels Institute of Statistics and Analysis, the Brussels-Capital Health and Social Observatory, Bruss'help, Brussels Prevention and Security). The evidence-based estimations of the begging population and their living conditions will offer policy makers and practitioners a more accurate evidence base to follow up on (as opposed to “based on the public imagination”).