Abstract
This paper focuses on some of the ethical issues which may arise when conducting research in the context of homelessness. These issues are considered from the viewpoints of researchers, research coordinators and interviewers, drawing from their extensive real world experience. In addition to negotiating the complex context of homelessness, community-based homelessness researchers need to address a number of ethical issues in research conception, design, implementation and dissemination. Although these issues are commonly considered in community-engaged research, research with people who are homeless may raise exceptional challenges. Such challenges include determining the nature of informed consent; protecting research participants and researchers, and determining appropriate compensation for participation. Understanding the context of homelessness to conduct ethical research will require sharing information and joint decision-making, processes that must include members of communities within which the research participants live. Furthermore, researchers should be sensitive to the changing context of homelessness, and vigilant for new ethical challenges.
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Notes
‘Vulnerably housed’ was restricted to residents of rooming houses and means a resident of a rooming house must have had one incident of homelessness or have moved at least twice in the last 12 months.
In a recent interview a participant asked for the honorarium telling the interviewers that he was going to “buy weed (marijuana) with it.” When the interviewer winced, the participant replied “Oh no, I’m going to use it for arts supplies — yeah, art supplies”.
Rooming houses typically are occupied by low-income tenants many of whom are at risk of homelessness because of poverty, mental illness, drug and alcohol use. They feature multiple single bed-units intended to serve as permanent accommodation with shared kitchen and bathroom facilities.
In the HHiT study, the consent form states “Confidentiality will be respected and no information that discloses your identity will be released or published without consent unless required by law, such as disclosing abuse or acute risk of harm to yourself or others. If there is perceived risk, privacy will be breached and you will be asked/made to seek care”.
For example, an interviewer learned of a situation where a resident was stalking another resident. Although this had no connection with the study, the stalked person was at risk of harm.
At the time of the study there were over 40 organizations serving people who are homeless in Ottawa.
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Acknowledgments
Vivien Runnels is supported in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the University of Ottawa.
The authors would like to acknowledge the support and assistance of Tim Aubry, Centre for Research on Educational and Community Services, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Principal Investigator of the “Panel Study on Homelessness”, and Manal Guirguis-Younger, Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Principal Investigator of “A Study of the Deaths of Persons who are Homeless in Ottawa—A Social and Health Investigation”. These studies were funded by the City of Ottawa through the federal Supporting Community Partnerships Initiative of Human Resources Development Canada. The “Panel Study on Homelessness” study, received additional funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. “A longitudinal study of the health of homeless and vulnerably housed adults in Vancouver, Toronto, and Ottawa” is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
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None declared.
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Runnels, V., Hay, E., Sevigny, E. et al. The Ethics of Conducting Community-Engaged Homelessness Research. J Acad Ethics 7, 57–68 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-009-9083-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-009-9083-2