Posts Tagged ‘homelessness’

Call for papers

July 5, 2017 Leave a Comment

We welcome proposals for papers from those working within and beyond the social sciences on any aspects of welfare conditionality and associated debates

Interventionist and enforcement responses to rough sleeping and begging: Opportunities, challenges and dilemmas

December 19, 2016 Leave a Comment

Project team member Sarah Johnsen from Heriot-Watt University reports from a recent event on homelessness held in Glasgow

Attempts to deter people from rough sleeping and begging have generated controversy in England, where measures such as assertive outreach, ‘defensive architecture’, Dispersal Orders, arrests, ASBOs, and most recently Public Spaces Protection Orders, have been widely used. Some stakeholders view such measures as invaluable tools lending weight to attempts to move vulnerable individuals away from damaging lifestyles. Others worry that they displace the problem and/or make the incredibly difficult circumstances of those affected even worse. Read More

Enforcement and interventionist responses to rough sleeping and begging: new report

December 6, 2016 Leave a Comment

In this report from our recent events with Glasgow Homelessness Network and Crisis, Professor Sarah Johnsen of Heriot-Watt University explores the difficult and sensitive issue of the opportunities, challenges and dilemmas in this aspect of homelessness.

Read the report

New blog: Public Spaces Protection Orders, rough sleepers and media storms

November 9, 2015 Leave a Comment

Our new blog by team member Sarah Johnsen investigates the development of Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs). Proposals to develop them in a number of towns and cities have provoked controversy, most especially with respect to the increased powers they provide to fine or prosecute people for sleeping rough. Perpetrators may be given a fixed penalty notice of up to £100 or face prosecution and a fine of up to £1,000. Feelings both for and against the use of enforcement tend to be very strong, she writes. Read her blog.

Public Spaces Protection Orders, rough sleepers and media storms

November 9, 2015 Leave a Comment

Proposals to develop Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) in a number of towns and cities have provoked controversy on a number of grounds, but most especially with respect to the increased powers they provide to fine or prosecute people for sleeping rough. Our team member Prof Sarah Johnsen investigates.

PSPOs enable local authorities to apply to prohibit activities that are having, or are likely to have, a persistent and unreasonable detrimental effect on the quality of life of those in the locality. They may ban a whole gamut of things considered to be a ‘problem’ in a defined area. Prohibitions featuring in some include: lying down or sleeping, depositing materials used or intended for use as bedding, begging, consuming intoxicating substances, and improper use of public toilets. Read More

Enforcement, coercion and interventionism: evolving responses to homelessness and street culture

October 6, 2014 Leave a Comment

Part of our series highlighting the recently published briefing bapers, this blog by Sarah Johnsen examines the current state of conditionality and homelessness.

Earlier this year, the installation of ‘spikes’ to deter rough sleepers from bedding down in the doorway of a luxury London apartment block prompted a social media storm and widespread public outrage. Attempts to make towns and cities less conducive to rough sleeping do in fact have a long history in the UK and overseas. They first hit the headlines in the USA, when a number of metropolitan authorities installed ‘anti-homeless sprinklers’ and seats that were impossible to lie on within public spaces. Here in the UK, the practice of gating off alleyways or removing seating is relatively commonplace in areas deemed to have a rough sleeping or street drinking ‘problem’.

What difference do Scotland’s legal rights to housing make to homelessness?

July 31, 2014 Leave a Comment

Watch an interview with team member Dr Beth Watts as she discusses the impact Scotland’s legal rights to housing have on homeless people and the outcomes of homelessness policy.

This interview comes from a series of videos highlighting plenaries given at the European Network for Housing Research Conference. Further information and videos can be found on the I-SPHERE Research and Policy Blog.

Latest Comments

You also have an exact and clear idea of how all this affects people who are actually caught up in it. Unfortunately, the people who are responsible for these policies and decisions have never had to deal with it so there is no understanding and no empathy. We are losing our humanity in today's society.
Jeanette Smith posted this comment on Bedroom tax, benefit cuts and sanctions – the fear factor and the cumulative effects

Why would people then bother to make a home and spend money on it? We have to get away from this mindset that has now taken hold that Social Housing.....hate that term, is just temporary to suit your immediate needs. People should not have to up sticks all the time because a child gets older etc. When the old system was in place ie older people with larger homes than they needed they were offered incentives to downsize. In the 90's more Older peoples accommodation was built. Bungalows, Sheltered Housing etc. People were given help with removal costs. This has all changed. To make someone move from a home they have been in for years is cruel if it is not voluntary. I have been in my home since it was built. My daughter moved out as she should when grown up to make her own home. So after 23 years with roots well and truly down, should I be made to move? I have my granddaughter to stay. My daughter's room is now for her and was also an office when I worked from home. I could not fit my home into a small 1 bedroom flat. I do not want people living above me. This idea that if you live in Social Housing it is just accommodation but if you own it is your home is totally wrong. My parents moved willingly into Sheltered Housing but the change affected them drastically. My dad became stressed and ill and died a year later and my mother never settled and died a few years later. This was because they uprooted themselves and left their home and all the memories and familiar surroundings. Unfortunately like most issues these days, the humanity is being taken out of it.
Jeanette Smith posted this comment on The fear factor - Bedroom Tax and benefit cuts

Great resources on linking welfare sanction and conditionally and key social policy considerations with human rights principles (including dignity, non-discrimination). These considerations have a huge impact in narratives around poverty and vulnerability, and should be closely looked at by policy decision-makers and street-level bureaucrats.
Alexandra Barrantes posted this comment on International conference - presentations

Ok. I don’t agree with the bedroom tax but I do feel it would be a better option if housing rules were changed. For example why do they wait until kids are over 10 until giving families two bedrooms? Then I also think housing should be fit for purpose so I believe when they move someone from a one bedroom to a 2 or 3 it should be with the understanding only until the children grow up and leave home then they should have their Tennancy moved back to something more suitable again like a one bedroom.
Tabatha Gracie posted this comment on The fear factor - Bedroom Tax and benefit cuts

A fine well written and clear example of what is broken in our welfare system. They are asking for submission for the next select committee meeting on welfare and I would submit this post if it were my choice. It is a vicious cycle for some who have no chance of finding work however hard they might try. It is the employers who ultimately make the decision if employees are fit and ready to work, not the DWP. Having a budget of £2 per day for food , job searching activities, keeping your appearance and strength up, and having to jump through hoops and tick boxes on all those strength zapping, soul destroying schemes courses and programs that do nothing but heap yet even more pressure and stress. The affects of stress on both mental and physical health are well documented and nothing can be more stressful than not knowing week in, week out, that your hand to mouth existence is constantly at risk. Sanctions are death sentences for some, no getting away from that fact, those charged with administrating the regime should hang their heads in shame, it is those who should make the stand to bring about change. Or do they deceive themselves into believing long time shirker Jim who they sanctioned last month and who has not been seen again at the local JCP, Is now enjoying the fruits of his labor thanks to the Works Coaches helpful push they so desperately needed. So clearly sanctions work and a good done job done by me, high five everyone.
paul posted this comment on Bedroom tax, benefit cuts and sanctions – the fear factor and the cumulative effects