ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts of the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book looks at some of the ways in which the homeless have been both romanticized and criminalized over successive centuries, with similar themes, policies and practices emerging over and again. Furthermore, political debate, legislative change and media hype notwithstanding, the exigencies of survival remain much the same as they have always been: the acquisition by some means or other of the essentials of food, clothing and shelter. Away from the cities, rural discontent and protest commanded media attention following the Countryside marches of 1997 and 1998, and the existence of rural social problems began to be more widely acknowledged. Rural homelessness, it was noted in the quality press, was increasing more rapidly than in urban and metropolitan areas. Key social policy and criminal justice developments of the early-1990s were continued later in the decade.
