Homelessness in Australia: A Critical Analysis of the Issue

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of homelessness in Australia, examining its prevalence, contributing factors, and societal impact. It explores the increasing trend of homelessness, referencing statistics and government initiatives. The report delves into the assumptions surrounding homelessness, as perceived by the Australian public, and critiques the use of imagery, language, and discourses in media representations. It highlights unattended issues such as domestic violence and health concerns, while also analyzing the effects of these representations. Furthermore, the report suggests alternative approaches to address the problem, emphasizing the roles of various stakeholders, including government, local authorities, and the homeless population. The conclusion underscores the importance of providing support and addressing the root causes of homelessness to improve the lives of affected individuals and the broader Australian society. It also references the provided assignment brief which requires a critical approach to social problems and social policy responses to identify alternatives to current policy.

Human Service
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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Issues of homelessness in Australia.............................................................................................................3
Assumptions of the problem.......................................................................................................................4
Use of Imagery, language, discourses or metaphor for this issue...............................................................4
Left Unproblematic with silence and ignored issues...................................................................................6
Effects of the representation.......................................................................................................................6
Alternative to the representation................................................................................................................7
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography................................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Homelessness is considered as a major problem in recent period for Australia. The recent
increasing trend of this problem is featured for last fifteen year from 2001 to 2016 in substantial
quantity with the increased rate of 63% from 48%. The total population of homeless people is
more than 116,000 contributing to 0.5% of total population of Australian population. In order to
solve this problem, the Federal Assistant Housing Minister, Mr. Luke Howarth wanted to give a
‘positive spin’ to this issue. As per him, main emphasis will be given to the people residing at
streets to rehabilitate them with proper scope of accommodation. This effort will reduce the
increasing trend of homelessness in Australia with the set benchmark for this criterion to be
maintained as per Human Rights Commission of Australia. In this article we will highlight the
issues related to this social problem, the assumptions of this problem, the utility of imagery and
other presentation related to this problem, the areas of unattended problems with silence from
government, the impact of representation of this problem and other possible alternative
presentation to place this problem in effective manner to the government.
Issues of homelessness in Australia
Homelessness is not the unique problem prevailed in Australia; instead it is evidently found in
global aspect. This problem has direct impact to the individual in micro level and broader society
in macro level. As per the charity Homeless Link, the criterion of homelessness make individual
feel depressed due to isolation. To get relief from this feeling, majority of homeless people get
addicted to different narcotic items like drugs or alcohol. This habit is directed to health problem
for the affected community of homeless people. To get proper treatment, they rush to the
hospital, which is run by the money of taxpayers. Hence, homeless people are treated by majority
of the society with anger and disgrace. (KMj23, n.d)
As per Mission Australia, this problem has wider implication beyond the problem of
‘rooflessness’. The people falling under the category of homelessness in Australia are mainly
consisting of people sleeping in open place or on the road. Main issues behind this option for the
people are to accommodate in refuges or crisis dwelling or moving from one temporary housing
provision to other; the elderly Australian community who stay with their relatives or friends for
specific period, including people staying at cheap hotels or even in their vehicles; the people
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staying at densely populated dwelling provisions without basic standard of community like
caravan parks or boarding houses. (Australia, n.d) Basic reasons for homelessness in Australia are
family violence, financial and housing crisis, and inadequacy or inappropriateness of residing
conditions.
Assumptions of the problem
Refer to topic by Emily Nicole ‘What Do Australians Think of Homeless people’ published in
SBS. Com.au on 11th July, 2018, the assumptions of the problem of homelessness in Australia
was described as per the study made on the people of Australia. The inference of four of 10
Australians related to this problem is that those people are ‘lazy freeloaders’ or ‘stupid failures’
or ‘not working hard enough’. The recent trend of homeless people in Australia had crossed the
landmark of 100,000. The major cities like Melbourne experiences of the street dwellers, who
are trending towards a increase of 75% in recent past years. The inference drawn by Australian
people as per Salvation Army Poll are described above, which is considered as easy inference for
the homeless people of Australia by the people who have never faced the threat of this problem.
