Welfare regimes, social values and homelessness: Comparing responses to marginalised groups in six European countries

This paper examines the exposure to homelessness of socially marginalised groups to understand better the applicability of, and limits to, welfare regime analysis. A vignette methodology is deployed in six European countries to interrogate and compare responses to marginalised groups at high risk of homelessness, including people with substance misuse problems, ex-offenders, young people excluded from the family home, migrants, and women fleeing domestic violence. The evidence suggests that a range of values embedded in national political cultures – including familialism, social cohesion, individuality, personal responsibility, and personal liberty, as well as egalitarianism - impact on models of intervention and outcomes for specific marginalised groups in ways which cannot be straightforwardly predicted from conventional welfare regime analysis.