Barriers to the involvement of NGOs working for the benefit of the homeless in the housing policy process
Barriers to the involvement of NGOs working for the benefit of the homeless in the housing policy process

Summary/Abstract: This article analyses the barriers experienced by representatives of non-governmental organisations in the process of deliberations on the subject of homelessness. In this paper, I investigate two deliberation forums, one in Brussels (La Strada) and the other in Warsaw (the Social Dialogue Committee on Homelessness, or SDCH). The article argues that the development of housing policy measures aimed at reducing homelessness is hindered by barriers impeding social actors who work for the benefit of the homeless from participating in the process of creating and implementing housing policy. As reported in the article, three types of barriers were found to be at work in both deliberative forums: (i) financial barriers, (ii) formal and legal barriers, and (iii) ‘relational’ barriers. The analysis shows that the barriers identified in Brussels may be related to the limitations of the corporatist model of social dialogue in the field of homelessness. The barriers observed in Warsaw may be associated with the lack of established traditions of deliberative practices and with certain features of Polish culture.

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