A Hand up not a Hand Out': The Labour Governments and Street Homelessness, 1997-2010

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In 2008 Boris Johnson pledged in his Mayoral address to bring an end to rough sleeping in London, but since 2010 the numbers of rough sleepers has increased by 169%. In contrast, in 2002 the Labour administration was able to declare that it had reduced street homelessness nationally by two-thirds, and the numbers continued to decline during the remainder of their term in office. This project examines the measures undertaken by New Labour that enabled this dramatic reduction and will explore the reasons why it was not sustained.It will explore the efficacy of the inter-linked strategies employed by Labour, in areas such as the long term support of resettled homeless people, 'assertive outreach' and co-ordination with law enforcement over street culture in order to locate rough sleeping policy within Labour's wider social exclusion agenda.It will evaluate the critique that Labour's programme provided only short-term solutions by warehousing homeless people in hostels, and build on the peer-led research by St Mungos (2018) that highlighted failures in support services, social isolation and inappropriate accommodation as causes of a return to rough sleeping. In light of the failure to sustain the reduction in street homelessness, it will assess the contrasting views on the success of coercive strategies (Randall and Brown 2002; Fitzpatrick (2001 & 2005) and centralised target-setting and supervision of voluntary sector agencies (Pierce 2010, May 2006).The impact of the wider political and economic context will be examined, exploring the interactions between in third way policies under Blair and Brown and changes in both the political climate and the housing and labour markets.Central to the project is a determination to restore the voices of homeless people themselves to the narrative through use of oral history archives and interviews. Prior to entering academia I spent ten years working with homeless people, running projects for rough sleepers and subsequently managing a housing advice service for a London local authority. Utilising a wealth of personal contacts, interviews with key practitioners in national and local government and thevoluntary sector will be undertaken. This project follows on from my Master's dissertation on the impact of the Squatters Advisory Service on both perception of and provision for single homelessness people inLondon in the 1980s.