Case Study
Researchers at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy have conducted a study about
homelessness in Singapore. In addition to a street count of homeless people in Singapore,
the study also involved in-depth interviews with homeless individuals who stayed at a
shelter.
The study has identified two new groups of homeless people during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The first group (i.e., “Newly homeless”) consists of homeless people who had not slept on
the streets before the pandemic. This group includes people who lost their jobs during the
pandemic and could not afford to rent a place on the open market. The second group (i.e.,
“Transnational homeless”) comprises mainly Singaporean males who live in Indonesia or
Malaysia and used to commute to Singapore for work. Due to border control and travel
restrictions during the pandemic, they could not travel back home and thus sleep on the
streets in Singapore.
The study also identified a third group of people who have been homeless before the
pandemic (i.e., “Long-term homeless”). These homeless individuals live in “extreme
poverty” and some of them have been on the streets for many years.
The researchers reported common issues that these three groups of homeless people might
face, such as having low-wage and insecure jobs, poor health conditions, family conflict and
estrangement.
Source: Tan, T., & Ang, S. (2022, August 11). Those made jobless during Covid-19 pandemic among new
groups of homeless people: Study. The Straits Times.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/community/those-made-jobless-among-new-groups-of-homeless-
people-study
Suppose the Singapore government would like to know more about homelessness in Singapore
(Note: Both rough sleepers and individuals staying in homeless shelters are usually considered
as homeless). You are tasked to submit a research proposal that will elaborate on how you can
apply relevant concepts and research methods to study the topic. Your proposal should be
written as an essay and include the following five parts.
(a) Title and Abstract of Research Proposal
Propose a title that fits your research proposal. Also, include an abstract that properly describes
and summarises your proposed study. The abstract must not exceed 150 words.
Both the title and abstract should be included in your total word count.
The title should clearly indicate what your proposed study is about.
(5 marks)
(b) Background and Literature Review
Examine relevant literature on an issue related to homelessness that you would like to study.
Analyse the identified literature, examine the research methods used in the existing studies,
and critique the strengths or weaknesses of these studies.
Following your literature review, you should propose a specific and clear research question
that you would like to study. The research question should be about homelessness in Singapore.
You should also discuss the importance of the study you have proposed.
You can choose to study any topic related to homelessness in Singapore. The key is that
you clearly describe the topic you would like to study based on your literature review.
Examples of possible topics include the following: factors that may contribute to
homelessness in Singapore, experiences of being homeless in Singapore, impact of a
specific intervention that aims to help homeless people in Singapore and so on.
For your literature review, you need to include at least five academic journal articles
that are relevant to the topic of your choice. It is acceptable if one or more journal
articles that you have selected are not done in Singapore. The key is that you should
explain explicitly how the selected journal articles inform your proposed research.
In your literature review, you should critically evaluate the strengths or weaknesses of
the selected journal articles, rather than merely present the methods or findings of these
previous studies in a descriptive manner. Based on your literature review, discuss the
importance of the study you propose, such as how your proposed study addresses a
specific limitation of the past studies, any theoretical or practical contribution(s) your
research finding(s) may make, etc.
(35 marks)
(c) Research Design
Apply relevant concepts and propose a research design to address your research question with
respect to the following aspects: (i) explain whether you plan to use quantitative or qualitative
method and why, (ii) briefly describe your proposed method and discuss critical elements in
your research procedure, and (iii) discuss possible threats to the validity of your research and
explain how you will address these threats.
You should first explain whether you plan to use quantitati
