Introduction

Homelessness represents one of the most acute forms – if not themost acute form – of social and housing exclusion in Europe today. In both a national and European context, there has been increasing recognition that a growing number of people are finding themselves in an increasingly hostile environment, particularly in relation to work, welfare and housing.

This chapter begins by addressing some of the debates surrounding definitions of homelessness. While the chapter is not intended to be a comprehensive review of the literature nor to expand debates, it does intend to emphasise the importance of this issue. It has particular implications for quantification and analysis of the causes of homelessness, as well as the solutions and provision considered necessary to tackle the problem.

Drawing on government statistics and recent research from the homelessness charity Shelter, the chapter looks at some of the pathways into and causes of homelessness. It concludes by focusing the discussion of homelessness within the context of broader structural factors: for example, changes in the economy, the labour market and a reorientation of the welfare state, which has given way to an increasingly polarised society in which poverty, unemployment and homelessness appear to have become accepted ‘facts of life’, reflecting a ‘new common sense’ in social policy.

Defining and enumerating homelessness

There is no universally accepted definition of homelessness. What constitutes homelessness and how many people are homeless is a debate which has been running for decades (see Bramley, 1988; Burrows et al, 1997; Jacobs et al, 1999). The term itself is fundamentally unstable:

However, Britain is unusual in having a statutory definition of homelessness. The operational definition applied by the government and local authorities in dealing with homelessness derives from the 1977 Housing (Homeless Persons) Act, incorporated into the 1986 Housing Act in England and Wales and 1987 in Scotland. The Act represented a fundamental shift in policy and practice away from the 1948 National Assistance Act which, according to Greve, had “inherited and perpetuated much of the philosophy of some of the practices of the hated Poor Law” (1997, p 1).