The Hub Project in Context

In order to give context to the empirical focus of this study, I will provide a brief overview of the development of the Hub Project for rough sleepers in Dorchester. Such an exploration must, however, acknowledge both the local past and the local present if it is to develop into a finely grained and critical analysis of on-street homelessness and responsible citizenship in Dorchester.

In approaching this task, the reader will be taken systematically through the organisational and policy backdrop, before being sequentially led through the complex and dynamic interface between the principles and logics of ‗personal responsibility‘ and the overriding strategy of

‗responsibilisation‘ in relation to rough sleepers in West Dorset. Here the overarching context is one in which the promotion of ‗responsiblisation‘ reflects a desire to reconstruct the meaning of citizenship (Ferguson, 2008). A predominate, but not exclusive, focus will be placed on how community governance is played out in practice on the ground. It will therefore provide a portal through which to critically examine how homelessness service providers and homeless people are activated and engaged in governance processes.

Dorchester is a market town in west Dorset, on the River Frome at the junction of the A35, southern coast trunk road, and the A37 road to Yeovil and the North, 20 miles west of Poole and 8 miles north of Weymouth. Dorchester has been the county town of Dorset since 1305, and is also the town of Casterbridge which featured in several of Thomas Hardy‘s novels and short

stories.⁵⁸ It was also the departure point for the six men known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs who, in 1834 were deported to Australia and later pardoned. Dorchester Prison was constructed in the town during the 19th century and the Category B prison is still in use today, holding convicted and remanded inmates from local courts (HM Prison Service, 2009).

As a place of historical curiosity and criminal infamy, Dorchester is indelibly marked by its association with Judge Jeffreys (1645-1689) – perhaps better known as the ‗Hanging Judge‘ - who became notable during the tumultuous reign of King James II, rising to the position of Lord Chancellor (Draper, 1992). Jeffreys presided over the ‗Bloody Assizes‘ at which harsh sentences were given to the supporters of the Duke of Monmouth following the failed attempt to dethrone James II during the Pitchfork Rebellion. The rebellion ended with the defeat of Monmouth's forces at the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685. Monmouth was subsequently executed for treason, and many of his supporters were transported to the ‗Bloody Assizes‘, which were held in the Oak Room (now a tea room) of the Antelope Hotel in Dorchester. The sobriquet ‗Hanging judge‘ refers to the barbarity with which a total 74 people were executed, 175 were transported and 29 pardoned (in surrounding towns and villages).

In 2001 the town had a population of 16,171 and a catchment population of approximately 40,000.

The town has a busy shopping centre and a flourishing market, which is held on Wednesdays. It has long been recognised as the administrative centre of the County. The town has two railway stations. Dorchester South railway station on the South Western Main Line to London, Bournemouth and Southampton and Dorchester West railway station, serving Yeovil, Bath and Bristol via the Heart of Wessex Line. Major employers include Dorset County Council, West Dorset District Council and Dorset County Hospital.⁵⁹

58 For elaboration see ‗Visit Dorchester‘ – www.visit-dorchester.co.uk

59 See www.dorestforyou.com for more information about Dorchester and West Dorset.

Dorchester is the largest town in West Dorset (the local government district and parliamentary constituency). West Dorset covers 418 square miles and has a population in excess of 96,000, making it one of the sparest districts in England. Half of the residents live in the six towns, with the remainder in the 132 rural parishes. The population structure reflects the rural nature of the district. West Dorset is not widely appreciated as being an area exhibiting deprivation. However, scattered across the district there are still pockets of deprivation, often located adjacent to affluence. Ranked by income and house price, the district is the 26^th least affordable in the country (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2003). On average over 2007, the unemployment rate for West Dorset was 0.8 per cent of the residential working age population with 427 claimants. At July 2008, claimant unemployment in West Dorset was 0.7 per cent with 361 registered for Jobseeker‘s Allowance (Dorset Research & Information Group, 2008). In the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2007 West Dorset was ranked 210^th out of 355 Local Authorities in England (1^st being the most deprived) while its immediate neighbour Weymouth and Portland District Council ranked 127th (CLG, 2007).

Housing in West Dorset is expensive and the demand for social housing is high. The Survey of Housing Need and Demand undertaken by Fordham Research in December 2007 estimated there are around 43,545 households in the District, of which 74% are owner-occupiers, 14% live in the social rented sector and 13% rent privately. The latest Land Registry data suggests that the average property price in West Dorset is around 25% higher than the average for England and Wales and slightly above the average for the whole of Dorset, and outstrips average wages by a ratio of 11:1. The sale of rural housing and the invasion of villages by wealthy in-migrants have increased property values and pushed out the poorest households. Second holiday homes account for 4.6% of the total (net) dwellings of March 2007 (while the % for England and Wales was 0.7%). This particular form of gentrification and leisure related investment (Paris, 2008) has served to embed and exacerbate housing inequality in rural Dorset. Accordingly, the local

housing market in Dorchester and the surrounding area is such that supporting new ways to deliver affordable housing was identified by West Dorset District Council as its main priority actions. This is, in part, attributable to the chronic shortage of affordable housing, the low level in new social build, the steady reduction in local authority housing through Right-to-Buy sales and rising land prices.⁶⁰ It is also linked to the nature of the private rented sector. Here we see a strong and self-reinforcing constellation of availability, accessibility and affordability effectively preventing many from entering the sector. Even when accommodation is available within the district it is recognised that:

Those who have recently re-settled [will] take what housing is offered to them, sometimes very sub-standard, just to get off the streets.

And similarly:

We can not achieve this alone. We need a national policy to work towards affordable accommodation for all and for suitable sheltered accommodation for those who need to work at their own problems before they can cope with their own home. These are urgent needs but they can only be met if the political will can be aroused (Dr. Margaret Barker, 2007).

Anecdotal evidence would seem to suggest that housing associations are sometimes reluctant to accept statutory single homeless people because of fears that such individuals would present significant management problems. Relevant here is the perceived association with rough sleeping and anti-social behaviour (Johnsen & Fitzpatrick, 2007). Add to this, there is an acute awareness

60 First introduced in 1980, the Right-to-Buy scheme gives eligible council tenants the right to buy their property from the council at a discount.

of the difficulties associated with persuading private landlords to accept benefit recipients as tenants, which is neatly and succinctly captured in the following admission that ‗the problem we have here [in West Dorset] is that landlords will not touch people on benefits‘ (Housing Needs manager, 2008). Changes to the housing benefit system would also appear to have deterred some, though by no means all, from accessing the private rental market or the social housing sector. The Local Housing Allowance seeks to promote personal responsibility and reward consumer choice and incentivise people to work.⁶¹ Evidence from discussions with service providers and ex-rough sleepers in Dorchester however indicates that vulnerable tenants, particularly those who are financially illiterate and substance dependant, to have fallen into significant arrears and associated debt having received the benefit directly. Accordingly, many single homeless people simply decide against approaching the local Housing Need office in order to access the allowance while others, precariously housed and struggling to adapt to conventional demands, abandon accommodation in the face of growing debt or the threat of eviction.