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The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017: furthering not fracturing marginalisation of those experiencing homelessness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2022

Chris Bevan
Chris Bevan*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor in Property Law, Durham Law School, UK
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: christopher.w.bevan@durham.ac.uk
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Abstract

The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 represents the most significant change to the rights of homeless people in England for decades. Through an analysis of the history of homelessness legislation in England, but focusing on the ‘ground-breaking’ 2017 Act, this paper explores how the homeless population is represented and ‘constructed’ in this new legislation and what this tells us about the place of homeless people in our society. In so doing, this paper exposes how the 2017 Act – a state instrument of apparent homelessness prevention – can be read and understood as contributing to rather than obviating the marginalisation and social exclusion of homeless people.

Keywords

housing lawhomelessnessmarginalisationsocial exclusion
Type
Special Issue Article
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 18 , Special Issue 1: Marginalisation in Law, Policy and Society , March 2022 , pp. 41 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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