ABSTRACT
Several vulnerable groups can be identified in urban-industrial society as having special housing needs, and requiring specialized help in housing. Most numerous of these groups are the frail elderly. Rather more recently the mentally ill, the mentally handicapped, the physically disabled, and the terminally ill (notably AIDS sufferers) have been identified as other special groups. The policy of closing large institutions for a number of these dependent groups has transferred many people out of hospital into alternative forms of ‘community care’. In reality this puts many of them into rundown ‘ghetto’ areas of cities. Housing options (e.g. hostels) that are available are likely to be heavily concentrated in the decaying cores of large cities (Dear and Wolch, 1987). Living a genuinely independent life on meagre resouces may in such circumstances be simply impossible.
