Homelessness, mental illness and the State: an endless crisis of suffering and exclusion

Abstract

Homelessness, compounded by physical and legal exclusion, has destructive consequences for the health and wellbeing of mentally ill people, their families, carers, and the community as a whole. And yet, there is little in academic or policy literature addressing the question of why people with highly complex needs remain homeless and or excluded from the benefits of the modern state. This book is therefore essential reading for anyone wanting to understand why and how this problem persists and what ought to be done to solve it. In particular the book will appeal to inter-disciplinary scholars, policy-makers and practitioners in law, mental health, social work, criminology, social policy, sociology and political economy. Indeed this book will appeal to anyone with interests in histories of institutionalization and de-institutionalization; neo-liberal outsourcing and the problems of contractualism; modernity and its legacy of ‘wasted lives’; strategies for social inclusion and reform after the neo-liberal contract state. Importantly this internationally contextualized and rigorously theorized Australian case study suggests how a human rights based approach to housing governance ought to provide homes for the mentally ill homeless. The approach outlined focuses on recovery and the maintenance of wellbeing by all levels of government and all social institutions—‘Three Ws’: a Whole-of-person/whole-of-life, Whole-of-Government and Whole-of-Sector approach.