Policy and service responses to rough sleeping among older people

Rough sleeping in Britain has a long history, and interventions have altern ated between legal sanctions and humanitarian concern. This paper criticall y examines recent changes in homeless policies and services, with particula r reference to the needs of older people who sleep rough. The characteristi cs and problems of the group are first described. Single homeless people we re formerly accommodated in direct-access hostels but, from the 1970s, indi vidualised rehabilitation and resettlement have spread. Most recently, serv ices dedicated to older people have begun (although remain few and are unev enly provided), Their achievements are reviewed and drawn upon in formulati ng normative proposals of the appropriate service mix, The 1990s 'Rough Sle epers Initiative' and related programmes promoted a 'social care market' of not-for-profit organisations that compete for increased (but shortterm) fu nds to provide services, acid the new Labour government will build upon the se changes and increase funds. Low tolerance towards the 'social exclusion' of homelessness is promised but unerringly constructed as exclusion from w ork; while rough sleeping is dubbed as antisocial, coercive approaches to a chieve a two-thirds reduction are foreseen. The proposed target might stall the development of diverse and effective services, or reduce providers' ca pacity to combat the perversities of resource allocation. The overall prosp ects for the improvement and expansion of services to provide significant h elp to single older homeless people are uncertain.