Homelessness: Causation

The causes of homelessness have been extensively debated, with a division usually drawn between ‘individual’ and ‘structural’ explanations. Individual explanations of homelessness focus on the personal characteristics and behaviours of homeless people, whereas structural explanations locate the causes of homelessness in broader social and economic structures, such as adverse housing and labour market conditions and weak welfare protection. While the balance between individual and structural explanations of homelessness varies between countries and over time, in recent years a ‘new orthodoxy’ has developed which seeks to integrate individual and structural explanations. This new orthodoxy is practically useful but lacks theoretical depth. A number of theoretical avenues for understanding the causes of homelessness are therefore considered - including positivist, social constructionist, and feminist approaches. It is suggested that critical realism is a particularly fruitful theoretical approach because it provides a robust framework for understanding the complex interrelationships between potential causal factors.