‘Someone to Watch over Me’: Making Supported Housing Work
| Published date | 01 September 2005 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0964663905054910 |
| Date | 01 September 2005 |
| Author | Helen Carr |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
‘SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER
ME’: MAKING SUPPORTED
HOUSING WORK
HELEN CARR
London Metropolitan University, UK
ABSTRACT
Hostels and other forms of housing where support services are provided as an intrin-
sic part of the accommodation package have traditionally been developed by the
voluntary sector at a distance from conditional state welfare. Supporting People is an
innovative and ambitious programme which in effect annexes supported housing and,
in return for a commitment to improved provision, promises certainty of income and
professional prestige. Supporting People provides an example of contemporary social
policy. It attempts to address both the failures of the ‘old’ welfare state and the
anxieties of the neo-liberal state. It does this through a distinct ‘third way’ form of
regulation which extends new public management practices into a new regulatory
arena and places a particular emphasis on ‘joined-up’ thinking, risk management and
the ideological pragmatism of ‘what works’. This has particular consequences for the
diverse range of both providers and residents who are disciplined through a variety
of mechanisms to deliver social progress for the state.
KEY WORDS
consumerism; regulation; risk; social policy; supported housing; welfare state
INTRODUCTION
THE NATION state’s role in the provision of welfare has been subject to
traumatic dislocations and reformulations over the past 30 years as a
result of profound social, economic and political transformations.
Modern liberal governments have abandoned ‘collective welfare’ as un-
affordable or politically discredited and have developed different priorities
consistent with the new global economy. At the same time the more
SOCIAL &LEGAL STUDIES Copyright © 2005 SAGE Publications
London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi, www.sagepublications.com
0964 6639, Vol. 14(3), 387–408
DOI: 10.1177/0964663905054910
04 054910 Carr (bc-s) 12/7/05 3:22 pm Page 387
traditional social processes through which a society sustains itself are unrav-
elling (Perrons, 2004) exacerbating social exclusion. The state’s role in the
provision of housing provides an interesting exemplar of the dynamics of
these changes. As Cowan and Marsh (forthcoming) indicate, social housing
is symbolic of the neo-liberal dilemma. Workers must be housed, but in a
way which facilitates movement and enhances individual responsibility.
However, the collapse of right-wing liberal regimes such as the Major
government of 1992–7 demonstrates that it is a high-risk strategy to abandon
those who for a variety of reasons cannot choose to participate in the global
economy. Both compassion and fear are aroused in the electorate. Yet
economic logic militates against generous or permanent provision. These
tensions have led to the transformation of rented housing in England and
Wales. It has become increasingly deregulated, casualized (Morgan, 1996) and
controlled (see, for instance, Cowan, 1999; Card, 2001; Hunter, 2001).
This article tracks a specific aspect of this transformation, the regulation
of the housing of vulnerable people and, in particular, the emerging regu-
latory framework for the provision of supported housing set up by New
Labour through its Supporting People initiative. Supporting People has a
peculiarly complex and ambitious agenda. It attempts to address perceived
deficiencies of the old welfare settlement, most specifically its failure to
provide homes for vulnerable people (Stewart et al., 1999), as well as its more
general failure to spend public money prudently. Simultaneously it seeks to
address the inadequacies of the neo-liberal response. ‘Rolling back the state’
had a profound impact on the housing of vulnerable people as a result of care
in the community and the ‘residualization’ of social housing (Forrest and
Murie, 1991; Cowan, 1999). Equally important, however, Supporting People
is designed to provide a distinct ‘third way’ form of regulation. It represents
an extension and intensification of new public management practices into
new regulatory arenas, with particular emphasis placed on ‘joined-up’
thinking, risk management and the ideological pragmatism of ‘what works’.
However, Supporting People makes other claims to more social agendas such
as care, protection, and empowerment. It is a totalizing discourse which
promises progress and appears unchallengeable.
In many ways the problematization of supported housing which led to
Supporting People is surprising. Provision prior to the election of New
Labour had many of the characteristics of a successful neo-liberal social
policy. It provided a community solution to particular local needs delivered
by a mixed economy of welfare. Indeed, in Britain during the 1980s, ‘special
needs’ became ‘an integral part of the market model of provision advanced by
Conservative governments, who increasingly regard it as the only “legitimate”
claim on welfare rights that can be exercised through housing policy’
(Clapham and Smith, 1990: 195). Yet during the 1990s there gradually
emerged a shared understanding that in some ways supported housing was
‘out of control’ and constituted a problem.
Jacobs, Kemeny and Manzi (2003) have alerted us to the need to consider
‘the process whereby certain issues become accepted and defined as “housing
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