LC533 Research Methods: Analysis of Rough Sleeping in London Report

This report presents a thematic analysis of qualitative data from interviews with two rough sleepers in London, exploring the multifaceted causes of homelessness. The study, conducted as part of the LC533 Research Methods module, investigates the impact of unstable family life, relationship breakdowns, poverty, joblessness, and violent behavior on individuals' experiences of rough sleeping. The findings, supported by references to relevant literature, highlight the complex interplay of these factors in contributing to the problem of homelessness in the city. The report delves into the personal narratives of the interviewees, Luke and Gemma, to illustrate the various pathways that lead to rough sleeping and the challenges faced by those living on the streets. The analysis reveals that unstable family dynamics, including abuse and lack of support, significantly contribute to individuals' vulnerability to homelessness. Furthermore, the research underscores the role of poverty, unemployment, and violent behavior in perpetuating the cycle of rough sleeping. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for comprehensive interventions to address the root causes of homelessness and provide support for those experiencing it.

Running head: RESEARCH METHODS
Research Methods
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
1. Findings....................................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion and Analysis...........................................................................................................4
1. Rough Sleeping caused by Unstable Family Life and Relationship Breakdown.................4
2.2. Poverty and Joblessness result in Rough Sleeping...........................................................5
2.3. Violent Behavior is a Major Cause of Rough Sleeping in London..................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References and Bibliography...........................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Rough sleeping is a term that is used to define the act of sleep out of doors, or out in the
open, in public spaces (Bernstock 2016). The United Kingdom has a rough sleeping population
of substantive size. The capital city of London itself is home to a large number of rough sleepers;
people who have no option but to sleep out on the streets because of factors such as poverty,
homelessness, joblessness and an active criminal record (Bretherton and Pleace 2018). This
assignment undertakes an in-depth discussion and thematic analysis of the findings of a
qualitative research study, based on two interviews that were conducted with rough sleepers in
London. The discussion and analysis is followed by a definitive conclusion on the subject of the
study.
1. Findings
The first interviewee for this particular study is a young man by the name of Luke, who has
gone through a considerable amount of turmoil in his life. Luke grew up for the most part
without a father, and under the care of his mother and her partner, a man by the name of Colin.
Luke was not comfortable living a domestic life with his mother and her partner and would more
often than not get into frequent fights with Colin that would sometimes be violent in nature. The
anger and the violence that prevailed in the household as a result of this, made Luke take the
decision to go and live with his grandfather, but when his grandfather suffered a stroke and had
to be confined to the care of a nursing home for adequate treatment and rehabilitation, Luke
found himself to be homeless once again. Although he wanted to continue living in his
grandfather’s house, he was not allowed to do so, and had to make his way to a boy’s hostel

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instead. Luke was unable to stay out of trouble during his time at the hostel and got into a violent
fight with a group of boys here that resulted in him being arrested by the police and being sent to
a young offender’s home. Here too, he found circumstances not conducive enough for the
purpose of residence and although he had the option of going back and staying with his mother
and her partner Colin, he knew he was not wanted by them. The answers divulged by Luke
reveal that it was from a couple of guys from London that he got to know about rough sleeping
here. He was told that rough sleeping involved sleeping out on the streets, in empty warehouses,
churches, office blocks and buildings. He decided to try this out and has been rough sleeping
ever since. Luke appears to be unwilling to go back to a comfortable domestic life largely
because of the fact that he still gets into fights and other violent situations every now and then,
and gets thrown out of places as a consequence. He states in the interview that the most
comfortable sleep he has enjoyed until date was during a night at the police station. Luke’s
poverty, homelessness and lack of a stable job and personal nature have left him with no choice
but to take recourse to rough sleeping as a means of survival, in the city of London.
The second interviewee for this study is a lady by the name of Gemma. She is of mixed
ethnicity and is 24 years of age and has been sleeping rough in London for a considerable length
of time now. Gemma grew up in foster care for some time, because the domestic environment
that she had been born into was too unstable for a child’s upbringing. Her mother was pregnant
with her at the young age of nineteen and her biological father was seldom ever good to her
mother, beating her up every now and then. After having disappeared for a few years, Gemma’s
father returned to her and her mother and made the domestic environment even more unstable by
drinking and doing drugs on a regular basis and by hitting them every now and then. Gemma was
soon sent to foster care and after a few years later she was transferred to a children’s home, being

