Centre for Policy on Ageing



The responsibility to care for single homeless people
Author(s)	Maureen Crane, Anthony M Warnes
Journal title	Health & Social Care in the Community, vol 9, no 6, November 2001
Pages	pp 436-444
Keywords	Homelessness ; Single persons ; Needs [elderly] ; Community care ; Health services ; Management [care].
Annotation	Reasons are examined as to why many single homeless people with severe physical and mental health problems and welfare needs do not receive the treatment, care and financial support that they manifestly need. In particular, this paper considers the interaction between their personal characteristics and services' organisation and obligations. The greatest weaknesses of the service system are that no single agency has a statutory responsibility to ensure that vulnerable homeless people are served, and none of the generalist welfare agencies have a duty to seek out those who do not present. As a result, single homeless people fall between the housing, health and social services and amass exceptional unmet needs. This paper appraises ways in which the Rough Sleepers' Unit (RSU) has been tackling these problems, and the possibility that the RSU's responsibilities will be transferred to local authorities in 2002, on which the authors make recommendations. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-020109215 A
Classmark	K4A: SQ: IK: PA: L: QA
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.