Urban Policy and Mobility Justice for People Experiencing Homelessness in Accessing Essential Services: A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Indah Ashlachal Ummah; Harsuko Riniwati; Agung Murti Nugroho; Andik Isdianto

doi:10.37905/jgej.v7i1.36593

Urban Policy and Mobility Justice for People Experiencing Homelessness in Accessing Essential Services: A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Indah Ashlachal Ummah, Harsuko Riniwati, Agung Murti Nugroho, Andik Isdianto

Abstract

This study aims to analyze research trends and formulate policy strategies for homeless mobility in accessing basic services sustainably in public spaces. Existing systematic reviews are generally partial, focusing only on clinical health aspects or housing availability issues. However, there are very few comprehensive studies examining the mobility of the homeless in accessing basic services in public spaces. This study used a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method with data from Scopus filtered through the PRISMA protocol, resulting in 25 relevant articles being selected. Bibliometric analysis was conducted using VOSviewer and RStudio (Bibliometrix), followed by thematic analysis for policy synthesis. The results indicate a steady annual growth rate of 8.01% from 2016 to 2025, in international collaboration remains low (8%), reflecting a localized research focus. The results show fluctuations in scientific production with a significant peak in 2022, but reveal a knowledge gap (research gap) where the integration of public space and mobility remains a minor (niche) theme compared to health issues. The policy strategies are divided thematically into social, environmental, educational, and economic aspects. This study recommends more concrete practical implications, including the provision of inclusive public transportation, elimination of exclusionary architecture, and simplification of bureaucracy for accessing basic services. In conclusion, city policy must shift from mere order-based management to fulfilling the right to the city through cross-sector collaboration that ensures the welfare of vulnerable groups in the city

Keywords

accessibility; homelessness; mobility; public space; ustainable urban policy

Full Text:

PDF

References

Amir, A. R., Ayob, Z., Shukor, F. S. A., & Saari, M. F. (2024). The Influence of Urban Street Furniture Towards Homeless in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Planning Malaysia, 22(6), 60–73. https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v22i34.1613

Amram, O., Shannon, K., Braschel, M., Machat, S., Moreheart, S., Lyons, T., & Goldenberg, S. M. (2021). Mapping Workplace Neighborhood Mobility Among Sex Workers in an Urban Canadian Setting: Results of a Community-Based Spatial Epidemiological Study From 2010-2016. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(17–18), 7917–7939. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519846858

Anthonj, C., Stanglow, S. N., & Grunwald, N. (2024). Co-defining WASH (In)Security challenges among people experiencing homelessness. A qualitative study on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation from Bonn, Germany. Social Science and Medicine, 342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116561

Asén, K., Julkunen, I., & Saurama, E. (2022). Contemporary urban social work: a scoping review. Nordic Social Work Research, 12(5), 778–794. https://doi.org/10.1080/2156857X.2021.1890192

Bourlessas, P. (2018). ‘These people should not rest’: mobilities and frictions of the homeless geographies in Athens city centre. Mobilities, 13(5), 746–760. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2018.1464544

Cresswell, T. (2006). On The Move: Mobility in the Modern Western world. Taylor & Francis Group.

Cutuli, J. J., Torres Suarez, S., Truchil, A., Yost, T., & Flack-Green, C. (2024). Strategies to Better Identify Student Homelessness Using Data in an Urban School District. Educational Researcher, 53(3), 146–155. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X231215347

Ding, H., Loukaitou-Sideris, A., & Wasserman, J. L. (2022). Homelessness on public transit: A review of problems and responses. Transport Reviews, 42(2), 134–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2021.1923583

Feantsa. (2007). European Typology of Homelessness and Housing Exclusion. https://www.feantsa.org/

Fogelman, T. (2025). Infrastructuring migrant urban citizenship: homeless EU migrants and service providers’ facilitation of care and rights in pandemic Copenhagen. Comparative Migration Studies, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-025-00506-3

