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 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.

This book provides background information on government policy on tackling statutory homelessness (ie: those households for whom local authorities, after receiving an application, have a duty to secure accommodation because they are unintentionally homeless). It also discusses "how services can be managed in a way that prevents all households, regardless of whether they are families, couples, or single people, from reaching a crisis point where they are faced with homelessness", and the duties owed to the non-statutory homeless.

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.