Structure and agency in capabilities-enhancing homeless services: housing first, housing quality and consumer choice

The capabilities approach, a framework for understanding and measuring inequality, stipulates that equality is best understood as the freedom to do and be within a particular context. Homelessness has been referred to as a situation of ‘capabilities deprivation’, and the extent to which homeless services restore or enhance capabilities is of increasing interest. As part of a large, eight-country study of homelessness in Europe, we examined the extent to which adults with histories of homelessness perceived the services they receive as capabilities-enhancing. We collected data at two time points: baseline (nt1 = 565) and follow-up (nt2 = 399). Measures included perceived capabilities, choice and housing quality. Participants engaged with Housing First (HF) programmes perceived services as more capabilities-enhancing than participants engaged with treatment as usual (TAU); this relationship was mediated by consumer choice and perceived housing quality. Implications for social policy, practice and training are discussed.