Gatekeeping, Managing Homelessness and Administrating Housing for the Poor: The Three Functions of Local Housing Services for People Experiencing Homelessness in Sweden

Homelessness constitutes a growing area of concern for policy- makers and service providers across Europe and beyond. One of the aims of this study was to explore and compare how local social services organise and manage housing services for the homeless. The other was to study specific and detailed functions of local housing services for the homeless, such as rules and regulations regarding interventions and how they are specified in different types of municipalities. Previous research has shown that housing services for the homeless are growing throughout Sweden. Today, about 1.5% of all rental contracts in Sweden are subleased as social contracts through local social services. This study used semi-structured interviews with professionals in charge of homelessness in 30 Swedish municipalities to explore the institutional settings and management of local housing services for the homeless. The results suggest that local housing services for the homeless, although varying in size and complexity, share three overarching functions: gatekeeping, managing the homeless, and administrating housing for the poor. All three functions focused, in different ways, on handling the homeless rather than ending homelessness. It is also clear that the majority of the work conducted by social services regarding housing is more similar to housing administration than social work.