Welfare Reform on the Web (February 2009): Homelessness - UK

Managing vulnerability: homelessness law and the interplay of the social, the political and the technical

H. Carr and C. Hunter

Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, vol. 30, 2008, p. 293-307

This article traces the development of homelessness law and policy starting with the National Assistance Act 1948. It then considers the political crisis caused by the rise of homelessness and the inadequacy of the law in the 1970s which led to the passage of the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977 before moving on to the impact of Thatcherism and the 'rolling back' of the welfare state. It ends with an analysis of the New Labour government's response to rising street homelessness during the late 1990s and early 2000s.