(Nicol, 2018)
As per the journal article ‘The importance of discourse in homelessness policy for young people:
an Australian perspective’ written by Ela Kuskoff published in Journal of Youth Studies on 22nd
September, 2017, the issue of young Australian homeless people had enormous emphasis on
community and individual with respective responsibility on the issue. Refer to Australian policy,
this research had investigated the process of policy discourses to make young Australian people
with subsequent support services to them by government policy. The latest study on this subject
has done substantial analysis , which suggested that the assumptions and values related to this
problem mainly depends upon the neoliberal political aspects with respective social and
community responsibility driven by individual forces. (Kushkoff, 2017)
Use of Imagery, language, discourses or metaphor for this issue
The problem of homelessness in Australia has long time impact on the socio-economical
perspective of Australia. This issue is being highlighted in different leading newspapers and
periodicals with the imagery, language, discourses or metaphor related this issue.
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The imagery represents the graveness of this problem in visual medium published in the
newspapers or shown in electronic media. The instant impact of these imageries causes disgrace
for the affected with the compassionate or angry impacts on the part of the better placed people
with home of the society. The below image (image 1) is published in The Guardian in 2017 and
provides the impact of shifting of homeless people in Australia. (Guardian, 2017)
Image 1
The below image (image 2) was published in ABC News in the article ‘City of Melbourne to
remove groups of homeless amid police crackdown on beggars’ written by Andie Noonan on 26th
September, 2017 to project the governmental decision related evacuation process of homeless
and beggars in Melbourne as implementation of policy taken by local authority.
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Image-2
The use of discourse by government official to address this problem is mainly through
publication in print or electronic media by the authorities. The ABC news had published a
political report named ‘Minister for Housing Luke Howarth wants a 'positive spin' on homelessness’ on
the 9th July, 2019 written by political reporter Henry Belot. Through this report, the writer
highlighted the thoughts of newly appointed Federal Assistant Minister, Mr. Luke Howarth for
Community Housing, Homelessness and Community. The positive spin, as termed by the
minister has dual impact of acceptance and concern from people of different walks of life of
Australia. (Belot, 2019)
Left Unproblematic with silence and ignored issues
The problematic issues left for highlighting in the issue of homelessness in Australia are
domestic violence, the health concern of the affected and respective other problems like drug or
alcoholic abuse. The problem of domestic violence is not directly related to this issue, but this is
the secondary cause of the problem of homelessness in Australia. As per Human Rights
Commission of Australia, homelessness is a major issue related human rights. (Commission, n.d)
The issue of homelessness in Australia gives birth to different sociala issues for the community.
The people with home can afford good education, medical attention, and food to fill their
demand. On the contrary, the homeless people are striving hard to get a shelter for their dwelling
and that is the main objective of their living. The other issues of education for their children,
proper medical attention and healthy food for them are attracting lesser priorities for them. The
government is also not so much focused to solve these problems of education, medical attention
or food for homeless people, as they are more focused to provide the dwelling place for the
affected community with basic amenities for them. (d’Abrera, 2018)(Berlage, 2019)
Effects of the representation
This representation emphasizes on the issue of homelessness, which is proving to be a major
concern for the Australian society. The issues of this social problem are highlighted with the
assumptions of the problem of homelessness in Australia. This representation would make the
reader understand the basic issues of this problem, which are derived from the contemporary
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articles related to this subject. The assumptions for this problem are also highlighted through this
representation. The impact of different imageries, discourses etc, are discussed with specific
references. The problems with lesser focus or no focus are also highlighted with ignoring or
silence from the authorities. (ViforJ & Wood, 2018)
This representation is based on the problem of homelessness in Australia, which is a growing
problem globally in different countries. The basic cause of this problem is macro socio-
economical environment, which drives people to face such unwanted condition. There are
different micro causes, which are accumulated to this situation. As this is a major concern for the
government and the local authorities, policies are to be made by the responsible personnel to get
this problem minimized and kept in tolerable level. It is not possible to wipe this problem out,
but with sincere effort from the authorities, this problem can be controlled in tolerable level. For
this reason this representation is done, and the effect of this representation will help the critiques
and the concerned people to be aware of the problem to find the solution by doing research.
