Homelessness and Social Policy

Roger Burrows, Nicholas Pleace, Deborah Quilgars

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415154567
• eBook ISBN: 9781134734122
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Health Care Delivery

The problem of homelessness is deeply emblematic of the sort of society Britain has become. What other social phenomena could better epitomise the end of modernity than our seeming inability to adequately respond to the most basic needs - shelter, warmth, food - of substantial numbers of our 'citizens'? Homelessness and Social Policy offers a dispassionate analysis of the problem of homelessness and the policy responses it has so far invoked.
By reviewing theoretical and legal conceptualisations of homelessness and presenting extensive statistical analyses, this book considers the impact of the experience of homelessness and the policy responses. Homelessness and Social Policy will prove to be invaluable to students of social and public policy, health studies, housing studies and sociology.

Chapter 1
Homelessness in contemporary Britain

Conceptualisation and measurement

Nicholas Pleace, Roger Burrows and Deborah Quilgars

This book is about homelessness and social policy in contemporary Britain. It brings together in one place a range of conceptual and empirical studies of various aspects of homelessness which have been carried out by researchers at the Centre for Housing Policy (CHP) at the University of York throughout the 1990s.¹ This opening chapter attempts to define what is meant by homelessness and how the phenomena might be measured. It also provides a brief summary of the structure of the rest of the book.

What Is Homelessness?

In the United Kingdom homelessness has come to be defined and discussed in terms of the main policy response to the problem. This policy response was the 1977 Housing (Homeless Persons) Act that for the first time placed duties on local authority housing departments not only to rehouse homeless individuals and families permanently, but to do so as a matter of priority. The basic legislation passed unaltered into the 1985 Housing Act until it was replaced with new legislation within the 1996 Housing Act, see Lowe (this volume) for detailed discussion.²

Until the 1977 Act, responses from the then Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) and local social services departments retained many similarities to Victorian responses to extreme poverty. Gender separation of homeless families to fit them into traditional hostel accommodation was common practice, and as late as 1974/75, 2,800 children were placed in care merely because their families had been found homeless by local authorities (Richards 1993). The reasons for such harsh policy responses were largely underpinned by the dominance of political ideologies which emphasised individual responsibility over structural causes and, relatedly, made clear distinctions between the 'deserving' and the 'undeserving' (Lowe, this volume; Neale, this volume). Within such a dominant conceptual frame people who became homeless were often considered to be responsible for their own plight because they were choosing not to work, refusing responsibility or because they were 'drunkards'. For example, when the first legislation to provide assistance to homeless people was being debated in 1977, they were described as 'queue jumpers, rent dodgers, scroungers and scrimshankers' by a Conservative MP speaking for the then largely Conservative Association of District Councils (Richards 1993). Hesitancy about the adequacy of explanations of homelessness which relied upon people supposedly deliberately choosing to be homeless only began in the late 1960s — well behind the acceptance of structural explanations of other social issues and problems. The health problems and drug and alcohol dependency of many single homeless people were recorded, and studies began to identify the role of housing supply, relationship breakdown and economic change in the production of homelessness more generally.

For several years, some studies placed emphasis on structural causes of single homelessness (mainly housing supply) (Drake et al. 1982) while other studies, particularly in the United States, identified mental health problems as the underlying cause of single homelessness (Basuk 1984). It was only relatively recently that more sophisticated research began to appear that advanced the argument that single homelessness was caused by social and economic changes which disproportionately affected the most vulnerable in society (Caton 1990; Dant and Deacon 1989). The same kind of debate never existed in relation to homeless families, who were from the 1970s in the United Kingdom much more likely to be seen as victims of circumstance (Glastonbury 1971). There was also less debate about whether the state should intervene because children, who were almost universally accepted as being unable to help themselves, were present in homeless families.

The 1977 and 1985 Acts represent a policy response caught between the movement away from the more primitive 'explanations' of homelessness and towards explanations more firmly rooted in research. On one level, the 1977 Act recognised homelessness as a structural phenomenon by addressing the problem with the provision of housing for families, couples and individuals who became homeless. However, because the 1977 Act was passed at a time when the older 'explanation' of homelessness as an individual choice still held some sway, it still contains strong residual elements which reflect this. Essentially, the Act could not go all the way in accepting that social and economic factors were largely to blame for homelessness because the popular conception of 'scroungers' was still too strong. The Act therefore divided the homeless population of the United Kingdom into homeless people who could not help their situation and should be helped, while refusing assistance to people who could 'help themselves'. Thus the Act (re)created deserving homeless people (homeless families and very vulnerable single people) who could receive assistance under the Act, and undeserving homeless people (lone homeless people and couples without serious illness or impairment) who must be refused such assistance.

