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 CHP
at a glance |
International review of homelessness
This international comparative survey of homelessness and social housing policy is a desk-based project - its main research method being the circulation of a questionnaire to country experts in each of the 11 countries surveyed (in addition to England).
The extent and nature of homelessness, the policy responses to it, as well as the role of the social rented sector, all depend on wider social and economic systems. For this reason, the selection of countries was drawn from four groups to reflect the role of homelessness and social housing policy within different social and economic systems:
English-speaking countries: Like England (and the wider UK), the United States (US),Canada and Australia have relatively deregulated labour markets, and also like the UK, the US experienced rapidly rising levels of poverty and inequality in the 1980s and 1990s. Unlike England, Australia, Canada and (especially) the US have small social rented sectors, and in the US the income maintenance federal safety net has been weakened with its conversion into a block grant programme in 1996, which specifies time-limits to eligibility, albeit with some flexibility, to funding under this programme.
West European countries: The Netherlands and – especially– Sweden are often held out as exemplars of social democratic countries, with generous and universal social services helping to maintain internationally low levels of poverty and inequality.
France and Germany also managed to avoid the large rises in inequality seen in the English-speaking countries, partly through highly regulated labour markets, although the price of this seems to have been relatively high unemployment. Germany has experienced additional social and economic problems arising from unification in 1990. France retains a significant social rented sector (20%), although Germany’s has now shrunk to around 7 per cent within the context of possessing the EU’s largest private rented sector (over 40%).
Southern Europe: Like its neighbours, Spain did not develop a strong welfare state, and instead relied more heavily on labour market regulation and welfare delivered through the extended family, and through charities. Levels of poverty and unemployment are high.
Central European countries : The transition from socialism has entailed fundamental changes in countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, with many social and economic institutions having to be created or recreated. Economic transition has brought a degree of social disruption and homelessness has emerged as an issue to be tackled in all three of these countries.