Homelessness: integrating international perspectives

This article, the issue introduction, discusses the background issues effecting the conceptualization and debate surrounding research on homelessness in the US and Europe, focussing largely on the UK. It considers the themes to be developed in this special issue, and examines how psychology together with other disciplines such as sociology, geography and policy studies can be complementary in meeting the challenges of researching, evaluating and understanding the issues. This article also begins to discuss how these divergent approaches can strengthen both the evidence bases on homelessness, and explore some of the lessons that can be learned from different perspectives, a theme raised throughout this issue. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.