ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on government policies to deal with homelessness such as 'Housing first' that has been one of the most popular policy approaches to homelessness in many countries. It describes the evidence on the impact of different approaches and the influence of different housing regimes on the incidence of homelessness and success in dealing with it. The 'main homelessness duty' of local authorities in England is to provide temporary accommodation until 'settled' housing becomes available, found either by the household itself or by the local authority. The Labour administration that came to power in 1997 largely reversed the 1996 Act via the Homelessness Act 2002 and secondary legislation, and expanded the priority need groups and introduced a new duty on local authorities to prepare homelessness strategies. The impact of homelessness on homeless people themselves and the wider population puts pressure on governments to intervene to prevent homelessness and deal with it when it occurs.
