Sampling Process

A researcher based in Miami wants to learn about the experiences of homeless people in the United States by conducting interviews with them. He plans to conduct in-person interviews with the homeless people he samples. He is having trouble deciding how to draw a representative sample of homeless people because homeless people are difficult to find, often move from place to place, and are often cycled in and out of homelessness. The researcher has one year and a $5,000 grant with which to conduct his interviews.

Your task is to help this researcher.

1. What is the population he wants to generalize to?
2. What are possible sampling frames (sources) from which he can draw his sample?
3. What do you think would be a good/realistic sample size?
4. What sampling methods would you suggest he uses? Why?