Of course, any government is always concerned to keep expenditure down and rationing services on some basis is always necessary. However, while access to other welfare services is relatively simple — one must demonstrate unemployment to get benefit, present with a health problem to get NHS services and so forth - access to assistance if one is homeless is not just a question of proving that one is homeless. Homeless people must show that they have not made themselves homeless on purpose (called 'intentionally homeless') and they must usually prove a 'local connection' to the housing authority to which they are applying for assistance. It must also be clear that they have not left any accommodation that they could reasonably be expected to occupy. Once all that has been proven, a homeless person must also demonstrate that they are a member of one of the 'deserving' groups of homeless people, whom the 1985 Act and code of guidance says can receive assistance, referred to as being in a situation of priority need:

• those who are pregnant, or who live in a household with someone who is pregnant;
• those who live in a household that contains one or more dependent children; and
• those who live in a household that contains a person who is vulnerable under the terms of the code of guidance to the 1985 Housing Act.

Those who are vulnerable include:

• people who find it difficult to fend for themselves due to old age;
• people with learning difficulties;
• people with a mental health problem;
• disabled people; and
• people who are vulnerable for 'other special reasons'.

These 'other special reasons' include:

• children and women who are escaping violence or abuse;
• people escaping racial abuse; and
• young people considered to be at risk.

Some authorities have interpreted this duty as including people with drug and/or alcohol dependencies, certain categories of ex-offender and people with terminal or life-threatening illnesses such as HIV/AIDS.

These categories appear to be substantially unaltered in the 1996 Housing Act (Section 189), although the detailed guidance to the new Act had not yet been released at die time of writing. Recent amendments to the 1985 Housing Act, which are also present in the 1996 Act, prevent asylum seekers from getting assistance from local authorities under the homelessness legislation. Once accepted under the 1977 and 1985 Acts, homeless people had priority access to permanent rehousing in local authority or housing association stock — although a few authorities had also started to use the private rented sector (PRS) by the mid-1990s, raising debates about what exactly 'permanent' meant. The 1996 Housing Act will introduce an interim duty to accommodate statutorily homeless households for up to two years (Section 192) while they join the waiting list with everyone else who is seeking a council or housing association home. This change, it was argued by the government, would increase the fairness of the allocation of social housing (Bevan and Rhodes, this volume; Lowe, this volume).

Homelessness is described in the United Kingdom along the lines of the homelessness legislation. Non-statutory homeless people are those who cannot get access to accommodation because they fall outside the groups specified by the 1977, 1985 and 1996 Acts. This group is largely made of single people without children who do not qualify for assistance because they are not 'vulnerable' under the terms of the legislation and are generally called single homeless people (Kemp, this volume). Those who qualify for assistance are called statutorily homeless people.

These definitions are not clear cut, mainly because local authorities have considerable discretion in the interpretation of the code of guidance to the 1985 Act (something that will probably be true of the 1996 Act too) and varying capacities, in terms of available stock, to respond to the needs of homeless people. Acceptance as statutorily homeless by a local authority in one area does not mean that another authority would also accept one as homeless (Niner 1989; Butler et al. 1994). It is possible to argue that those who are placed in the worst position by the resource limitations of local authorities are single homeless people, since the severity or presence of an Act-defined 'vulnerability' is debatable, while the presence of a child or signs of pregnancy are not (Pleace and Quilgars 1996).

In addition, acceptance as homeless under the Act may not mean that homelessness is going to end immediately. In some (though not all) areas, pressure on the council and housing association stock is such, with an average wait of 1.9 years on the waiting list for non-homeless people seeking rehousing (Prescott-Clarke et al. 1994, para 5.7.1), that statutorily homeless people have sometimes to wait many months or even years in temporary accommodation and remain, in effect, homeless. When the 1996 Housing Act comes into effect, all statutorily homeless people will remain in this state of effective homelessness for up to two years before they are permanently rehoused (Bevan and Rhodes, this volume; Lowe, this volume).

