There are people who for various reasons cannot provide housing for themselves and therefore
are at risk of being excluded from the regular housing market. Social services are in
various ways trying to assist these people in order to be able to get housing. For this purpose,
Social services collaborate with various housing companies and there are a variety of actions
that constitutes the so-called secondary housing market.
The purpose of this paper is to study Social services collaboration with housing companies on
the secondary housing market in a municipality. From this purpose, the following questions
were composed:
·
What factors are significant for housing companies’ ability to provide housing to
Social services?
·
How does the cooperation with housing companies effect Social services action in
individual cases?
·
With what measures does Social services, within the collaboration, increase their
chances of obtaining the housing they need to fulfill its obligations?
The study was conducted through interviews with two respondents from Social services in
one municipality and respondents from three housing companies that Social services in the
municipality cooperates with. The housing companies role in the collaboration is mainly due
to corporate governance and financial reasons, but the factors that are important for Social
service chances to obtain a housing solution through the collaboration are the collaborative
environment (Social services expand their resources or fold down) and the market conditions
(demand and supply of housing on the ordinary housing market). In the individual case the
action taken may be influenced by the collaboration depending on what category of client the
action refers to. Social services increase their ability to obtain housing by using money or
favors depending on what the housing companies call for.
Keywords: Social services, housing companies, secondary housing market, governance
2013. , p. 29