Homelessness in Australia: Causes, Impacts and Solutions

Running head: HOMELESSNESS
HOMELESSNESS
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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

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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