The homelessness legislation, while to a limited extent representing a progression in 1977 because of the duties to provide housing to women escaping violence, was not designed with the needs of women in mind. The focus was on homeless families and homeless single men, rather than on the specific needs of women (Neale, this volume; Watson and Austerberry 1986) - a situation that has not changed with the introduction of the 1996 Housing Act,

Within the single homeless population, there are subdivisions. Many single homeless people are in some form of accommodation, particularly if they fall into the groups to which charitable and voluntary groups provide services. Many organisations, including local authorities and housing associations, provide hostels or day centres for single homeless people, who are a mainly male population, and there are also many organisations focusing on young people who are homeless. The bulk of the non-statutorily homeless population is in some form of accommodation, though not in housing, for much of the time because of this provision. However, there is also a (probably) much smaller population of people sleeping rough, who sleep outside for some or all the time. This group, characterised by very poor health status (Bines, this volume; Pleace and Quilgars, this volume) are those who perhaps more than any other group represent the popular conception of homelessness.

Research (Kemp, this volume; Randall and Brown 1993) has shown that the needs of single homeless people and people sleeping rough are often as great as those of statutorily homeless people. Campaigning organisations, such as Campaign for the Homeless and Roofless (CHAR), argue that the distinction in the 1985 Act is artificial and that many single homeless people require assistance and, relatively frequently, care and support services. Recent government responses, including the Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) and the Homelessness Mentally Ill Initiative have tacitly accepted this basic argument. In effect, it could be argued that there is a recognition in the RSI, which is now in its third phase (extending outside London for the first time), that the policy response that should be dealing with the needs of homeless people who require assistance, the 1985 Act, was not working properly.

It is possible then to generate the following classification of homelessness in the United Kingdom. However, it is important to bear in mind that each group has 'fuzzy' edges because the policy response and service provision vary between different areas.

1. Statutorily homeless people. Mainly families, accepted by local authorities for rehousing and either placed directly into permanent housing association or local authority accommodation (at which point they cease to be homeless) or awaiting permanent accommodation in temporary housing (still viewed as homeless). This group also includes 'vulnerable' households and individuals.
2. Single homeless people. Mainly single men, although more young people and more women are joining this group, who have either been refused or have not sought assistance under the 1985 Act and are living in hostels or similar provision. Members of this group relatively often have poor health status and other 'vulnerable' characteristics.
3. People sleeping rough. Again, mainly single men, although the numbers of young people and women are rising in this group as well. Characterised by very poor health status, this minority of homeless people represents the worst extreme of homelessness.

Hidden homelessness

While the main focus of the debate and the basis of currently used definitions of homelessness in the United Kingdom is around the homelessness legislation, there are also definitional issues around the nature of homelessness itself. These issues do not arise while arguing about or discussing which homeless people should receive assistance; rather, they arise in the discussion of the nature of homelessness itself.

The definition of homelessness given in the 1977 Act and subsequently in the 1985 Act is as follows:

someone is homeless if there is no accommodation in England, Wales or Scotland which that person can reasonably occupy together with anyone else who normally lives with them as a member of their family or in circumstances in which it is reasonable for that person to do so

(Departm...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of tables
• Notes on contributors
• Preface, by John Greve
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Homelessness in contemporary Britain: conceptualisation and measurement
• 2 Homelessness and the law
• 3 Theorising homelessness: contemporary sociological and feminist perspectives
• 4 The social distribution of the experience of homelessness
• 5 The characteristics of single homeless people in England
• 6 Mortgage arrears, mortgage possessions and homelessness
• 7 Soldiering on? Theorising homelessness amongst ex-servicemen
• 8 The housing needs of ex-prisoners
• 9 The health of single homeless people
• 10 Health, homelessness and access to health care services in London
• 11 Rehousing single homeless people
• 12 Opening doors in the private rented sector: developments in assistance with access
• 13 The capacity of the private rented sector to house homeless households
• 14 Hostels: a useful policy and practice response?
• 15 Addressing the problem of youth homelessness and unemployment: the contribution of foyers
• 16 Working together to help homeless people: an examination of inter-agency themes
• References
• Index