Homeless Australian Report 2022

Running Head: SOCIOLOGY 0
HOMELESS AUSTRALIANS

SOCIOLOGY 1
A woman was seating at the side of a street in a tattered clothes with her dog chained to one of
the street pillars with a note written by her side “Help” she wrapped herself with a warm blanket
in order to survive the sudden onset of winters in Australia, her sad expressions claimed that she
is one of the forgotten Australians, who are deprived of a shelter.
The situation which is reflected above is the truth of 116427 people who are homeless and have
no place for taking a permanent shelter, the homelessness issue which has witnessed the rise of
14 percent between 2011 to 2016., there are around 50 Australians homeless for every 10000
Australians. According to the data released by Australian Bureau of statistics, 43500 people
accounts for homeless people who are under 25 (Davey, 2018). James Toomey who is the chief
executive officer of Mission Australia said that such alarming figures of homelessness in
Australia is an international embarrassment which shows the lack of commitment of Australian
Political parties. It was reported that in 2008, the one of the Australian Political Parties had
committed to solve the large-scale problem of homelessness by 2020 through affordable housing,
since then many governments have come up who have forgotten the 2008 strategy completely
thus leading to the continuous rise in homelessness (Ketchell, 2018).
The Centre for Social Impact at the university of western Australia interviewed 8000 homeless
people in Australia which gave the real picture of the live experiences faced by the homeless
people. It was reported that from the people who were interviewed, around half of the homeless
people were rough sleepers, two thirds of them were males and they were in the age group
between 35 and 44 and one of five from them, were indigenous. Those people who were
homeless were reported to suffer from various health related issues such as asthma, liver disease,
tuberculosis and many more other medical problems. The most disadvantaged group in Australia,
experiencing homelessness are males in the age group of 35 to 44. The age-group had to struggle
a lot in finding a right place to take shelter which include sometimes impoverished dwellings,
boarding houses and other temporary lodgings. Another disadvantaged group which is on the rise
are of older homeless Australians. According to a report there are 3.8 million Australian in that
age group who are above 65 and that majority of the older people facing the issue of
homelessness are males and even the percentage of older women has risen by 31 percent
(Homelessness Australia., 2019).