Adjudicating the implementation of homelessness law: The promise of socio-legal studies

This paper offers a re-consideration of the contexts within which discretionary homelessness decision making takes place. Drawing on socio-legal studies, it is argued that one such context (which has regularly been ignored within the housing studies literature) is compliance with the law. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data of internal reviews of homelessness decision making, the paper considers how far (and under what conditions) initial decision making might be affected by its adjudication.