The main aim of this study was to provide robust statistical evidenc eon families and 16-17 year olds accepted as owed the main homelessness duty by English local authorities, in order to inform effective policy interventions.

The Routledge Handbook of Homelessness brings together many of the world’s leading scholars in the field to provide a cutting-edge overview of classic and current research and future trends in the subject. Comprising 41 chapters and divided into four sections, the handbook includes A comprehensive introduction to homelessness, referring to history, culture, causation and definitions. Contemporary and historical debates around homelessness in different academic disciplines. Homelessness relating to gender, sexuality, youth, families, migration, rurality, veterans and health. A range of country-specific studies to illustrate the ways in which homelessness is researched and understood around the world. Methods of engagement and modes of analysis. With contributors from around the world and editors from the Centre of Housing Policy at the University of York, this handbook provides a groundbreaking and authoritative guide to theory, method and the primary interdisciplinary debates of today on homelessness. It will be essential reading for students, academics and professionals across the disciplines of sociology, human geography, public policy, housing policy, social policy, social work, economics and criminology.

The problem of homelessness is deeply emblematic of the sort of society Britain has become. What other social phenomena could better epitomise the end of modernity than our seeming inability to adequately respond to the most basic needs - shelter, warmth, food - of substantial numbers of our 'citizens'? Homelessness and Social Policy offers a dispassionate analysis of the problem of homelessness and the policy responses it has so far invoked. By reviewing theoretical and legal conceptualisations of homelessness and presenting extensive statistical analyses, this book considers the impact of the experience of homelessness and the policy responses. Homelessness and Social Policy will prove to be invaluable to students of social and public policy, health studies, housing studies and sociology.

This handbook provides a comprehensive global survey and assessment of the law and policy relating to homelessness prevention. Homelessness is regarded internationally as one of the most pressing issues facing humanity and one of the greatest social challenges of our times. This has been further amplified as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Across the globe, there is an enormous divergence in both experiences of and responses to homelessness from governments and state actors. This handbook examines how different jurisdictions from across all five continents of the world have encountered, framed and responded to homelessness. Written by expert scholars and leaders in their field, the book engages in a multidisciplinary and comparative analysis of homelessness as an issue of acute social concern. Understandings of homelessness are geographically, culturally and historically situated, making analysis of each jurisdiction’s approach by a national expert deeply insightful. The collection examines legal and extra-legal policy interventions targeted at reducing or preventing homelessness from across the globe. Drawing on diverse perspectives, differing cultures and welfare regimes, it thus constitutes a timely evaluation of current approaches to homelessness internationally. This book will appeal to students and scholars of homelessness, sociology, social policy, anthropology, and urban sociology, as well as international and national policymakers.

Drawing on recent academic studies in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, this book is the first international text on homelessness in rural areas. Consisting of fifteen specially commissioned chapters, International Perspectives on Rural Homelessness provides comparative material on the cultural, political and policy contexts of rural homelessness, examining the nature and scale of the issue and the complex local geographies of rural homelessness.

The Research Handbook on Homelessness presents a comprehensive account of the current knowledge and understanding of homelessness, the substantial challenges it presents and the latest developments in responding to the issue. Bringing together 54 of the worldÕs leading scholars in this field, this multidisciplinary Research Handbook acknowledges the increasing interest in homelessness across various academic disciplines and highlights the constant evolution of this issue, as well as the research methods that accompany it.

Refugees are forced to gamble with their lives to flee conflicts, and if they arrive at their intended destination unscathed, they may face the turbulent prospect of asylum defined by a meagre existence, social exclusion, poverty, and even homelessness. Operating at different scales and imagined places, homelessness and asylum seeking are issues of fundamental social justice typically viewed as a problem of cities and crises of national and international concern respectively. However, over the past two decades in particular, the increasing and volatile numbers of asylum seekers arriving in the West have created a new form of homelessness, mainly hidden, often vulnerable, and located in the interstices of international and local displacement. Considering refugee settlement in London, England, and Toronto, Canada, this book argues that this new form of homelessness also requires a new perspective in order to be properly understood, and this perspective should come from refugees themselves. Two main questions are considered: “How do refugees conceive, locate, and reconstruct ‘home’ in the asylum and settlement process?” and “How do national and residential dynamics affect refugees’ sense of home or homelessness?” Drawing on structuration theory amongst other ideas, the book examines the relationship between “refugeeness” and homelessness, and how each is shaped in the countries of asylum. Managed migration strategies in Canada and deterrent migration strategies in the UK have a profound effect on refugees’ perceptions of belonging and acceptance, equality, and the desire and ability to make a home for themselves. In addition to shaping notions of belonging, national support and services (or the lack thereof) structure the pathways to homelessness, revealing distinct trajectories amongst refugees in London and Toronto. The author’s proceeds from the sale of this book will be contributed to the Canadian Council for Refugees.