Analyzing Homelessness Using Kingdon's Framework

Running head: ANALYSING HOMELESSNESS USING KINGDON’S FRAMEWORK
ANALYSING HOMELESSNESS USING KINGDON’S
FRAMEWORK
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ANALYSING HOMELESSNESS USING KINGDON’S FRAMEWORK
1. Introduction
Homelessness is a worse condition in Australia which is rising by the day and
according to census data last five years till 2016 the rise of the homeless people number in
Australia was 4.6 percent and among total Australian population the homelessness was 13.7
percent (Abs.gov.au, 2019). According to the census 2016 data 116,000 people experiencing
homelessness that means 50 homeless people per 10,000 people (Abs.gov.au, 2019).
According to the statistics it is not only a problem in the national context it is also an
international problem and 2 percent of total world population is homeless and almost 1.6
billion people facing inadequate housing issues (Yaleglobal.yale.edu, 2019). The primary
causes of the homelessness can be the exponential development of the human population and
inadequate lands. On the other hand the basic cause can be defined as the unequal economic
distribution as well. The economic and the environmental factors can be termed as the key
factors in the rise in the number of the homelessness problem. Australian government realises
the homelessness factor is a complex issue and it affects the living habit and many other
things of the Australian people. The government focused on the case and devised some
funding policies for the social house development for the homeless people. The National
Affordable Housing Agreement (NAHA) and National Partnership Agreement on
Homelessness (NPAH) were the policies taken by the federal government and the state
government in order to address the complex situation of the homeless across the country
(Dss.gov.au, 2019).
2. Policy Analysis: Kingdon’s Framework
John Kingdon developed his multiple stream model in the year 1984. In this model he
stated that policy changes comes into action when the three streams that are the problem,
policy and the politics connect together. Although these tree are the individual streams and do
not depend on each other but in order to develop a policy these three factors need to

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ANALYSING HOMELESSNESS USING KINGDON’S FRAMEWORK
collaborate or connect each other for the policy development process (Rawat and Morris
2016). There are many policy development models found but Kingdon’s multiple stream
model only the one where each factor or stream works with their own force but ultimately
influencing each other. Kingdon’s multiple stream model focuses on the timing and teh flow
of the action of the policy and the streams do not just meet up in any point but develop the
collaboration with the help of the sustained and consistent action of the policy maker or the
by the policy itself (Mukherjee and Howlett 2015).
3. Supporting Homelessness policy
3.1 Problem stream
The homeless is the complex factor depending on different aspects of social and
economic factors along with the environmental factors. The homelessness was triggered at
the period of the colonisation in Australia by the European people. The Indigenous people of
the continent faced the homelessness and the landlessness problems from the 17th century
(Rigby 2016). According to census data the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people experiencing homelessness in the year 2016 was 23,437 (Abs.gov.au, 2019).
However, the complexity of the problem began to rise when the population of the world and
the Australian continent rise exponentially. On the other hand the factor of the economic
breakdown in all over the world also affected the economic structure of the Australian
communities. It has been found that out of 10,000 people there are 50 people who are
homeless in the country and the factor will be rising as the world population has not been
checked yet (Abs.gov.au, 2019). The policy of the NAHA and NPAH was mentioned by the
federal government in the budget and the policy development counsels for the improvement
of the situation by means of developing social housing facility for the homeless people
(Dss.gov.au, 2019). This would be an effective policy however; the social housing needs

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ANALYSING HOMELESSNESS USING KINGDON’S FRAMEWORK
lands that can be an issue needed to be considered first along with the funding for the project.
According to Kingdon’s multiple stream model the data collection is fairly important for the
knowledge of the problem however, the problem cannot be addressed without the
interpretation of the data (Howlett, McConnell and Perl 2017). According to the data it can be
seen there are 116,427 people are facing the problem of homelessness in the country and the
change of the issue raised in five years up to 13.7 percent (Abs.gov.au, 2019). This condition
needs to be addressed by the government with the developed policies and also
implementation of other policies in order to provide a safe and healthy living to the country
people.
3.2 Policy stream
In terms of addressing homelessness in the Australian context there have been
different policies suggested by the government on the basis of the census report of homeless
population. The primary focus of these policies are funding for the social housing facilities.
The NAHA and NPAH policies are the policies among these policies which were recently
been identified for addressing the issue. In the budget year 2017-2018 government has been
working on the reformation of these two above mentioned policies and the formation of the
National Housing and Homeless Agreement (NHHA) policy for the betterment in addressing
the homelessness issue (Dss.gov.au, 2019). They were convinced in the fact that the NHHA
policy would be helpful in the increasing number of the new home supply and the
improvement of the housing condition for the Australian people especially whom are in need.
According to government announcement the NHHA policy will be providing $375.3 million
for three years starting from July 2018 (Dss.gov.au, 2019). The funding will be focused on
the domestic violence cases and it will help especially the young vulnerable population. They
also stated that the Transitional National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness policy will
provide $117.2 million to the homeless people prior to the effectiveness of the NHHA policy