Supported Housing for Young Adults: An International Comparative Perspective (Germany/England) on Housing Related Social Welfare and Social Inequality

In youth research the housing transition is considered one important transition to adulthood amongst others. Nevertheless it is not sufficiently taken into account in academia. As long as young adults have the resources to go smoothly through their housing transition because they have enough resources (financial, social, biographical and educational) this transition tends to be invisible. One of the reasons for this is that it is not as institutionalized as the transition from school to work for example. However, the complexities and reversibility of housing transitions, as well their ties to other youth-related transitions and social inequalities, become forcefully ‘visible’ when the homelessness of young people is taken into account. Within social welfare systems, special housing related aid for this age group is rare, and usually given in extreme situations when housing has already become problematic. This support is also often connected to other requirements, such as involvement in employment, training or education.

In this paper I will present the results of a qualitative study comparing two specific supported housing schemes for young adults in Germany and England. Both focus their support on housing as well as on the labour market oriented transitions of young people. My international comparative approach, which is theoretically informed by the model of “youth transition regimes” (Walther 2006), takes into account how the housing transitions of young people are structured by specific housing markets as well as by the housing related supports within specific social welfare systems. On this basis I will highlight differences and commonalities with respect to how social welfare systems can increase or reduce housing related social inequalities.