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eleven years of age at the time. Gemma got a glimpse of harsh reality at the children’s home,
when she found her Thai and Vietnamese counterparts at this home suddenly being trafficked
into prostitution one night. In the years that followed, Gemma grew up, met someone she liked a
trickster who was much like her father and who also got her pregnant by the age of 19. Knowing
that she was pregnant, her mother invited her to come and stay with her and her new partner at
the time. Things were alright, but once Gemma gave birth to a baby girl by the name of Tasha,
things became stressful with her mother all over again. Gemma soon clashed with her mother
and that too quite often, taking the ultimate decision to leave the baby in her mother’s care and to
make her own life in London. She would spend her initial months in the city in a disused part of
a hostel, and later would sleep out on the pavements, getting a full understanding in the process
of what life out on the streets is like. For the entire length of time that she has been sleeping
rough in London, Gemma has made friends, fallen out with them and then made new friends
again. She believes that it is important to have someone watch her back given the fact that she
lives out on the streets and there is no knowing what is going to happen next. Gemma takes care
of her health once in a while by paying a visit every now and then to A&E for this purpose. At
times she becomes quite emotional and breaks down into tears because of the situation that she is
currently in, homeless and out on the streets, sleeping rough in the city of London.
2. Discussion and Analysis
1. Rough Sleeping caused by Unstable Family Life and Relationship
Breakdown
The findings of the research reveal that one of the key factors contributing to sleeping rough
in the city of London is an unstable family life and the breakdown of relationships (Clarke 2016).

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Both Luke and Gemma make it clear through the answers that they provided while being
interviewed that the absence of a proper family life coupled with the fact that some of the
members of their household were abusive, led to them wanting to stay away from an organized
home life for a considerable period of time, with both of them ultimately rough sleeping out on
the streets of London. Luke would get into fights with his step father, and did not want to go
back and live with him and his mother after his grandfather died, because he knew he was not
wanted by them. Gemma too did not receive much support from her mother after giving birth to
her Tasha, and the early years of her life were characterized by a considerable degree of pain as
well, with her father being abusive in nature and later on her boyfriend too. Lack of social
support, the absence of a stable family life and a breakdown in relationships are all crucial
factors that contribute to people rough sleeping on the streets of London, in churches and hostels,
in warehouses and at times even out on the pavements. As Luke humorously put it during his
interview, the best sleep he had was during a night at the police station.
2.2. Poverty and Joblessness result in Rough Sleeping
The findings of the research also go to show that poverty or the lack of a decent income
have a crucial role to play as well when it comes to rough sleeping on the streets of London
(Dorney-Smith et al. 2016). Those who are found to be roughing it out on the streets of London
are people who are without a stable income and who do not have the resources that are needed to
even stay at a hostel or in some cheap form of lodging and are compelled to actually spend their
nights out on the pavements, in churches and in warehouses (Dobson 2019). In the case of Luke
and Gemma, both of them do not have the financial resources that are needed to find suitable
accommodation in any part of the UK and as a consequence have chosen to live out on the streets
in London. They are not able to afford a roof over their heads because they do not have a dime

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for this purpose. The fact that both Luke and Gemma are unemployed is something that has
contributed quite significantly to their financial instability. Neither Luke nor Gemma spoke
about wanting to locate a job in London so that they could enjoy some upward social mobility by
staying in decent accommodation and having a better quality of life in general. This goes to show
that unemployment and the lack of financial stability are also important contributors towards
rough sleeping in London (MacGuire 2017).
2.3. Violent Behavior is a Major Cause of Rough Sleeping in London
Violent relationships and behavior and the tendency to take to anti-social living are also
important factors that contribute to rough sleeping in London (Fuller 2016). People who are not
capable of stable or good behavior and who frequently tend to get into fights with other people,
are turned out of places where they could have availed or enjoyed decent accommodation (Mckie
et al. 2017). This is evident from the case of Luke, who chose not to stay with her mother and her
partner Colin because of the fact that he would get into frequent fights with him. He could not
stay in a hostel because of the violence that he engaged in over here, and he was then sent to a
young offender’s home by the police as well. Luke has been sleeping rough in London for a good
number of years now and although he has made attempts to locate comfortable, stable and
affordable accommodation in London where he can stay and enjoy a dignified life, he has not
been able to stay in these places for too long because of his violent behavior. He hopes he goes to
prison someday so that he can make this place his home. Violent behavior and relationships are
therefore a definitive cause of rough sleeping in the UK and in the city of London in particular
(McGrath et al. 2018). On account of the fact that they are not able to control their aggressive
behavior well enough, rough sleepers are compelled to stay out on the streets and are not able to
demonstrate the stability, economic and otherwise that is needed, in order for them to avoid

