Effective systems to end homelessness

The objective of this chapter is to provide a conceptual framework of the dynamics of homelessness, drawing on key lessons from research, and how these lessons can inform, through mutual learning and collaboration, the configuration of practices and policies in devising effective systems to end homelessness. Social science research has clearly demonstrated that the experience of homelessness is a dynamic process and that those who experience homelessness are not randomly distributed across the population but are part of a larger population of disadvantaged households, for whom housing precarity and insecurity is omnipresent. Given this understanding of homelessness, effective systems to end homelessness must orientate towards changing the ‘homelessness system’ (that is the assemblage of services and policies that respond to those experiencing homelessness) rather than ‘changing people’ This is driven by an evidence-based understanding that homelessness is solvable, when the appropriate policies and practices are in place, rather than an unresolvable ‘wicked problem’ as sometime portrayed. The objective of effective homelessness systems should be to prevent entries to homelessness in the first instance. For those that do experience homelessness, the objective should be to provide appropriate temporary accommodation to prevent literal homelessness, and to minimise the duration of stay in such accommodation by rapidly exiting households to secure affordable housing, with support if required, thus reducing the likelihood of a further experience of homelessness and allowing for the reduction of costly emergency accommodation and the alleviation of the individual trauma associated with a spell of homelessness