Abstract

Drawing from the Street-level Bureaucracy theory (Lipsky 1980), which attributes centrality to the process of policy implementation and, consequently, to the role of frontline workers and the discretion they exercise, the article analyses policies aimed at homeless people in the city of Turin. The paper aims at investigating the aspects of the implementation process in which it is possible to observe the exercise of professional discretion, the differences between the policy «on paper» and the policy implemented, the rooms for «manoeuvre» of social workers and the outcomes of the discretion on the policy.