(Herault & Johnson, 2016)(Pleace, 2018)
Alternative to the representation
There are several mode of expressing this concern to the stakeholders apart from this
representation. Alternative representation may be offered through social media, policy formation
or other activities. Main objective of this representation is to highlight the issue with proper
awareness for the stakeholders. The identification of the stakeholders is main aspect of this
representation. The stakeholders of this problem are homeless people of Australia, the society,
community of people with home, local authorities and federal Government. We have to
understand the flow of solution for this problem and who are initiator to this flow. The
government, specifically the concerned department is responsible for making policy and
arranging for fund. The local administration has to ensure proper and rational execution of this
policy. The society must be sympathetic for the homeless people to provide them proper place to
reside. And the recipient, the homeless people, should understand the availability of dwelling
facilities and grab the same following the system of the policies. For every level of stakeholders,
awareness building is a basic criterion. This awareness program should be made as per the status
of the stakeholders. For this purpose, social and electronic media may be used to make the
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stakeholders aware of the policy formation, its implication and ultimate assurance to make the
recipient avail this facility.
Conclusion
This representation highlights homelessness as a burning problem of Australia. Proper
identification of homeless people is necessary with their demographic characteristics for
ensuring proper assured facility to them. The allied hidden problems are also to be highlighted,
which may cause damage to the society. In this process, the homeless people should be treated
with sympathy and logical approch to ensure that they do not feel isolated. Proper education for
youth, medical attention for elders and healthy food for affected people are to be provided ideally
to get rid of this problem. As this is a global problem and almost all countries are facing this as
per their socio-economic structure, it should be the objective of the government to provide
maximum benefit to them for meeting their basic needs of home, food and living.
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Bibliography
Australia, M. (n.d). What is Homelessness? Retrieved August 30, 2019, from missionaustralia.com.au:
https://www.missionaustralia.com.au/what-we-do/homelessness-social-housing/what-is-
homelessness
Belot, H. (2019, July 9). Minister for Housing Luke Howarth wants a 'positive spin' on homelessness. ABC
News .
Berlage, E. (2019, July 8). Facts belie positive spin on homelessness. Retrieved August 30, 2019, from
eurekastreet.co.au: https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/facts-belie-positive-spin-on-
homelessness
Commission, A. H. (n.d). Homelessness is a Human Rights Issue. Australian Humaan Rights Commission.
d’Abrera, D. C. (2018). Dying with Their Rights On:The myths and realities of ending homelessness in
Australia. The Centre for Independent Studies.
Guardian, T. (2017). Homeless in Australia: the shifting numbers and definitions. The Guardian .
Herault, N., & Johnson, G. (2016). Homelessness in Australia: Service Reform and Research in the 21st
Century. Centre for Applied Social Research, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, 10 (3), 127-
144.
KMj23. (n.d). Why is homelessness a problem? Retrieved August 30, 2019, from enotes.com:
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/why-homelessness-problem-418145
Kushkoff, E. (2017). The importance of discourse in homelessness policy for young people: an Australian
perspective. Journal of Youth Studies , 376-390.
Nicol, E. (2018, July 11). What do Australians really think of homeless people? Retrieved August 30, 2019,
from sbs.com.au: https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/life/culture/article/2017/05/26/what-do-
australians-really-think-homeless-people
Pleace, N. (2018, August 16). Homelessness: what people get wrong about it. Retrieved August 30, 2019,
from theconversation.com: https://theconversation.com/homelessness-what-people-get-
wrong-about-it-100985
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ViforJ, R. O., & Wood, G. (2018, July 16). Why Australia’s homelessness problem is getting worse, despite
a rise in housing stock. Retrieved August 30, 2019, from theconversation.com:
http://theconversation.com/why-australias-homelessness-problem-is-getting-worse-despite-a-
rise-in-housing-stock-95926
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