Abstract
Over the last decade, several northern European metropolitan cities have developed new strategies to deal with homelessness. This article focuses on the efficacy of these new local governance arrangements in terms of service delivery and the related societal effects. By comparing and evaluating the policies, administrative structures and management styles in Copenhagen, Glasgow and Amsterdam, a better understanding is gained of the elements of local governance arrangements that influence the quality of service delivery for the homeless and benefit clients and society at large. The research findings lead to a critical view of current decentralizing trends.
Highlights
The central research question was whether possible differences in the administrative-political approach to homelessness between northern European metropolitan cities lead to differences in the quality of the services offered, as well as in the related societal effects
The societal effects of a local governance arrangement can be operationalized as the percentage of homeless people in the catchment area of the public mental health care (PMHC) system (Benjaminsen et al 2009; Lauriks et al 2008, 2013)
Each of these cities offered the right conditions to analyse the relationships between certain aspects of the local governance arrangement and the quality of service delivery and the resulting societal effects, above all because the local authorities were willing to cooperate with the investigation
Summary
Several northern European metropolitan cities have developed new strategies to deal with homelessness (Anderson and Serpa 2013; Benjaminsen et al 2009; Hermans 2012). As little is known about the efficacy of these new local administrative and political approaches to the issue of homelessness, recently research has been conducted to gain more insight. The efficacy of local governance arrangements can be assessed on the basis of aspects such as the quality of the services offered and the related societal effects (Bovard and Löffler 2002; Fawcett and Daugbjerg 2012). The central research question was whether possible differences in the administrative-political approach to homelessness between northern European metropolitan cities lead to differences in the quality of the services offered, as well as in the related societal effects
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