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staying out on the streets (Midgley 2016). Their inability to remain stable, and their weaknesses
in the area of behavioral control have resulted in their existence out on the streets of London,
where they are unprotected and in danger at all times of attack and violence (Petty 2016).
Conclusion
In the ultimate analysis, it can be concluded that there are a variety of factors that are at
play when it comes to the problem of rough sleeping in London. People who are sleeping rough
in London are people who suffer from homelessness and destitution. They do not hold jobs and
they therefore do not have the income or the financial resources that are necessary in order to be
able to afford suitable or comfortable accommodation. People who sleep rough in the city of
London are people who are also quite prone to violent behavior and the fact that they are not able
to keep their behavior in check is something that prevents them from being able to stay in
civilized accommodation, and they are compelled to live their lives out on the streets of London.
Finally, the lack of social support is a definite factor that contributes to rough sleeping in
London. People who sleep out rough do not have a stable family life to go home to. They are not
wanted by their near and dear ones, and therefore have to fend for themselves in whichever way
that they can.

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References and Bibliography
Bernstock, P., 2016. Olympic housing: A critical review of London 2012's legacy. Routledge
Bretherton, J. and Pleace, N., 2018. Women and Rough Sleeping. A Critical Review of Current
Research and Methodology. https://www. mungos. org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Women-and-
Rough-Sleeping-Report-2018. pdf. Viitattu, 14, p.2019.
Clarke, A., 2016. The prevalence of rough sleeping and sofa surfing amongst young people in
the UK. Social Inclusion, 4(4), pp.60-72.
Dobson, R., 2019. Policy responses to ‘rough sleepers’: Opportunities and barriers for homeless
adults in England. Critical Social Policy, 39(2), pp.309-321.
Dorney-Smith, S., Hewett, N. and Burridge, S., 2016. Homeless medical respite in the UK: A
needs assessment for South London. British Journal of Healthcare Management, 22(8), pp.405-
413.
Fuller, J.S., 2016. The impact of the Health and Social Care Act, 2012 on the health and
wellbeing of rough sleepers. Journal of Integrated Care, 24(5/6), pp.249-259
Mackie, P., Johnsen, S. and Wood, J., 2017. Ending rough sleeping: what works. An
international evidence review. London: Crisis
Maguire, N., 2017. Towards an integrative theory of homelessness and rough sleeping. Social
Determinants of Health: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Social Inequality and Wellbeing, 227.

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McGrath, L., Weaver, T., Reavey, P. and Brown, S.D., 2018. Bursting Bubbles of Interiority:
Exploring space in experiences of distress and rough sleeping for newly homeless people. In The
Handbook of Mental Health and Space (pp. 135-148). Routledge.
Midgley, J., 2016. Perspectives on responsibility in practice as revealed through food
provisioning offers for rough sleepers. Critical Social Policy, 36(4), pp.610-629.
Paudyal, V. and Saunders, K., 2018. Homeless reduction act in England: impact on health
services. The Lancet, 392(10143), pp.195-197.
Petty, J., 2016. The London spikes controversy: Homelessness, urban securitisation and the
question of ‘hostile architecture’. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social
Democracy, 5(1), p.67.
Pleace, N., 2018. Rough sleeping in England: Short-term solutions to a long-term
problem. Parity, 31(3), p.38
Sharman, S., Dreyer, J., Clark, L. and Bowden-Jones, H., 2016. Down and out in London:
addictive behaviors in homelessness. Journal of behavioral addictions, 5(2), pp.318-324.