Reducing Homelessness with Knowledge?

National policies aimed at homelessness in Norway is governed through cross-sectorial cooperation. The housing sector has had the main responsibility since the field developed in early 2000s; health, welfare and criminal justice sector are partners in the cooperation. Analyses of text produced by the involved institutions, and of talk in intersectoral meetings, reveals that main themes in the discourse is obtaining and sharing knowledge, coordination (horizonal and vertical) and development and description of work processes and models. More concrete themes like access to housing, and what kind of services and help those experiencing homelessness are in need of, is hardly present in the discourse. I interpret the agents, and institutions, emphasis on knowledge and models as a way of committing to knowledge-based policies. The next step will be analysing what knowledge that represents the knowledge base in this policy field today, and how it is used by the agents at the national level producing talk and text. The analyses will pay special attention to the presence of the voice of those with experiences of homelessness. The paper will discuss the use of knowledge in this policy field in light of theories of sociology of knowledge in general, and theories considering the use of research in specific.