Deborah Quilgars

The last resort? Revisiting ideas about older people's living arrangements

This article starts with a critique of the literature relating to the living at home/living in a home contrast. It shows this body of work to be dominated by a structured dependency paradigm which depicts residential care as exemplar of institution and home as embodying personal control and self- identity. A modification of the paradigm which gives prominence to diversity and meaning is used to analyse in-depth interviews with frail older people living at home and in a home. The analysis suggests that the prevailing account of residential care needs updating and some revision. The article concludes that the marketisation of social care has had both positive and negative effects on both care delivery in a home and at home. It also contends that there is a limited demand from older people for collective living arrangements and that institutionalisation processes affect older people in whatever setting.

Meeting the challenge: developing systematic reviewing in social policy

This article uses the experience of reviewing the evidence on the financial support available for defaulting home owners to consider the opportunities and challenges systematic review methods present to social policy. It addresses concerns about examining the strength of given evidence, and perceptions of it being a purely technical method to review existing research. It argues that there is merit in utilising the method to provide research users with transparent summaries of the most robust evidence with minimum bias. The article outlines the challenges presented and suggests that social policy researchers have a valuable contribution to make to the developing methods.

Homelessness and social policy

Preface John Greve 1. Homelessness in Contemporary Britain: Conceptualisation and Measurement Nicholas Pleace, Deborah Quilgars and Roger Burrows 2. Homelessness and the Law Stuart Lowe 3. Theorising Homelessness: Contemporary Sociological and Feminist Perspectives Joanne Neale 4. The Social Distribution of the Experience of Homelessness Roger Burrows 5. The Characteristics of Single Homeless People in England Peter Kemp 6. Mortgage Arrears, Mortgage Possessions and Homelessness Janet Ford 7. Soldiering On? Theorising Homelessness Amongst Ex-Servicemen Paul Higate 8. The Housing Needs of Ex-Prisoners Jane Carlisle 9. The Health of Single Homelessness People Wendy Bines 10. Health, Homelessness and Access to Health Care Services in London Nicholas Pleace and Deborah Quilgars 11. Rehousing Single Homeless People Nicholas Pleace 12. Opening Doors in the Private Rented Sector: Developments in Assistance with Access Julie Rugg 13. The Capacity of the Private Rented Sector to House Homeless Households Mark Bevan and David Rhodes 14. Hostels: A Useful Policy and Practice Response? Joanne Neale 15. Addressing the Problem of Youth Homelessness and Unemployment: the Contribution of Foyers Deborah Quilgars and Isobel Anderson 16. Working Together to Help Homeless People: an Examination of Inter-Agency Themes Christine Oldman References Name index Subject index

Inside qualitative, cross‐national research: making methods transparent in a EU housing study

Over the last decade there has been a significant growth in comparative, cross‐national research and recognition of its potential significance in responding to globalisation pressures. A range of methodological approaches have been documented. However, whilst a growing literature exists on undertaking comparative research generally, less has been published on the experiences of undertaking qualitative research in a cross‐national context, particularly in social and housing policy. Qualitative research provides opportunities to gain more detailed understandings of behaviour, attitudes and experiences across countries, but it also raises some of the greatest challenges with respect to interpreting data. This article utilises an eight nation study on housing security and insecurity to make transparent some of the key issues raised in qualitative, cross‐national work, including the selection of locations and interviewees, interviewing and analysing material within an institutional context. It argues that further critical sharing of research accounts is required in this important area.

Sub-prime Mortgage Lending in the UK

Abstract This article draws on a census survey of lenders and other published evidence to provide a critical overview of the sub-prime mortgage sector in the UK. Its origins and growth are identified as lying in a combination of changes in the structure of the economy and the introduction of automated credit scoring. The sub-prime market serves a diversity of needs with a clear function of credit repair being suggested by the high proportion of re-mortgages into the sector. Sub-prime borrowers are drawn from across the social and economic spectrum yet significantly higher levels of default are found among them. While much of this additional risk is inherent in the market the institutional structure that underpins sub-prime lending in the UK appears to amplify the levels of risk unnecessarily. Sub-prime lending is conducted disproportionately through centralised lenders reliant on securitization for funding and using brokers to originate loans. This builds a series of information asymmetries into the system and has exposed borrowers to volatility in rates and credit supply that occurred from the fall in world-wide liquidity in 2007. It is suggested that in principle risks could be better handled by integrating the sub-prime market within the mainstream market and applying a graduated approach to risk-based pricing.

