The veteran in the welfare state: ambiguous, invisible, marginal? A case study of housing homeless veterans.

This project investigates the contested relationship between veterans and welfare in the UK. It argues that the unstable, transient and ambivalent status of veterans, who are simultaneously hero and threat, saviour and liability, vulnerable and competent, has permeated welfare provision from its Elizabethan origins and continues to cause complexities today. Using the lens of the veteran allows for the interrogation of masculinity in welfare and disturbs apparently stable notions of welfare claimant. As well as historical analysis, the research will focus on a case study of contemporary veteran housing and homelessness. It will explore whether the current housing crisis reveals a welfare fault-line, and analyse what broader insights into contemporary approaches to welfare, housing and politics are exposed through analysis of the figure of the homeless veteran in this context. Overall, this case study will frame the history of the development between the welfare state and the veteran while examining many of the contemporary difficulties which the veteran faces in interacting with welfare in contemporary society.
There is limited research into welfare and veterans, although academic interest in veteran housing and homelessness has grown since the mid-1990s when the disproportionate number of veterans among London's homeless was reported. There is, however, a gap in the empirical research regarding how local authorities discharge their housing duties to veterans, and the role played by conceptions of vulnerability (a key criterion in establishing housing duties). In addition, little research - empirical or otherwise - has been undertaken examining how difficulties with the transition to veteran status have been intensified by the housing crisis, how rationing of provision has intensified contestation over the definition of veteran, or how these themes fit into the broader context of welfare and housing provision. This project will fill these gaps through a historical, theoretical and empirical project, including a case study investigating the provision of housing to veterans within London.