Discretion at the frontline of homeless service administration: primary and secondary rationing by street level bureaucrats in Irish local authorities
Loading...
Files
Full Text E-thesis
Date
2022-11
Authors
Murphy, Niamh
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University College Cork
Published Version
Abstract
The number of people experiencing homelessness in Ireland has increased significantly in recent years, with almost 11,000 currently using homeless accommodation. In order to access services, people are required to present to their local authority as homeless. Subsequently, frontline workers are required to make decisions around whether a person is considered homeless, as well as the level of service that they will be offered. Despite the high numbers of people presenting as homeless, little is known about this process of assessment and placement. To guide determinations of eligibility, the statutory definition of homelessness is outlined in the Housing Act, 1988. However, owing to the legislation’s ambiguity, local authorities can widen or narrow the definition as they see fit. As the definition is based on ‘the opinion of the local authority’ to determine whether someone is in accommodation which they can ‘reasonably occupy’, assessment staff must use substantial discretion when determining eligibility for services. In addition to the ambiguous statutory definition, the opacity of this area of welfare administration is compounded by the lack of additional formal guidance around determining eligibility. Likewise, this informal approach extends to decision-making around the type of accommodation offered to those who are eligible. Due to the informal work environment, a high level of discretion is granted to these frontline workers. Accordingly, Lipsky’s (1980) conceptual framework provides a useful means to examine the use of discretion among assessment and placement staff. Lipsky (1980) coined the term ‘street level bureaucrat’ to describe public service workers who have direct interaction with citizens and substantial discretion in the execution of this work. Through in-depth qualitative interviews with frontline workers based around Ireland, the research examined how discretion is used by these street-level bureaucrats to make decisions around rationing of homeless services at both a primary (assessment) and secondary (placement) level. The research found that although the frontline workers had a high level of discretion available to them in making decisions, management could influence how this discretion was used in some circumstances. This was mainly done through applying scrutiny when discretionary decisions resulted in offers of services to people whose eligibility was unclear, and through inattention when discretion was used to gate-keep services. Additionally, the research found that a narrow interpretation of the statutory definition of homelessness is being used by most of the frontline workers involved in the research, with rooflessness constituting homelessness that they described as genuine. People who presented to the local authority from living situations described as grey, for example couch surfing, were more likely to experience gatekeeping and denial of access to services. In some cases the frontline workers avoided the need to deny access to services through using an approach of covert deterrence. This involved presenting emergency accommodation in a negative way to an applicant so that they may be deterred from entering it, thus rationing demand for these services. Furthermore, significant differences were found in the approach of frontline workers towards homeless families and single people. Singles were more likely to experience gatekeeping behaviours than families were. This was most notable with regards to access to private emergency accommodation which the frontline workers stated was no longer available to single people except for in exceptional circumstances. As the first piece of research in Ireland examining homeless service administration from this perspective, the thesis is a starting point to fill a gap in knowledge around this subject. As such, it has begun the process of making an opaque area of public service delivery more transparent and therefore makes a significant empirical contribution to knowledge in the fields of streetlevel bureaucracy and the administration of homeless services in Ireland.
Description
Keywords
Homelessness , Street level bureaucracy , Discretion , Local authority , Policy implementation
Citation
Murphy, N. 2022. Discretion at the frontline of homeless service administration: primary and secondary rationing by street level bureaucrats in Irish local authorities. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.