ABSTRACT
Public housing investment programmes have been severely hit, and the homelessness problem has got drastically worse. One other response to homelessness, and a makeshift expedient at that, has been an official tolerance towards 'squatting' in short-life empty property by recognised squatters' groups. Moreover, official reliance on voluntary initiative can give local authorities an excuse to do nothing themselves, and voluntary organisations like the Cyrenians and St Mungo's are too small to make a real impact on a vast social problem. The policy of the Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher since taking office in 1979 has been to look to voluntary organisations to offer shelter for special groups like the young and alcoholics, and to housing associations to fill the gap caused by the decline in the private rented sector. The government's espousal of voluntarism has led it to plan the closure of the Reception Centres and disperse the down-and-outs into small, therapeutic hostels.
