Due to their disproportionate risk of tenancy non-sustainment there have been concerns raised for young people making a pathway out of homelessness into independent living. Despite these concerns, there has been limited research looking at how young people experience tenancy sustainment or where they move onto after terminating a tenancy. This thesis, drawing on Bourdieu’s (1990a) theory of practice, presents a reconceptualisation of tenancy sustainment as a practice of sustaining a tenancy. The theoretical-empirical analysis is based on data collected through longitudinal research involving two waves of semi- structured interviews with 25 young people, aged 16-25, who had recently made a pathway out of homelessness into their own independent tenancies. The interdependency between a tenant and their tenancy presented young people with pressures which they developed techniques of independent living in response to in order to sustain their tenancy and make it a home. Young people not only had a particular housing position of being a tenant, they held family and education-employment positions which took part in the formation and shaping of the pressures they experienced living independently. Tenancies were not seen as an end in themselves by young people who desired, through the experience of sustaining a tenancy, increasingly independent positions within their other social positions as well. An uneven process of actually existing neoliberalism across policy areas through its influence on young people’s constellation of interdependent relations also created a dissonance within the positions held by young people fostering social suffering. Young people ending a tenancy viewed this as a ‘step backwards’ when it meant decreasing independence such as a return to supported accommodation; ambivalence where it arose from the end of a relationship; and as a move forwards, or ‘getting on with life’, when making a youth transition and housing pathway towards establishing their own family household.

This thesis explores the experience of young people on the Isle of Mull and whether and how institutional innovation could help to alleviate housing market constraint for young people living in rural areas. The research identified that young people were particularly constrained in housing markets due to lack of finance and being in the early stages of employment with difficulty accessing housing compounded by the 2007/08 economic downturn. A review of the literature on rural housing markets revealed that challenging supply and demand issues impacted upon the development of housing and constrained rural markets restricted the housing market for young people, limiting choice. The research explored the agency of young people in rural areas and the structure of the housing market, specifically the institutional actors involved in rural housing markets including, but not limited to, the construction industry, land owners, planners, government and third sector organisations. The research focused on the Isle of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland, to explore the experiences of young people living in a remote rural environment and the problems associated with rural housing markets. Questionnaires were completed by young people who were at school on the Isle of Mull and thirty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted with institutional actors involved in rural housing markets and young people living on the Isle of Mull. The research adopted Clapham's (2005) housing pathways approach to explore the choices of young people in the rural housing market, and Williamson's (2000; 1998) New Institutional Economics framework (Economics of Institutions) to examine the structure of the housing market on the Isle of Mull. The research highlighted that third-sector organisations could help to bring institutional actors together in the rural housing market and therefore help to alleviate housing constraint for young people on the Isle of Mull.

This thesis presents research into the housing pathways of newcomers in Ireland who receive status to remain in the country and come through the Irish direct provision reception system. In the global context of financialisation of housing and local context of state reliance on the private market to provide housing to all sections of society, cities in Ireland are experiencing severe housing crises like many other cities across the globe, characterised by shortage, increasing rents and persistent homelessness rates. Meanwhile, in response to increased migration and heightened border anxieties, Ireland has sought to deter forced migrants, in this case with dispersed and unattractive direct provision reception centres. What happens then to newcomers with status to remain in Ireland, an already particularly vulnerable group in the housing system, when they have to enter this system in crisis after year-long stays in dispersed reception centres? This thesis addresses this question, looking at the specific effects of the Irish housing regime, with its unique local and recognisable global characteristics, and Irish reception policy, with its particular direct provision system, on newcomers’ search for housing. For context, the historical development and current features of the Irish housing regime, as well as migration and reception policy are traced and outlined. The thesis then tracks previous literature from international and Irish settings that deals with the issue of housing for newcomers in the Global North, including the historical development of the field and its current trends. The research design makes use of a cross-sectional, mixed-method approach to achieve its objectives. Using a constructionist housing pathways framework of analysis, accompanied by important concepts from thinkers such as Lefebvre, Agamben and Bengtsson & Borevi, the research draws on a mixture of surveys and follow-up interviews to examine the constraints, structures, strategies and outcomes of households when they have been granted status to remain in Ireland and must leave reception centres and find their own housing. The research identifies identity and power as two crucial factors in the navigation of housing pathways for newcomers and shows the detrimental effect of the retreat of the state from housing provision and reliance on marketised social housing provision on the right to housing for this group. Finally, the thesis recommends potential future studies and the policy implications of the research, in light of the difficulties of finding housing through the HAP scheme reported in this research, urge caution for proposed further reliance on marketised social housing provision for newcomers.