Homelessness in Australia: Causes, Impacts and Solutions

This article discusses the definition of homelessness, its types, statistics related to it, causes, impacts on society, and initiatives taken by different organizations and government to tackle the issue. It also highlights the human rights issues related to homelessness.

Running head: HOMELESSNESS
HOMELESSNESS
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1
HOMELESSNESS
Summary of the main points:
Australian Bureau of statistics has defined homelessness as the condition when an
individual does not have proper accommodation system. To shed more light, an individual can
only be termed to suffer from homelessness when he lives in a dwelling that is inadequate or has
no tenure (Chamberlain et al., 2014). They can be also considered homeless when their initial
tenure is short and cannot be extended or does not allow such individuals to have control or
enjoy access to space for social relations. There are three types of homelessness like primary,
secondary and tertiary homelessness. For example, young refugee people, migrants are examples
of secondary homelessness. Mainly indigenous people, mental health patients, women, children
and others are the main victims of homelessness.
The census that had been conducted in the year 2011 has shown that presently the nation
of Australia has 105237 individuals who are experiencing homelessness. This in turn accounts
for about one individual to be homeless among 200 individuals that record an increase of 17%
from 2006 census. Moreover, 59% of the individuals are seen to be male and 41% of the
individuals are females. It is also found that 60% of the individuals who are affected are under
the age of 35. About 20% are found to be indigenous and about 46% of the individuals are seen
to born overseas (Flatau et al., 2015). However, it is also noted that about 255657 individuals
have been provided support and seven million nights of accommodation by the different types of
specialist homelessness services in the year 2014-2015.
Many causes of homelessness are found to be intricately associated with the social issue.
The main cause that results in the highest number of individuals becoming homeless is the
domestic and family violence. This accounts for about 25% of the cases. The other causes of

2
HOMELESSNESS
homelessness in the descending order of number of cases are financial difficulties, housing crisis,
inappropriate dwelling conditions, relationship as well as family breakdowns and housing
affordability and stress.
Researchers are of the opinion that there might be a huge impact of homelessness on
society. This impact may be quite costly not only in the terms of tax dollars spent but also by the
huge pressure and strain that the social agencies face in order to tackle the situation. This
condition also puts pressure on healthcare, mental health, incarceration, economy as well as
environment of the nation (Johnson & Watson, 2017).
Different Australian as well as non-profit organizations has extended their hands for
helping the homeless individuals to develop better quality lives. Some of the organizations are
Mission Australia, Homeless Australian, St Vincent De Paul society, Streetsmart Australian and
Salvation Army (McNamara, 2015). All these organizations had taken upon different initiatives
for helping the nation to overcome the issue of helplessness. They had taken initiatives like
developing programs for homelessness, helps to maintain housing and avoid homelessness
(Sharam & hulse, 2014). They also helped people to learn life skills and community connection,
provide them with food and clothing, and provide them with honesty and both intensive and
private tenancy support.
Funding is provided currently under two important councils of Australian Government
agreement. Every year, the National Affordable Housing Agreement (NAHA) who provide $250
million per year. Moreover, the National Partnership agreement on Homelessness (NPAH)
donated $115 million from March 2015 to June 2017. Homelessness is now considered to be
human right issues and therefore different policies and legislations are used to help such

3
HOMELESSNESS
individuals in getting their human rights. Rights to education, rights to security and rights to
standard living and more are also influenced in the policies. International Covenant on Civil and
Political rights called the ICCPR, International Covenant on economics, social and cultural rights
(ICESCR), Convention on the Rights of the Children (CRC) are some of the international treaties
that are also helping in protecting the human rights (Bullen, 2015). The nation has also become
active participant in the treaties and has thereby come under legal as well as moral obligation for
promoting, protecting and realizing human rights of all.
Reflection:
We were given the task of developing a presentation on certain important topics from
which we chose the topic of homelessness. It was a presentation, which we had to represent in
front of the whole class. It was a teamwork where four members of the team has to work
collaboratively so that the ideas and inputs by all are pout into the making of presentation and we
also learn team working skills and challenges at the same time. However, I had to go through a
very rough phase, as I could not get enough help from my team members as I had expected
earlier. One of the team members withdrew from the course and therefore the team strength
reduced to four that automatically resulted in creating pressure on the rest of the three members.
One of the team members then fell sick and we were left with only two other member. The other
member was facing severe personal issues for which he cannot participate in team effort.
Ultimately, the entire responsibility came upon me and at one time, I was burnt out. I felt like
withdrawing myself, as I could not take up the stress. Then i realized the true sense of team spirit
and I decided to take the responsibility of the entire team as a dedicated member. Moreover, I
also decided that I will not prepare ppt presentation as that will not stand out of the other
presentation developed by other teams. Therefore, I opted for using software for prezi and

4
HOMELESSNESS
developed a prezi presentation so that the audience gets more interested. However, as I was from
international background, I faced a large number of issues in speaking and writing English
fluently. However, I did not result myself from demeaning myself and tried my best to overcome
my skills in English. However, I continued to try and hence the report that I developed had good
quality English that impressed the audience. Overall, with the various difficulties, which I went
through the phase, I had become more string, focused and dedicated towards my work. I have
seen that how hard work pays in gaining respect and applause and hence I am determined to
overcome all barriers that come in my way and emerge victorious in all of them.

5
HOMELESSNESS
References:
Bullen, J. (2015). Governing homelessness: The discursive and institutional construction of
homelessness in Australia. Housing, Theory and Society, vol 32(2), pp 218-239.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14036096.2015.1024886
Chamberlain, C., Johnson, G., & Robinson, C. (Eds.). (2014). Homelessness in Australia. UNSW
Press.retreived from: https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=gfKLBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT8&dq=homelessness+in+australia&ot
s=k-PUSCb6Cj&sig=0wzUXD7y59b5qIFn9TzDgk4Y0q0#v=onepage&q=homelessness
%20in%20australia&f=false
Flatau, P., Thielking, M., MacKenzie, D., & Steen, A. (2015). The cost of youth homelessness in
Australia study: snapshot report 1. DOI: 10.4225/50/55AC3D19B3DAE
Johnson, G., & Watson, J. (2017). International commentary: The implications of the family
options study for family homelessness in Australia. CityScape: A Journal of Policy
Development and Research, vol 19(3), 215-221.retreived from :
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Guy_Johnson/publication/321871263_International
_Commentary_The_Implications_of_the_Family_Options_Study_for_Family_Homeless
ness_in_Australia/links/5a36f8200f7e9b10d8484b85/International-Commentary-The-
Implications-of-the-Family-Options-Study-for-Family-Homelessness-in-Australia.pdf
McNamara, P. (2015). Young people at risk of lifelong poverty: Youth homelessness in
Australia. In Theoretical and Empirical Insights into Child and Family Poverty (pp. 217-
238). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17506-5_14

6
HOMELESSNESS
Sharam, A., & Hulse, K. (2014). Understanding the nexus between poverty and homelessness:
relational poverty analysis of families experiencing homelessness in Australia. Housing,
Theory and Society, Vol 31(3), pp 294-309.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14036096.2014.882405