STATUTES: The Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977
| Date | 01 March 1978 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1978.tb00795.x |
| Published date | 01 March 1978 |
| Author | Richard De Friend |
STATUTES
THE
HOUSING (HOMELESS PERSONS) ACT 1977
THE
shift of primary responsibility for the homeless from social
services to housing departments effected by this statute seems to
indicate that, for the first time, it is officially recognised that what
has been described
as
the
“
disaster
”
of homelessness is essentially
a problem
of
housing policy and of the structure
of
the housing
market rather than one of the personal inadequacies and behavioural
failings
of
the homeless themselves.
However, the Aot pvides n-g like a mprehensive solution
to the problem
of
homelessness
as
a whole. Its main beneficiaries
are likely
$0
be
homedm
fasailw
but
it
is
pmible
that it
will
(leave
them
fw)
batter off-and,
in
some respmts, even worse off-than they
were before. This
is
partly due
to
wd-orgambed opposition from
district
munds
and Conservative M.P.s, who managed to amend
the Bill cderably
cm
its
pasage through Parl~iiammt, and
partly
to
limJitahim
imposed by the We of Guidance,2 published by the
Department
of
Envjrocnment,
ti0
which
all
Id
authonitks must
have regard in exercising their functions under the Act.
If
the Act
does indeed fail it will be because it fails to comprehend the complex
nature of the problem
of
homdessness.
To
some extent this obviously
represents a “pupeful ignorance” on the
pant
of
successive
governments which have been rductant
to
provide Ithe resources
which
a
mmprehensive sorlutim
to
the problem wuld demand.
Equally, howeveT,
this
failure
60
undelmtand the nature
of
the ovemll
problem might stem from the concentration of the media and
academic reseamhem upon
dy
two rdated aspects
of
the problem:
the vast increase in the number of families who have had to apply
to ld authwi6ies for temporary accammodation and the inad-
equate nature
of
the &tame whiah (they cbamateristically
received.
The Problem
of
Homelessness
(a)
The size
of
the homeless population
In 1971 Greve estimated that in inner London the number of
people living in local authority temporary accommodation had risen
from
a
pt-war low
(of
abut 1,500
in
1955
to
9,000
in
1970 and by
150 per cent. between 1960 and 1968. Although Greve and other
wnitm have suggested ;that hmdessness hm traditiondy been
most acute in London, he shows that during the same period the
numbers living in temporary accommodation grew even faster (by
195 per cent.) in other urban areas and by over 100 per cent. in the
~
1
See
R. Bailey,
The Homeless and Empty Houses
(1977),
Chap.
2.
2
See
DOE Circular
116177
and
DOE,
Housing (Homeless Persons)
Act
1977,
Code
of
Guidance.
173
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