The UK homelessness epidemic – radical roots needing radical solutions

• Authors: Shrubb, Richard

Abstracts

EN

Using newspaper articles, government and charity reports and other secondary sources, this paper looks at the new problem of widespread homelessness brought about by the UK austerity economic policy after 2010. It assesse the growth of the problem due in particular to the re-engineering of welfare benefits. Looking at those who have fallen through the net, the paper focuses on the ability of local authorities to use the law to decline to support those presenting as homeless, including those released from prison. Addressing punitive measures taken by local authorities and law enforcement agencies, it highlights the difficulties faced by those targeted by such agencies. In the final section I look at two contrasting models of policy vis-à-vis homeless people – those in use in the United States and in Finland. The UK neither officially countenances homeless camps, as in the US, nor offers housing as a right, as in Finland. Drawing on an accusation made by Chris Glover in a December 2018 academic paper, I conclude that Friedrich Engels 1844 concept of social murder has been committed against thousands of people in an act of a term I coin as ‘Classism’. This act of class war against the most vulnerable has made many thousands more homeless and in precarious housing.

Keywords

EN

UK homelessness; UK austerity; Universal Credit; welfare reform

• Publisher: Akademia Pedagogiki Specjalnej im. Marii Grzegorzewskiej. Wydawnictwo APS
• Journal: Praca Socjalna
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 35(1)
• Pages: 13-34

Dates

published

2020-04-22

Contributors

author

Shrubb, Richard

Identifiers

DOI

10.5604/01.3001.0014.1172