Housing And Homelessness Suggested Essay Titles Essay

Housing And Homelessness Suggested Essay Titles Essay Housing And Homelessness Suggested Essay Titles â€" Essay Example > The role of Rough Sleepers Initiatives and Rough Sleepers UnitHomelessness is a sociological problem that manifests itself in various ways at different times and in different societies.  Both context of place and individual circumstances influence people’s thinking about the situation and thus, the western countries may view it differently as compared to the developing countries. However, homelessness can generally refer to the condition in which a person lacks a fixed and night time residence; having a primary residence in a public or private institution that accommodates individuals intended to be institutionalized; or living in a public or private place designed to provide temporary living accommodations.  According to Romeeero Margolis (2005), western countries equate homelessness with sleeping rough, living out in the open, in structures like benders or tents due to unavoidable social circumstances, or as a result of an individual choice or caprice. The Rough Sleeper Ini tiative was developed to help in eradicating the rough sleeping. This paper will focus on the role of the Rough Sleepers Unit and then discuss the policy goals of the Rough Sleepers Initiative. In 1990, there was a growing population of visibly homeless individuals sleeping on the streets of England (Cloke, Milbourne Widdowfield 2002). The street homelessness became a major concern for the government and thus putting efforts aimed to tackle the problem. Rough sleeping was identified as one of the first social issues by the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) which was established in December 1997 to examine various specified issues which potentially cut across a number of government departments. The Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) was one of the programmes launched that sought to end the need for anyone sleeping rough. It brought together the key agencies in the local authorities, voluntary sector and government departments in providing accommodation, resettlement, outreach and other sup port services for individuals sleeping rough (Holmes 2006). According to Hombs (2011), the Rough Sleepers Unit was established in April 1999 in the Social Exclusion Unit to tackle the rough sleeping issues. It was led by Louise Casey and it aimed to reduce the number of individuals sleeping rough to as near as possible and by at least two third by 2002. With considerable allocation of resources by the government, the Rough Sleeping Unit launched their ‘coming in from the cold’ strategy with detailed plans which enabled it to meet this target. According to Balchin, Rhoden (2002), RSU had already met the target by December 2001. The RSU coordinates the various project funds by extending the philosophy of strategic, multiagency working to the homeless arena through a single budget.  However, there was a big challenge as to whether the resources to support the rough sleepers would continue in the long run or not. The need to work with the ‘hidden homeless’ was also highlighte d as another challenge. The government gave Rough Sleepers Unit a clear remit of focusing its resources and energies in offering help to the rough sleepers, particularly to those that the previous initiatives didn’t succeed in helping. The ‘coming in from the cold’ strategy by the Rough Sleepers Unit delivers a joined-up approach that builds on the excellent work that the government, local authorities and voluntary sector had begun, promoting a constructive partnership approach aimed to tackle rough sleeping and its causes, and developing focus efforts that give key organisations new tools of working (Hombs 2011). These enhance a better dealing with the problem of rough sleeping. With the strategy, the government believed that by 21st century, they were able to eliminate the street sleeping and of most valuable, to give them help and specialist support in providing them with a lasting solution (King IEA, 2006).