(The Housing Corporation, 1993a, Appendix 5 of the Housing Association Annual Return Statistics Form) Previous research has, however, adopted various definitions and criteria. Garside et al. (1990) used the term 'hostel' to refer to the whole range of accommodation provided for single people who were homeless. Canter e1 al. (1990), alternatively, defined a hostel as any facility which provided short-term accommodation at low prices (or accepted DSS claimants) and did not describe itself as a hotel. Thomas and Niner (1989), meanwhile, employed a useful but very general description of hostel accommodation. According to Thomas and Niner (1989), hostels comprise organised short-term accommodation usually offered at reasonably low prices and targeted at a specific group (such as homeless families, single homeless people, ex-offenders, people with a mental handicap, or mothers and babies).
specific group