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Methodology of the review The initial review covered work published from 1990 to the end of November 1999, and is updated annually. First, the authors conducted a systematic trawl for material including official statistics, 'formal research' and significant 'grey' literature. Formal research is defined as scientifically rigorous, funded pieces of work which are either large-scale or relatively intensive. 'Grey' literature comprises less formal research, including small-scale local studies, and also non-research material such as magazine and newspaper articles, government papers and policy statements, resource packs, action plans and other similar documents produced by homelessness agencies. A wide range of sources were used in the trawl for material, including: the Planning Exchange; university library databases; the British Library and National Library for Scotland; the World Wide Web; housing and social work magazines; and contacts with key homelessness agencies and research funders. Participants in national homelessness conferences were invited to submit material. All relevant items identified were entered into the bibliographic database. Second, we selected the pieces of material to be included in the research summaries (200 in the initial review, 25 for each annual update). The questions that guided our selection were as follows: How significant a piece is it? Are there other more robust/more recent/more comprehensive treatments of the same subject? (If a subject was well covered, only the most useful pieces of research were included. Some weaker studies were included if they addressed an area where there was little else. In addition, we tried to include a selection of small-scale, local studies.) How easily can users gain access to the piece of literature? (Obscure items that are very difficult to obtain were only included if particularly significant.) Overall, how useful is the item likely to be to the intended audiences, that is, homelessness practitioners, policy makers and research funders? Each selected piece was then summarised in around 500 words. The presentation of these summaries was based on consultation with homelessness practitioners and others. The quality, robustness and usefulness of each of these pieces of research was assessed by the research team and these points were included in a 'comments' chapter at the end of each summary. Third, we prepared the overview report based on the reviewed pieces of research and some broader contextual material. The bibliography and summaries are updated on an annual basis to include new material published each year and summarise 25 of the most significant pieces for each year.