ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a critique of the new provisions through a consideration of whether they put into practice the government's rationales for reforming the homelessness legislation as stated in the 1994 Consultation Paper. It focuses on how far the reforms made in the 1996 Act will assist homeless applicants who have community care needs, who fall within the scope of the Children Act, have suffered from racial harassment, and are female and have suffered from male violence. The basic scheme of the 1996 Act is that the homelessness legislation should provide for short-term needs. The new homelessness legislation builds on the old so that the enquiries required to be made by the homeless persons units only differ from those of the 1985 Act in a few respects. The 1996 Act was supposedly required because too many homelessness applicants were jumping the housing queue and there were others in the housing queue who had greater needs.