Golubić, M. M., Sakić, S., & Šikić-Micanović, L. (2023). From Free to Forced-Exploring Mobility among People Experiencing Homelessness. Sociologija i Prostor, 61(1), 123–142. https://doi.org/10.5673/sip.61.1.6

Hanratty, M. (2017). Do Local Economic Conditions Affect Homelessness? Impact of Area Housing Market Factors, Unemployment, and Poverty on Community Homeless Rates. Housing Policy Debate, 27(4), 640–655. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2017.1282885

Herbers, J. E., DeCandia, C. J., Volk, K. T., & Unick, G. J. (2023). Profiles and predictors of neurodevelopmental functioning among young children experiencing family homelessness. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 65, 407–416. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2023.08.001

Herrera-Imbroda, J., Guzman-Parra, J., Bordallo, A., Moreno-Küstner, B., & Mayoral-Cleries, F. (2023). Risk of psychiatric readmission in the homeless population: A 10-year follow-up study. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1128158

Jacobs, L., & Geyer, S. (2022). A Resilience Lens On Homeless Older Persons In The City Of Tshwane: An Illumination Through Photovoice. Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 58(4), 394–418. https://doi.org/10.15270/58-4-1073

Kertesz, S. G. (2014). Homelessness and Health Care. In The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Health, Illness, Behavior, and Society (pp. 1–11). wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118410868.wbehibs448

Kiernan, S., Ní Cheallaigh, C., Murphy, N., Dowds, J., & Broderick, J. (2021). Markedly poor physical functioning status of people experiencing homelessness admitted to an acute hospital setting. Scientific Reports, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88590-0

Lee, S., Cho, K., & Jeon, Y. (2025). Travel efficiency in urban space: the role of built environment in shaping excess travel distance across transport modes. Scientific Reports, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-17878-2

Marcu, S. (2022). Towards housing assistance solidarity for EU citizens? Resistance against surveillance and active engagement among mobile homeless Romanians in Madrid. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 45(16), 389–411. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2022.2092416

McPherson, R. (2018). A life course study of student success: Unaccompanied youth homelessness impacts on the pursuit of post-compulsory education and job mobility. International Journal of Learning, 25(1), 13–28. https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9494/CGP/v25i01/13-28

Mongeon, P., & Paul-Hus, A. (2015). The Journal Coverage of Web of Science and Scopus: a Comparative Analysis. Scientometrics, 106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1765-5

Murran, S., & Brady, E. (2023). How does family homelessness impact on children’s development? A critical review of the literature. Child and Family Social Work, 28(2), 360–371. https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12968

Mwiinde, C., & Munshifwa, E. K. (2024). Urbanization, poverty, and homelessness in Zambian cities: A threat to the achievement of sustainable development goals. In Homelessness to Hope: Research, Policy and Global Perspectives (pp. 37–51). Elsevier Science Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-14052-5.00003-3

Nyakabawu, S. (2023). Migrant arrival infrastructures and their impact on Zimbabweans’ mobility and integration in South Africa. Anthropology Southern Africa, 46(4), 288–300. https://doi.org/10.1080/23323256.2023.2261512

Paat, Y.-F., Morales, J., Escajeda, A. I., & Tullius, R. (2021). Insights from the shelter: Homeless shelter workers’ perceptions of homelessness and working with the homeless. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 32(3), 263–283. https://doi.org/10.1080/10428232.2021.1969719

Page, M. J., Moher, D., Bossuyt, P. M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T. C., Mulrow, C. D., Shamseer, L., Tetzlaff, J. M., Akl, E. A., Brennan, S. E., Chou, R., Glanville, J., Grimshaw, J. M., Hróbjartsson, A., Lalu, M. M., Li, T., Loder, E. W., Mayo-Wilson, E., McDonald, S., … McKenzie, J. E. (2021). PRISMA 2020 explanation and elaboration: updated guidance and exemplars for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 372, n160. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n160

