Comparing rights based & non-rights based approaches to homelessness

1. A comparison of Scotland & the Republic of Ireland Comparing rights based & non-rights based approaches to homelessness Beth Watts University of York bw577@york.ac.uk HSA Conference, 14th April 2011

2. Introduction • Rights based approaches to homelessness are popular • Global/national; natural/socially constructed; moral/legal; enforceable/unenforceable; abstract/specific? • Housing as a human right (moral framework) • Specific and enforceable legal rights to housing (policy tool) • Do enforceable legal rights to housing for homeless people achieve good outcomes?

3. Research questions • Do legal rights to housing for homeless households ameliorate the stigma that can be associated with accessing statutory services targeted at specific ‘needy’ groups? • To what extent do legal rights to housing for homeless households empower service users? • Do legal rights to housing for homeless households mean that those in greatest need access suitable housing? • Do legal rights to housing for homeless households create an adversarial climate and/or divert time and resource into legal process and away from tackling housing need? • Are the perverse incentives created by legal rights to housing for homeless people acted upon by homeless households?

4. Scotland’s rights based approach • Homelessness Task Force established in 1999, final report 2002 • Landmark legislation in 2001/2003 • Phasing out of ‘priority need’ category by 2012 • Scottish Executive received Human Rights Award in recognition of these reforms

5. Ireland’s ‘social partnership’ approach • Approach developed since the mid 1990s in response to failure of 1988 Housing Act • Stakeholder negotiation and deliberation: a problem solving and consensual approach • Authoritative government coordination through homelessness strategies, key legislation and evaluation • Transparency and monitoring: ratcheting up of standards • Sustained political will and significant investment (€53.4m in 2011)

6. Method: Comparative qualitative research

7. Emerging themes • Stigma • No consensus that legal rights help weaken stigma. Some concern they could exacerbate it • Stigma attached to homelessness itself (as well as mental health issues, addiction etc) not nature of policy response. • Empowerment • Conceptual/definitional issues • Service user involvement; choice; ‘structural empowerment’; a sense of entitlement? • Housing need • Legal rights don’t eliminate competition for scarce resources • But do they lead to fairer outcomes? • Rights place focus on resolving homelessness (settled accommodation) as opposed to managing homelessness.

8. Emerging themes • Legalistic and adversarial? Scotland misunderstood. • Consensus and adversary in both systems. • Consensual, problem solving approach consistent with and possible within framework of legal rights. • Scottish legislation led to surge in acceptances which led to innovation and focus on prevention, problem solving and ‘housing options’. • Legal challenges are rare; service user awareness of legal rights not key; internal reviews and regulator as (more?) important as legal redress.

9. Emerging themes • Perverse incentives • Series of perverse incentives within the Scottish system. • Distinction between perverse incentive existing; perverse incentive being acted upon and perverse incentive undermining entire system. • Perverse incentives will be created where there is allocation based on need, not only in systems based on legal rights. Concerns in Ireland about unintended consequences of service expansion.