Homelessness

This book presents the results of in-depth research into the application of the UK homelessness legislation in relation to community care, the Children Act 1989, violence to women, and racial harassment. This is supplemented with a consideration of policies and practices in 15 local authority homelessness departments. It is argued that government created the notion of a successful, or 'appropriate' applicant, but this could not be translated into actual practice as the original legislation did not facilitate it. In fact, in the mid-1990s, government became more concerned with notions of inappropriateness, stereotyping those using the homelessness legislation. This was the background to the 1996 changes to the homelessness legislation which have created the notion of the 'inappropriate' applicant. It is argued that the new legislation is more concerned with denial, deterrence and privatization. Additionally, the new legislation has detrimentally affected the application of the homelessness legislation in each of the areas discussed in earlier chapters of the book.