In the previous chapter, we saw that there has been a process of juridification around the concept of homelessness, which simultaneously obscures the social processes underlying homelessness law. It thus fits neatly into the governing themes of this part of the book, of top-down law and bottom-up implementation, the former making assumptions about the latter, while the latter being seemingly often blissfully ignorant of the former.

This chapter discusses the broader process of social housing allocation – that is, the allocation of social housing units to households in need (which might include homeless households). The same themes re-emerge here but in different patterns. There is law – not as much as in homelessness, but enough to produce retrenchment; and government policy has moved in tune with local entrepreneurial initiative, thus marginalising the law. There have been policy shifts away from bureaucratic allocation of social housing to a market-based system of letting households choose their housing (choice-based lettings (CBL)).