This master thesis examines the difficulties in homeless citizens in a condition of a constant need of care. They may have needs of physical, mental and social character, and addictions to alcohol and/or drugs, and are staying in temporary shelter, despite the fact that this may harm their health and wellbeing. Furthermore, they may need alternative nursing homes that can provide the right care for them. The thesis studies the dominating discourses in the national Homeless Strategy, and how the social workers working in a temporary shelter and in the Social Services in Copenhagen Local Authority are influenced by these discourses. The thesis is interested in how social politics can effect on marginalized groups conditions in the society. The thesis is based on a qualitative study, with a theoretical contribution consisting of Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), which is supplemented with two sociological perspectives by Kaspar Villadsen and Tina U. Bømler.

The analysis is split in three:
Part I: This part evolves around an analysis of the final evaluation of the national Homeless Stra-tegy running from 2009-2013 focusing on Fairclough’s text- and processing analysis.
Part II: Based on a processing analysis the part evolves around the social workers experiences of difficulties in the context of both the homeless citizens visitation away from the shelter to a nursing home, and the challenges in the meantime of their stay at a temporary shelter.
Part III: Focusing on marginalized homeless citizens, in Fairclough’s social practice the domina-ting discourses in the social politics, are being analysed.

The thesis reaches the following conclusions: The national Homeless strategy contributed to a para-digmatic shift in the social work by introducing a mindshift in the social work, by introducing Hou-sing First. Through a CDA the thesis concludes that the new shift is composed by the following discourses: deinstitutionalisation, integration, normalisation and empowerment, which we overall name an Independence-discourse. When analysing the problems, the social workers on the shelter experience in their work the Independent-discourse is hegemonic. Its deinstitutionalising and libera-ting vision for the social work overrule the shelters social workers continuing despair concerning the general poor condition of the homeless citizens. Their condition stays the same no matter what they document to the social workers in Copenhagen Local Authority. The social workers find the new approach to the social work appreciative, as it recognises the social rights of citizens. This leads to ambivalence for the social workers at the shelter that feel the dominance of the discourse in their everyday work with the homeless citizens with a need of care. Copenhagen Local Authority is aware of the fact that homeless citizens in this condition are in need of the care that an alternative nursing home can give them. In the social practice, we conclude that there is a central reason for the stagnation of homeless citizens in the shelter due to a structural explanation in a lack of nursing homes, economics and interface issues between the Health- and Social Services in the municipality. In our analysis of the dominating discourses in the social politics we find that the Independent-discourse is a reproduction of dominating discourses in the society, and can be seen as a product of an active social policy that revolves around a neo-liberal discourse. In this discourse the focus is strongly drawn on the people that are able to manage the strength to take care of themselves. The mindshift in the social work introduces a shift from the former methods based on care to a new practice based on development, which we conclude can be looked upon as each other’s opposites. This leads to a paradox in which the strong focus on the citizen’s development ends up excluding the people who needs care in order to show the desired development. The Independence-discourse maintains a status quo for the citizens with a need of care, as there are political currents in the socie-ty that oppresses them. This is seen through a lack of political will to create more places in the nursing homes for this group, and repayment of funds specifically intended for these alternative nur-sing homes. The negative outcome is that the homeless citizens with a need of care are put in a deeply marginalized position, stuck on a temporary shelter without the proper care, which in some cases have been fatal for the homeless citizens.