Peiter, P., Belmonte, P., Teixeira, M., Cobra, G., & Lacerda, A. (2019). Homeless crack cocaine users: Territories and territorialities in the constitution of social support networks for health. Social Science and Medicine, 227, 111–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.09.046

Polakow, V., & Brooks, M. (2014). Homelessness and Health Internationally. In The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Health, Illness, Behavior, and Society (pp. 1–8). wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118410868.wbehibs330

Prosser, B. M. (2022). Mobile Caring-Work: Volunteer homelessness outreach on the streets of Brighton & Hove (UK). Applied Mobilities, 7(4), 413–431. https://doi.org/10.1080/23800127.2021.1964154

Purkey, E., & MacKenzie, M. (2019). Experience of healthcare among the homeless and vulnerably housed a qualitative study: Opportunities for equity-oriented health care. International Journal for Equity in Health, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-019-1004-4

Rodilla, J. M., Puchol, G., & Botija, M. (2023). Assessing Impact in Europe: A Systematic Review of Evaluation Methodologies in Homeless Interventions. Systems, 11(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/systems11110541

Rodr, C., Fern, J., & Mart, A. (2023). A Systematic Review of Augmented Reality in Health Sciences : A Guide to Decision-Making in Higher Education. 2013.

Rogans-Watson, R., Shulman, C., Lewer, D., Armstrong, M., & Hudson, B. (2020). Premature frailty, geriatric conditions and multimorbidity among people experiencing homelessness: a cross-sectional observational study in a London hostel. Housing, Care and Support, 23(3–4), 77–91. https://doi.org/10.1108/HCS-05-2020-0007

Semborski, S., Winn, J. G., Rhoades, H., Petry, L., & Henwood, B. F. (2022). The application of GIS in homelessness research and service delivery: A qualitative systematic review. Health and Place, 75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102776

Smith, R. J., & Hall, T. (2016). Mobilities at work: care, repair, movement and a fourfold typology. Applied Mobilities, 1(2), 147–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/23800127.2016.1246897

Teodorescu, D., & Molina, I. (2021). Roma street-workers in Uppsala: racialised poverty and super precarious housing conditions in Romania and Sweden. International Journal of Housing Policy, 21(3), 401–422. https://doi.org/10.1080/19491247.2020.1854950

Thurman, W., Hutson, T., Lowery, D., Patten, A., & Garcia, A. A. (2025). A Community-Engaged Ethnographic Investigation into Public Transit Among Older Adults Experiencing Homelessness. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 22(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22040654

Tually, S., Tedmanson, D., Habibis, D., McKinley, K., Akbar, S., Chong, A., Deuter, K., & Goodwin-Smith, I. (2022). Urban Indigenous homelessness: much more than housing. AHURI Final Report, 383. https://doi.org/10.18408/ahuri3222701

Umer, M., Wetzel, E. M., Azhar, S., & Leousis, K. (2023). Benefits and Limitations of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) - A Review of Literature. In A. S.M., A. S., S. A.D., M. K.L., & F. R.U. (Eds.), International Conference on Construction in the 21st Century (Vols. 2023-May). East Carolina University. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-

&partnerID=40&md5=14c161ee8c5316924bf2617e6ddde887

United Nations. (2015). Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In Sustainable Development Goals Series. United Nations. https://sdgs.un.org/sites/default/files/publications/21252030 Agenda for Sustainable Development web.pdf

Welsh, M., O’Donnell, R., Rios, A., Kodituwakku, L., Zampa, G., Swayne, M. R. E., Felner, J. K., & Calzo, J. P. (2025). There is no place to go in “America’s Finest City”: Basic sanitation deprivation is punishment in San Diego, California, USA. Punishment and Society, 27(1), 24–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/14624745241246650

Yadawa, S. K. (2024). Homelessness and solution-oriented pathways and recommendations. In Homelessness to Hope: Research, Policy and Global Perspectives (pp. 427–446). Elsevier Science Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-14052-5.00023-9

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37905/jgej.v7i1.36593