Codebook

This study examines perceptions of one of the nation’s largest populations of people experiencing homelessness. An online questionnaire was made available to students from 3 universities sharing a single campus in downtown Denver, Colorado. Participants were assessed on their interactions with people experiencing homelessness, their beliefs about the primary causes of homelessness, and their thoughts on how the issue should be addressed by policymakers, if at all. The study’s main outcome variable assesses whether students believe it should be legal to sleep outside in public spaces. Through a series of logistic regression models, we find a significant relationship between respondents’ safety concerns regarding homeless individuals and their legally permissive or prohibitive attitude toward homelessness. Our findings yield insight into the extent to which perceptions of homelessness and people experiencing homelessness relate to homelessness policy opinions.