Rights, responsibilities and refusals: Homelessness policy and the exclusion of single homeless people with complex needs

an article by Peter Dwyer (University of York, England) and Graham Bowpitt, Eva Sundin, and Mark Weinstein (Nottingham Trent University, England) published in Critical Social Policy Volume 35 Number 1 (February 2015)

Abstract

Since 1977 homelessness legislation in England has offered limited statutory accommodation rights to unintentionally homeless people who are judged to be in priority need and able to demonstrate a local connection.

Using data generated in interviews with homeless people and staff working to support them, this paper considers the impact of current homelessness policy and practice and explores how decisions about intentionality, priority need and local connection serve to exacerbate the social exclusion experienced by single homeless people with multiple support needs.

It is concluded that a more genuinely inclusive welfare state will only emerge when, and if, policymakers and wider society are able to abandon their current fixation with using welfare policy to punish ‘irresponsible’ behaviour and refocus instead on providing services to adequately meet the basic needs of marginalised people.

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