The relationship between welfare provision and homelessness

Authors Avatar

Discuss the relationship between inequality and welfare provision

 in relation to the homeless

Often when a person thinks of homelessness they automatically conjure up an image in their mind of a person living on the streets, sleeping rough in a shop doorway or begging outside of a tube station (Donnellan, 1991).  But being homeless is much more than a person having a roof over their head (Herron, 1997).  According to Herron being homeless is about the unquantifiable day to day struggle that over three million people face with nowhere to call a home.  They may not be living on the streets, but they are homeless. Homelessness means more than sleeping rough.  Homelessness is about the abysmal housing conditions, insecurities and inequalities these people face. Being homeless is the ultimate indication of a person’s powerlessness in society.  A home is not just a physical structure with a price tag.  A home is where a person makes their life, feels safe, secure and is able to fully participate in society.  

Britain is the fourth richest country in the world (Shelter, 2006) and yet millions of people in Britain wake up every day in housing which is run down, over crowded and dangerous.  There are many others that have lost their homes altogether.  How can it be that in such an affluent nation, people are being uprooted again and again in a vain wait for social housing?  Young families with babies and young children are forced to share hostel bathrooms with drug users and sick children have no option but to sleep on blow up beds on floors if they are lucky.  

In our society there is a wide spread belief that it is the fault of the individual as to why a person becomes homeless.  According to this belief homelessness is the result of an individuals own incompetence, bad luck and irresponsibility’s.  However, sudden financial crises, relationship breakdowns and abuse are the most popular explanations of why a person can lose their home.  It is the victims behaviour that often becomes the centre of focus, not the underlying factor or factors; the lack of a home.  There are also others in our society that believe homelessness is not the result of an individual’s personal incompetence and behaviour, but homelessness is the result of failed government policies.  Homeless people face many inequalities to welfare provision in relation to access of housing, health, employment, education and social inclusion.  These inequalities are present in most aspects of a homeless persons’ life. This paper shall be discussing the relationship between the inequalities to welfare provisions that millions of homeless people face in relation to housing, and health.

According to Sampson (2005) Britain has undergone huge social changes since the late sixties.  More relationships are breaking down than ever before, people are now living longer and the structure within our society has also changed, with people deciding against marriage, women choosing careers and to be independent rather than settling down at an early age and being a wife and mother.  As a result more and more people are now living in one or two person households. These changes have an enormous impact on housing and the homeless, as more homes are needed to accommodate these changes.  There are three types of housing tenure available in Britain these are owner-occupier, social housing and private rented accommodation.  As homeless people usually cannot afford to buy a house most are dependant on rented accommodation, either social housing or private rented.  

Social housing is rented accommodation that is provided by local authorities. The total amount of social housing has constantly dwindled since the Conservative government established the ‘Right to Buy scheme’ that they formed as part of the 1980 Housing Act.  Under this scheme, tenants of social housing are eligible to buy their property with discounts of up to fifty percent depending on how long they have lived in the property (Young, 2000).  As a result in the period 1979 to 1995 the stock of social rented housing in Britain declined by more than a quarter (Ellison, 1998).    In 2005 there were 600,000 fewer social homes for rent than in 1997 (Crisis, 2005).  

Access to housing is a huge inequality that homeless people face with welfare provisions.  Access to housing in relation to both the quantity of affordable housing and also the quality of housing available.  In 2005 the British Government introduced a strategy document called; Sustainable Communities: Homes for All.  In this document the government states that they are committed to tackling existing shortages of social housing by increasing their annual supply of new social homes by fifty percent and that they intend to bring empty dwellings back into use (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2005).  On new social homes, the government plans to deliver an extra 10,000 social rented homes by the year 2008.  However Barker conducted a review of housing supply in 2004 and estimated that the number of new social homes in England needs to increase from around 30,000 a year to 50,000 a year and even then this increase would only meet newly arising needs rather than past shortages.  Although the Government does recognise the need for more social housing the numbers of homes they are planning to increase is not enough to provide adequate housing for homeless people.  

Join now!

In most cases social housing is only accessible to those who are deemed to be in ‘priority of need’ under the housing legislation (Homeless pages, 2005).  Households are classified as in ‘priority of need’ either if they have dependant children or if they are classified as vulnerable adults (Crisis, 2006).  If an individual does not have a dependant child and is not deemed to be vulnerable, then they are classified as not in priority need, therefore they are only entitled to advice and support, not housing.  According to Crisis, in practice this means that around a third of households officially ...

This is a preview of the whole essay