Rights, responsibilities and refusals: homelessness policy and the exclusion of single homeless people with complex needs

This paper presents evidence from a study undertaken in Nottingham and London and considers the impact of homelessness policy and practice on the lives of single homeless people with complex needs. Since 1977 homelessness legislation in England has offered statutory accommodation rights that have been limited to unintentionally homeless people who are judged to be in priority need and able to demonstrate a local connection. Drawing on qualitative data generated in interviews with homeless people and staff working to support them, the paper explores how decisions about intentionality, priority need and local connection serve to exacerbate the social exclusion experienced by single homeless people with multiple support needs. Using the insights of Carlen (1994) and Adlam and Scanlon (2008) the paper explores why little has been done to tackle the longstanding systemic exclusion of single homeless people with complex needs. It is concluded that a more genuinely inclusive welfare state will only emerge when, and if, policymakers and wider society are able to abandon their current fixation with using welfare policy to punish ‘irresponsible’ behaviour and re focus instead on providing services to adequately meet the basic needs of marginalised people