Evidence for Policy Making: Some Reflections on the Application of Systematic Reviews to Housing Research

The recent turn towards evidence-based or evidence-informed policy making has generated interest in systematic literature review techniques. Systematic reviewing is increasingly being adopted to address questions in complex social policy areas, but the methodological development lags behind. Drawing on the experience of undertaking three systematic reviews of housing related topics, as part of a project designed to empirically test the transfer of systematic review methods to social policy and social care, this paper reflects on the use of the systematic review methods in housing research and considers how our experience accords with recent methodological development of reviewing in other areas. The paper first examines wider methodological developments occurring during the course of the three-year project, before considering changing review practices in housing studies. It then goes on to examine the key methodological challenges that remain unresolved, in particular: searching for literature, quality appraising studies, interpreting old research against shifting contextual factors, and providing an actual synthesis of diverse material. It calls for a more thoughtful approach to the method and more careful consideration of when systematic reviews may be appropriate.

Demographic Change and Retirement Planning: Comparing Households’ Views on the Role of Housing Equity in Germany and the UK

Abstract As states across Europe come under pressure to meet the needs of ageing populations, there has been increasing interest in the potential role of housing equity in funding welfare provision. This paper draws on the findings of a European study, Demographic Change and Housing Wealth (DEMHOW), which set out to explore whether housing plays a role in retirement planning. This paper compares the views of homeowners in Germany and the UK. The former is a country where homeownership is the minority tenure and the preserve of affluent households, and where house prices have been stagnant for years. The latter is a country of homeownership where half the poor are home owners, and where real house price increases over many decades have served to establish the belief that homeownership is one of the best investments accessible to ordinary people. In addition, ‘equity release’ is more common, and related products better developed, in the UK than in Germany. Given these differences, it might be assumed UK homeowners would be more willing to consider utilising housing equity to supplement their income in retirement than their German counterparts. This paper sets out to explore whether this is the case.

Where Housing and Pensions Meet

Populations are ageing across the EU. Fewer people are having children and a smaller working population must bear the ever-increasing burden of pension and care costs. Many countries are reconsidering the welfare state and the recent financial crisis has eroded trust in the private sector. However, the percentage of home owners has risen in most countries in recent decades, so much so that some two-thirds of European households now have their own homes. The grand total of housing equity is astronomical, even exceeding the total European gross domestic product (GDP). But further growth in home ownership and the value of owner-occupied dwellings is under pressure. The central question in this special edition is whether housing equity can and is being used as a pension. To what extent can housing assets be realised in order to meet the consumption needs of the elderly? And to what extent are governments banking on their citizens utilising their housing wealth now and in the future? This editorial provides a brief overview of European developments in ageing, home ownership and pensions and introduces the DEMHOW project (DEMographic change and HOusing Wealth), a framework 7 project for the European Commission. This themed issue focuses on the role of housing wealth in household strategies and presents the outcomes of in-depth interviews. After all, the question now is not if housing equity will play a role in pension strategies but rather how it will play a role.

A Place in the Country? The Housing Circumstances of Young People in Rural England

ABSTRACT The contemporary housing circumstances of the one-fifth of all young people in England between the ages of 16 and 24 who live in rural areas are examined. Although young people are often seen as a key group in wider debates, not least because they so clearly represent the maintenance of the continuity of local people, they are infrequently examined in the research literature. More typically the young are simply ‘tagged on’ to existing studies of rural housing, demonstrating perhaps the urban emphasis of both housing research and youth studies. A rural focus on housing and youth when it does occur tends to be on extreme housing need, whereas—as this paper demonstrates—the range of issues and consequences with respect to housing are much wider. Three questions are addressed. First, what are the current household and housing circumstances of young people in rural areas of England? Second, what preferences do young people living in rural areas have in relation to housing, and how do these interact wi...

Safe Moves: Piloting prevention services for young people at risk of homelessness

Youth homelessness has been recognised as a significant social problem since the late 1980s, and local authority homelessness strategies now include preventative services as a key area of development. However, youth homelessness prevention services are a relatively recent innovation in the UK, and there is only a small literature on their effectiveness. Safe Moves, developed by the Foyer Federation and Connexions during 2002‐2004, represents the first national youth prevention model and offers young people support with life skills, peer mentoring and family mediation. An independent evaluation by the Centre for Housing Policy, University of York concluded that Safe Moves was preventing homelessness for some young people, although the challenges of establishing projects in a predominantly crisis‐orientated culture were significant.