Homelessness in Australia: Causes, Effects, and Solutions

This essay examines the critical issue of homelessness in Australia, addressing its causes and effects on both individuals and society. It begins by acknowledging the prevalence of homelessness, citing statistics and legal definitions. The essay delves into various contributing factors, including social issues like domestic violence, economic factors such as unemployment and financial instability, and health-related challenges. The effects of homelessness are explored, encompassing the impact on physical and mental health, involvement in illegal activities, and difficulties in finding and maintaining employment. The essay incorporates supporting evidence from academic journal articles, providing a comprehensive analysis of the issue and its multifaceted consequences. The conclusion emphasizes the urgent need to address homelessness and suggests potential solutions, such as money management training and the prevention of domestic violence. The essay highlights the far-reaching consequences of homelessness on the Australian society.

Running Head: Homelessness in Australia
HOMELESSNESS IN AUSTRALIA

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Homelessness in Australia
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Causes and Effects of Homelessness in Australia 3
Conclusion 5
References 6

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Homelessness in Australia
Introduction
People of Australia are facing homelessness as a social issue in Australia. Several cities
in Australia such as Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane are experiencing the issue of
homelessness due to various factors. It has been found that many Australian are facing the
problems of insecurity regarding housing and they are just one step behind to become homeless.
Approximately 105,000 people of Australia are dealing with homelessness and insecure housing.
According to Australian law, people of Australia can be considered homeless if they do not have
secure, adequate and safe house to stay and if the house is damaging their health. Those people
who are facing problem of un-affordability of homes can be also considered as homeless.
Causes and Effects of Homelessness in Australia
As stated by Cobb-Clark, Herault, Scutella & Tseng (2016), people in Australia are
facing the problems of homelessness because of some social factors, some health-related factors
and some economic factors. In Australia, it has been found that people are leaving their houses
because of their family or domestic violence at their homes and they are seeking for the services
of accommodation from the Australian Government. As stated by Bullen (2015), it has been seen
that almost one-fourth of Australia people are leaving their houses and seeking the services
available for homeless people. After leaving the houses, people start spoiling their lives by
involving alcohol consumption, criminal issues and prostitution. By increasing number of
crimes, the society of Australia has been impacted in various ways. Unemployment is one of the
major reasons that cause financial crisis. An unemployed person faces problems to maintain their
housing. After that, they decide to sell their houses by becoming homeless for survival purposes.
People become unemployed due to lack of skills and fewer jobs opportunities in Australia. As

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the population of Australia is about 2.41 crore so there not jobs available for all the Australians.
It has been found that rate of unemployment in Australia is 5.3 percent.15% of Australian people
are facing difficulties in affordability due to financial issues. Financial issues arise due to
insecurity in jobs and imbalance in managing money. Financial issues cause problems in
maintaining houses. In accordance with Flatauet al. (2015), they are not in the position of
affording a house to maintain. After becoming homeless due to unemployment, people are found
to be involved in illegal activities such as robbery, crimes and other issues. Sometimes, they start
begging to feed themselves. The homeless people face difficulties to find a job and to maintain
the job because of regular hardship of their lives. It has also been found that 12% of the total
Australian population are facing housing crisis. As stated by Cobb-Clark, Herault, Scutella &
Tseng (2016), there are many people of Australia who are moving from one position to another
as they do not have fix house to stay.
They can also be considered homeless. There are approximately 10% of Australian
population are homeless and they are living in inadequate condition. As stated by Cobb-Clark,
Herault, Scutella & Tseng (2016), one cause of homelessness and women are in n violence
incidents. In Australia, women after marriage are taking out of them to be involved in household
activities. This ensures entire financial dependence of women on their male partners. This
financial dependency weakens women to domestic violence. In order to get rid of situation
women commit suicide or decide to home and become homeless. In accordance with Flatau et al.
(2015), they face several health-related issues like cold, skin disease, nutritional deficiency and
many other diseases. The behaviour of homeless people is different. It has been found that
homeless people start abusing other people due to change in behavior by living outside. As stated
by Bullen (2015), there are 10% of chance that the homeless people may involve in prostitution

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Homelessness in Australia
and 32% chance of becoming begger. In accordance with Yang (2016), homeless people have to
stay here and there because of no fixed home and they found to suffer from several health issues.
As stated by Gerrand, (2017), they face many health issues such as cold and skin disease. They
have to move from one place to another so they cannot have proper sleep. They cannot have
proper nutrition because of eating the foods in different places so they face nutritional
deficiency. As stated by Warren, McDonald & McAuliffe (2015), the people of Australia do not
have proper knowledge of money management and this cause financial crisis which leads to
homelessness. If they are being provided with some training for managing the money in proper
way then there is chance to reduce instances of homeless. As stated by Parsell (2017), due to
homelessness, people are facing many social issues and they are abused by other people. Some
systems need to be transformed to solve the issues.
Conclusion
Homelessness is the major issue in Australia and it is affecting the lives of people of
Australia. People are leaving their houses because of domestic violence and spoiling their lives
by involving in criminal issues, prostitution and much other illegal works. Unemployment causes
homelessness in Australia as after becoming unemployed, people are not able to afford to stay in-
house and become homeless. They also face many difficulties to find and maintain a job if they
are homeless. Money management training can help the people to manage their homes so that
they will not have to become homeless. Domestic violence should be stopped so that youths do
not leave their houses and spoil their whole lives. It is very necessary to solve the problem of
homelessness because it affects the society of Australia in a bad way.

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References
Bullen, J., (2015). Governing homelessness: The discursive and institutional construction of
homelessness in Australia. Housing, Theory and Society, 32(2), 218-239. Retrieved 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
Cobb-Clark, D. A., Herault, N., Scutella, R., & Tseng, Y. P. (2016). A journey home: What
drives how long people are homeless?. Journal of Urban Economics, 91, 57-72.
Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119015000790
Flatau, P., Smith, J., Carson, G., Miller, J., Burvill, A., & Brand, R. (2015). The housing and
homelessness journeys of refugees in Australia. Australian Housing and Urban Research
Institute: Melbourne, Australia. 2(1), 89-89 Retrieved from
https://www.ahuri.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/5759/AHURI_Final_Report_No25
6_The-housing-and-homelessness-journeys-of-refugees-in-Australia.pdf
Gerrand, P. (2017). Preparing the next generation for the machine age [Book
Review]. Australian Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, [Online]
5(4), 1. Retrieved from:
https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=386999571068276;res=IELBUS
Gerrard, J. (2017). The interconnected histories of labour and homelessness. Labour History: A
Journal of Labour and Social History, (112), 155-174. Retrieved from:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5263/labourhistory.112.0155?
seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

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Parsell, C. (2017). Do We Have the Knowledge to Address Homelessness?. Social Service
Review, 91(1), 134-153. Retrieved from:
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/691102
Warren, S. M., McDonald, D., & McAuliffe, D. (2015). Homelessness in Queensland mining
communities: A down payment on Australia’s wealth or inevitable product of a neo-
liberalist society’s response to the cyclical fortunes of mining. Journal of Social
Inclusion, 6(1), 103-119. Retrieved from:
https://josi.journals.griffith.edu.au/index.php/inclusion/article/view/524
Yang, D. M. H. (2016). Identity, Hybridity, and Cultural Home: Chinese Migrants and Diaspora
in Multicultural Societies. By Shuang Liu. London and New York: Rowman & Littlefield
International, 2015. International Migration Review, [Online] 50(4), e56-e57. Retrieved
from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/imre.12275