ABSTRACT
H Halfway house A term not widely used now, but one usage describes residential provision (possibly as a base from which residents depart for daily work - see hostels) which offers service and conditions 'between' those of full residential life and life in the 'normal' community. Developed first as a provision in relation to mental hospitals, one of their serious organisational problems was to ensure the flow of residents into independent social life. The term has also been used in a housing context to refer to sub-standard council housing in which families live a waiting life until standard council housing is available. In relation to other groups it has become almost a synonym for the small hostel, different from the hospital or large institution and 'not quite like home'.
