This paper explores the impact of legal rights to housing for people experiencing homelessness, focusing on the capacity of such rights to ‘empower’ those experiencing homelessness. The paper draws on a qualitative comparison of approaches to homelessness in Scotland and Ireland. Whereas in Scotland virtually all those who are homeless now have a legal right to settled accommodation, Ireland has rejected such a ‘legalistic’ approach, pursuing a consensus-driven 'social partnership' model. Based on primary research with national experts, service providers and homeless single men in both countries, it is argued that legal rights can effectively empower people experiencing homelessness. These findings call into question popular and political understandings of the relationship between legal welfare rights and self-reliance.