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Rebalancing the rhetoric: A normative analysis of enforcement in street homelessness policy

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah Johnsen

    (Heriot-Watt University, UK)

  • Beth Watts

    (Heriot-Watt University, UK)

  • Suzanne Fitzpatrick

    (Heriot-Watt University, UK)

Abstract

Street homelessness policies often provoke great intensity of feeling, especially when they include elements of force. This paper considers the moral case stakeholders present for and against enforcement in street homelessness policies via a series of philosophically informed normative ‘lenses’, including paternalist, utilitarian, rights-based, contractualist, mutualist and social justice perspectives. Drawing on in-depth qualitative research in six UK cities, it highlights the disparity between the condemnatory portrayals of enforcement dominant in academic and media discourses, and the more complex and/or ambivalent views held by practitioners and homeless people ‘on the ground’. It concludes that an analytical framework that pays systematic attention to this span of normative lenses can facilitate more constructive, even if still ‘difficult’, conversations about policy interventions in this exceptionally sensitive area.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Johnsen & Beth Watts & Suzanne Fitzpatrick, 2021. "Rebalancing the rhetoric: A normative analysis of enforcement in street homelessness policy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(2), pages 355-371, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:58:y:2021:i:2:p:355-371
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098019898369
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paz-Fuchs, Amir, 2008. "Welfare to Work: Conditional Rights in Social Policy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199237418.
    2. Glen Bramley & Suzanne Fitzpatrick, 2018. "Homelessness in the UK: who is most at risk?," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 96-116, January.
    3. Suzanne Fitzpatrick & Mark Stephens, 2014. "Welfare Regimes, Social Values and Homelessness: Comparing Responses to Marginalised Groups in Six European Countries," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 215-234, March.
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