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Introduction: Themed Section on Exploring Multiple Exclusion Homelessness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2011

Peter Dwyer  and
Peter Somerville
Peter Dwyer
Affiliation:
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, University of Salford E-mail: p.j.dwyer@salford.ac.uk
Peter Somerville
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, University of Lincoln E-mail: psomerville@lincoln.ac.uk
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Extract

Many of New Labour's welfare initiatives were underpinned by a stated desire to combat social exclusion among disadvantaged sections of the population. Allied to this, a commitment to end street homelessness/rough sleeping was an enduring feature of their term in office (for example SEU, 1998; DCLG, 2008). Of course, concerns about social exclusion predate New Labour, and a lack of meaningful involvement in many key areas of wider social life (for example, democratic and legal systems, the labour market, the welfare state, familial and (local) community networks) have long been identified as symptomatic of social exclusion (Commins, 1993). Previous research has also noted that homelessness rarely occurs in isolation and that many homeless people often carry with them a variety of other problems and experiences. It is clear that many homeless people experience ‘exclusion across more than one domain or dimension of disadvantage, resulting in severe negative consequences for [their] quality of life, well-being and future life chances’ (Levitas et al., 2007: 9), and, as such, can be viewed as experiencing multiple and/or deep social exclusion. This situation has been recognised by Carter (2007) who, noting a lack of resources, rights and opportunities, adopts the phrase ‘multiple exclusion homelessness’ (MEH) as a shorthand term to characterise the reality of many homeless peoples’ lives.

Type
Themed Section on Exploring Multiple Exclusion Homelessness
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , October 2011 , pp. 495 - 500
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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