Homelessness Policies in the UK and Their Effects

rooflessness Policies in the UK and Their EffectsIntroductionThe issue of unsettledness and poverty in ecumenic atomic number 18 alwaswill always be on the forefront of national legislation. Although in that location pitch been recent claims from as far back as 2005 that unsettledness is in slow decline inside the linked Kingdom, statistics do not necessarily support these claims. This specific policy depth psychology will seek to cut through several foundational questions on the issue of unsettledness within the unite Kingdom. The focus of this depth psychology will be to assess the certain homelessness situation within the United Kingdom, detail past and present policies and their impact upon the homelessness job and propose realistic solutions to these problems. The key questions that will be answered includeHow many homeless are their in the United Kingdom?What are current and past policy decisions within this arena?What are the impact of these policies and thei r death penalty?What proposed remedies are at that place to the homelessness situation?BackgroundStatistics on the reality of the homelessness situation within the United Kingdom is extremely voiceless to assess. The transient nature of the homeless universe makes them difficult to track especially with the number of people who sleep in living rooms, squatters, and other times of pro tem accommodations. accredited the most right statistics on homelessness comes from the 1996 hold feat, which defines statutory homelessness or people who apply for homelessness avail with topical anaesthetic anesthetic regime and who fit below the current legislative exposition of homelessness. Between 2005 and 2006, there has been 193,690 households who have applied for assistance chthonic the lodging work on. From that population only 139,760 were found to be licitly homeless under the statutory definition (Housing and the Homeless, 2005). The same study found that 93,910 households w ere under temporary assistance by June of 2006. From statutory homelessness statistics, many politicians have argued that homelessness as an institutional problem is declining. Although these statements are supported by statistics, the reality is that much of homelessness is hide and unaccounted for. First, there is a large segment of the homeless population who are rough sleeping, this can be loosely defined as individuals who are sleeping in public areas and out of doors. Rough sleepers are extremely difficult to track and through last formal counts add up at 502 in London alone (Homelessness, 2005). Another method of trailing homelessness is through supported accommodations, specifically within hostels. The mass of hostels accept the homeless, current figures place supported accommodations at under 47,000 household units (Homelessness Pages, 2006). The most difficult of all of these categories to track are the conceal homeless. The majority of these homeless individuals who do not show up in official figures, all because they have never applied for trapping before, do not limit under legal definitions, families that find temporary solutions for this problem, or squatters. The level of hidden homelessness is especially troubling because the inability to accurately measure their number prevents the administration from promoting legislation to meet this social problem. The New Policy Institute conducted query on this issue in 2003. They estimated that there are currently anyplace amidst 310,000 and 380,000 hidden homeless people within the United Kingdom.Current legislation on homelessness can be accounted for in the Housing Act of 1996 and the Homelessness Act of 2002, both of which attempts to engage with the homelessness. The Housing Act of 1996 was the first official recognition of the homelessness problem. It went as far as to supply a legal statutory definition of homelessness and provided specific agendas for lodgment allocation among the homeless, placing the responsibility of housing assistance upon local anaesthetic authorities. This policy was a major step to recognizing the problem, withal it is was extremely ineffective in its intended purpose. As the above statistics indicate, the majority of the homelessness cannot be easily tracked and do not formally call forth requests for political sympathiesal aid. AT the same time, many homeless were not desirable under the Housing Act and thus were left unaccounted for. National statistics showed that the homeless problem was declining, by the late 1990s, however, the reality of the situation was that the majority of the homeless were merely left unreported. To confront the new challenges posed by the Housing Act, the Homelessness Act of 2002 was passed.The Homelessness Act has been hailed as a sweeping reform of homelessness and a long term implementation of solutions for this problem. Its focus has been on placing ferocity on local authorities to review homeles sness within their localities, local implementation and review of strategies, and reforms within the framework of how councils themselves allocate housing. Several key changes to the Homeless Act was that it broadened both the definition of homelessness since the Housing Act, and also broadened the responsibilities of local authorities as well. The definition was extended to including those over the age of sixteen, rough sleeping, as well as a formal attempt to find families under temporary housing arrangements. Although this policy has much broader application and resources, it still is an meager response to the current state of homelessness. Currently local authorities insufficiency integration with national level agencies to respond to the problems of homelessness, the lack of coordination on a national level with local agencies causes red-tape delays that often allow homeless families to be left without aid. Another key area is that this policy lacks support provisions, local authorities do not necessarily have the capacities to assess mickle and implement an operational strategy to provide temporary and permanently housing for those in need. Finally, the Housing Act does not provide a complete implementation methodology for solution local area homelessness because they lack the resources and works knowledge to tackle this problem.FindingsCurrent understanding of homelessness is limited because of the inability of government agencies to account for all homeless populations.Large number of unidentified and unaccounted for homelessness within the UKPolicies within this arena are not specific enough to deal with the current crisisThere is a need for bi-lateral and multi-agency cooperation for progressive problem solvingLocal support and operations services are lacking because of resource and knowledge limitationsPreventive measures are not fully implementable, the root problem of homelessness are not being dealt withConclusionThe only way to provide for definitive solutions for the homelessness crisis to extend our current understanding of the limits of the homelessness problem. Data collection and definitional analysis of homelessness is severely lacking and progress needs to be made at a local level. While certain policy provisions have been enacted to help this problem, the reality is that the Homelessness Act of 2002 have done little to bring down the core problems of homelessness. There are many other policy considerations hand over provisions for mult-agency collaboration to provide for a support network between national and local authorities.Create comprehensive support system for local authorities to operationally provide temporary housing and assistance to those in need.Create a preventive taskforce to understand core of homelessness within local communities and to operationally eliminate these problems.ReferencesPolicy and information. Homeless Link. 25 July 2007 http//www.homeless.org.uk/policyandinfo. Homelessness Act Implementation. Homelessness Act 2002. 25 July 2007http//www.homelessnessact.org.uk/index.cfm?message=Please%20register%20as%20a%20member%20to%20access%20this%20page%20or%20contact%20Shelter%20for%20more%20information%2EfrmLinkpage=%2FReviews%2Findex%2D7%2Df0%2Ecfm. Housing and Homelessness. Homelessness Pages. 25 July 2007 http//www.homelesspages.org.uk/faqs/..%5Cprods%5Cproducts.asp?prid=218. Homelessness Act 2002 Homelessness Pages. 25 July 2007 http//www.homelesspages.org.uk/faqs/..%5Cprods%5Cproducts.asp?prid=218.Local authorities and the homelessness act. Shelter. 25 July 2007 http//england.shelter.org.uk/policy/policy-960.cfm.