Effect Of Socio-Economic Policies On Homeless People

According to Shelter, a leading housing charity in United Kingdom, the number of young homeless people in temporary accommodation will hit eight-year high this Christmas, the highest since 2007. (The Guardian, Hillary Osbourne 2016) Homelessness remains a big problem in Britain despite the union of Government departments to prevent anyone spending a second night without abode, funding and initiatives such as the new law recommended by Conservative Bob Blackman MP to make it mandatory for councils to support people threatened with homelessness much earlier. The term ‘homeless’ is often used to refer to people who are sleeping rough, however Daly (1996) expresses the view that a ‘liberal’ definition would be: ‘People are considered homeless

Although government introduced policies, initiatives backed with funding to tackle homelessness, however many young people still experience problems of living rough, and research has found that people who become homeless at a younger age are more likely to face long-term emotional, mental and physical health difficulties. This shows the negative effect of socio-economic policies on homeless young people whose life experiences are affected by social inequalities. The primary responsibility of a social worker is to empower specific groups to develop and improve their social networks and lives self-sufficiently. By critically reviewing the socio-economic lifestyle and experiences of a disadvantaged group of vulnerable people it would seem that history, challenges, causes, effect and present outcome of social inequalities and how it disproportionately affects some group of in society will help the profession better provide support. “Conceptualizing health is a daunting but necessary task for social work to enhance our role in health policy, research and practice” (Graham, 2002). “Crucially, social workers also need practical methods which can improve poor people's lives.” Social workers must work with service users to tackle brutal poverty of austerity; Practitioners need to understand the causes of hardship and know how to address it in practice.” Backwith, theguardian.com. (May 6, 2015):