Social work and homelessness

Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 13 February, 2023

Homelessness is a social work issue. BASW UK’s anti-poverty campaign, launched last year, called on the government to freeze evictions during the cost of living crisis to prevent further homelessness, recognising that this will likely lead to increased safeguarding risk and rising demand on social care services. People and families who face homelessness often do so as a result of underlying and unmet support needs.

Homelessness is a social justice issue. Homelessness charity Crisis surveyed low-income households across Great Britain last year, assessing the impact of the cost of living crisis on housing insecurity. Structural inequality and discrimination were highlighted. The survey finding that people from Black, Asian and other racialised and minoritised groups were twice as likely as people who identified as white to be facing eviction this winter.

People with previous experience of homelessness were two and a half times more likely than others to report this.

Homeless adults require social work support. Guidance on social work with families who are homeless or have housing needs was published in partnership with BASW England in 2022. It highlighted the crucial role of social work in advocating for marginalised families and using statutory powers to support them. Similar guidance for social work with homeless adults isn’t currently available. But this does not mean that social work can’t play an equally vital role. Navigating housing services is more challenging for single adults, particularly when homelessness legislation does not confer automatic priority need and/or where entitlement to housing assistance rests on notions of intentionality. The number of adults rough sleeping across Britain is increasing. Homelessness features highly in Safeguarding Adults Reviews. However, social workers express uncertainty about whether homelessness falls within the remit of adult social care.

Top tips for social work practice:

• Signpost effectively. Homeless people often approach non-housing agencies such as mental health, social care and substance use services for support before presenting to the local authority for housing assistance. Find out how your local authority’s housing department works. Are they accepting walk ins? Do you need to call first? What are the opening hours? Then give correct advice. It feels utterly defeating to be told to present to the council only to be turned away at the door. Most housing departments are only open 9am-5pm Mon to Friday, however there will be an out-of-hours emergency housing phone number with a duty worker who can authorise short-term temporary accommodation for the night/weekend. Find out that number and offer support to call it when necessary. If your service has a list of shelters that is given out to homeless people regularly check that the shelters are still operational. ‘Direct access’ hostels are broadly a thing of the past. Check referral routes.
• Remember the importance of legal literacy. Social workers must be legally literate (NISCC Standards of Conduct and Practice, Social Care Wales Practice Guidance, SSSC Code of Practice, SWE Professional Standards). Social workers aren’t expected to have an intimate knowledge of all legislation, or to act as housing officers. However, a knowledge of basic relevant housing law will improve the advice, guidance and support that you provide homeless adults. If you work in England a good place to start is here
• Advocate. Provide letters or information to support the person’s housing application. If your nation’s law assesses duty to house based on priority need then provide evidence of how any care and support needs or medical conditions will impact the person’s ability to cope when homeless and/or make the person more likely to experience harm. In England priority need is assessed in relation to “vulnerability” and whether the person is more vulnerable than “the ordinary person” in need of accommodation (Hotak v Southwark LBC: Kanu v Southwark LBC : Johnson v Solihull MBC [2015] UKSC 30). Tailor supporting letters to address this test. If a housing officer has assessed the person as having made themselves intentionally homeless, explore the circumstances with the person. I’ve seen acute psychosis, cuckooing, and acting in self-defence all interpreted as deliberate anti-social behaviour and evidence of intentionality. Provide support to challenge intentionality decisions that haven’t taken account of the person’s full circumstances. If the person has no recourse to public funds and is therefore is not eligible for local authority housing support explore other statutory powers. In England the Localism Act 2011 s1 and the Care Act 2014 s19 give the local authority powers to provide services in order to prevent a breach of human rights.
• Leave value judgements at the door. A common thread throughout Safeguarding Adult Reviews relating to deaths of homeless adults is the role of unconscious bias or unhelpful notions of “lifestyle choice” in shaping an unsatisfactory response from services. People with frequent or long periods of homelessness and people who are street homeless can be labelled as “challenging to engage” or refusing help. But long-term homelessness is rarely just a housing issue. The term “Multiple Exclusion Homelessness” (MEH) is used to describe the overlap of experiences of homelessness with other areas of social exclusion. There is a strong overlap between street homelessness and other support needs and experiences of severe and complex trauma dating back to early childhood are common. Theresa McDonagh in her 2011 research review Tackling homelessness and exclusion: understanding complex lives notes that there is a high risk of people experiencing MEH falling through the gaps in service provision. Researchers Glen Bramley, Suzanne Fitzpatrick and others identify that the high level of need lies in the “multiplicity and interlocking nature of these issues and their cumulative impact”, rather than the severity of any one specific issue. This poses a problem for services that are increasingly siloed and aggressively gate-kept due to over a decade of austerity politics. Is it the person or the service that is challenging to engage? And whose responsibility is it anyway?
• Consider whether the person is unwilling or unable to maintain a tenancy, to complete a housing application and/or to attend appointments. Resolving homelessness requires a high level of executive function. Justice Cobb, presiding over a 2020 Court of Protection case, said “the ability to think, act, and solve problems, including the functions of the brain which help us learn new information, remember and retrieve the information we’ve learned in the past, and use this information to solve problems of everyday life”. Executive dysfunction can be caused by a wide range of conditions including alcohol related brain injury, autism, psychosis and complex trauma. These conditions are more prevalent in the homeless population than the general population. Executive dysfunction can lead to a person being unable to follow through with previously agreed plans. In England and Wales there’s an increasing body of Court of Protection case law relating to this issue, described as executive capacity. Executive capacity is neatly summarised by clinical psychologist Dr Emma Cameron and Mental Capacity Act trainer James Codling as the ability to “talk the talk” and “walk the walk”. Executive capacity considers the “material time” at which a person needs to make a decision (MCA s2(1)), which is often at some point in the future, outside of a capacity assessment with professionals. Someone who experiences executive dysfunction might be able to “talk the talk” with professionals, but be unable to “walk the walk” and implement the information when necessary, and therefore lack executive capacity. Before deciding that someone is deliberately not following professional advice or has chosen to subject themselves to destitution, make sure that an impairment of, or disturbance in the functioning of, the mind or brain isn’t impacting the person’s executive function and therefore their ability to use and weigh information.

Lizzie Furber is the principal social worker with DCC Interactive Ltd, delivering training to the health and social care sector and has a decade’s experience working with adults experiencing Multiple Exclusion Homelessness