Australian Homelessness and Gender Bias: A SWSP6033 Literature Review

This literature review explores the multifaceted issues of homelessness and gender bias in Australia, focusing on the impact of domestic violence, particularly on indigenous women. It examines the systemic challenges faced by homeless individuals and the gendered dimensions of these issues, highlighting the disproportionate impact on women and the role of cultural and historical factors. The review analyzes the effectiveness of interventions like the Housing First approach, evaluating its potential to provide stable housing and support services. It also addresses the historical and ongoing gender inequalities within Australian society. The review emphasizes the importance of social workers in addressing these issues and bridging gaps between authorities and those in need, offering insights into potential solutions and recommendations for future action.

SWSP6033: Social Work Theory and Practice (Individual and Families)
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Assessment 1
Introduction
A literature review on the Australian homeless and the issues arising from gender biasness is
going to be provided that closely discusses the many problems it has caused around the globe
in many countries and how they have taken a heavy toll on their respective economies. Much
emphasis has been put on the Australian context of the issues, to analyse and develop a
greater understanding of the present scenario regarding these issues in the country. The
homelessness of many people has brought about many difficulties for the Australian
government in their internal affairs, as such people have not been able to contribute anything
in the economy (Mishaxhiu, 2022). The literature pieces are to discern such information and
look into it critically to develop understanding and form recommendations as to how the
social workers could work around it to safeguard such people suffering from homelessness
and being prone to gender biasness of the society.
In this literature review facts are going to be presented to better understand the situation of
both the predominant issues at a layman level. The various articles and literary pieces taken
in this writing for discussing and reviewing are going to show if there are inconsistent
patterns in the approaches towards solving it and various takes regarding the subject matter.
Social workers often need to have a clear understanding and formulate ways to help in these
issues and bridge the gaps between the authority and the needy to be of use to each other.
Thus having a firm understanding of the cultural and traditional values related to the people
of the country is a must in order to help them with making them feel anxious and cause
misunderstandings. Also, the argument is to present a new perspective for the social workers
to try and opt for it, in dealing with families going through such troubles.
Literature Review
In Australia the major headache or the main dominant reason behind homeless people is
domestic violence in an average Australian family. Such abuse in the family has resulted in a
chunk of women getting homeless accounting for 50 percent of the total cases along with
children. One such instance being the recent case of Naomi who is a 45 years old woman of
indigenous background. Her story revealed that the families of the indigenous people,
especially women, face a higher rate of domestic violence than the non- indigenous women
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of Australia. “My homelessness is directly related to domestic violence, because I would just
up and leave. '' These were her exact words coming out from the experience.
Currently residing in Queensland she came out and spoke of the daily horrors while living
those moments when her family would go through such acts of abuse everyday, the main
trigger behind it all being alcohol intoxication. And that it was not just her father but also her
mother who would go crazy after getting drunk. She was not able to understand why things
had to be that way (Bullen, 2015). But interestingly enough another information was found
soon that her mother was part of the "stolen generations" who were taken away from their
families forcibly to non indigenous missions by nuns and faced physical and mental abuse.
This could be seen as a good insight to why there is such a higher increase in family abuse
among the indigenous communities of Australia. The scars left in their hearts and minds are
too deep to recover thus making the tensions running high in the homes of indigenous
households leading to the newer generation to get out of their houses unable to tackle the
abuse everyday.
And this is just one such story giving evidence to the relevance to the topic of homelessness.
Although violence is the biggest instigator of such consequence, there are definitely other
issues that play a certain part in homeless people in the Australian streets, those being a
financially weak family, or lack of proper education could also be prime causes leading to
homeless people in Australia (Benjaminsen, 2016). While there is quite a proportion of men
being homeless and living a rugged life out there on streets, women's conditions are far
worse, due to often having to leave their homes with children in order to protect them from
being raised in an abusive environment that might scar them permanently, but this makes the
life of women more difficult on the streets thus opting for staying in hostels and friends
places as they are more safer options.
The main takeaway from this may be that women as compared to men are not that commonly
recognized as "homeless" as the home term suggests. But their form of homelessness is more
of a disguised nature and in reality accounts for over 50 percent of the total homeless people
of the country. So one could say that there is clearly a gender bias as to portraying men to be
the most prone to getting homeless in the country (Mishaxhiu, 2022). Also such examples
may be found around the world, since there are not enough women living in the streets they
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are not not deemed homeless, which is a completely absurd notion to go by. As this may be
too extreme an understanding of the notion of being homeless.
A homeless aid strategy called Housing First places a high priority on giving persons who are
homeless access to stable housing, eliminating their homelessness and giving them a base
from which to pursue their own objectives and enhance their quality of life. This strategy is
informed by the idea that individuals should prioritise fundamental needs like food and a
place to reside before focusing on anything less important like finding employment,
managing their finances wisely, or treating substance abuse disorders.
People who are homeless are not required under Housing First to resolve every one of their
issues, including behavioural health issues, or to complete a number of assistance
programmes before they may obtain housing. Housing First doesn't need any service
involvement in order to get a place to live or to keep a place to live (Namian, 2021). With no
additional requirements or requirements above those of a regular tenant, stable housing is
accessible under the Housing First philosophy, which sees housing as the cornerstone of life
development. While participation in these programmes is not compulsory, it has been proven
that doing so makes them more successful in helping people maintain their homes and
improve their personal well-being. For a person to secure and maintain housing, other
strategies do impose similar restrictions.
The strategy of Housing First is very beneficial to any family that is in need of such a facility
or the individual who is homeless. A Housing First method may be customised to
accommodate everyone since it is adaptable and responsive. As a result, a Housing First
method can be used to assist a household that has experienced temporary homelessness due to
an individual or economic crisis and has few support requirements, requiring simply
assistance in finding and obtaining accommodation permanently (Stadler & Collins, 2021).
Housing First has been proven to be a particularly successful strategy for reducing
homelessness for higher need groups, such as those who have been homeless for a long
period.
What components make up a "housing first" programme? Based on the circumstances of the
household, Housing First programmes can offer rental help with a range of time
commitments. Consumers can receive resources as needed to assist them in signing a typical
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lease. In order to improve stable housing and quality of life both during and after housing
placement, a range of volunteering opportunities may be utilised.
The Housing First strategy is used in two popular programme types, although their execution
is different. People and families that have endured long-term or recurrent homelessness and
have chronic diseases, impairments, mental health conditions, or drug use difficulties are the
focus of permanent supportive housing (PSH) (Namian, 2021). It offers support services and
long-term rental help. Such program may play a key role if implemented properly by the
Australian government with the help of the social workers who tend to hold more compassion
for people than officials who might make preparations half- heartedly.
Quick re-housing, a second programme type, is used for a range of people and families. It
offers services and help for short-term rentals. Rapid housing acquisition, increased self-
sufficiency, and housing stability are the objectives. Housing First principles are put into
practise via the Core Components of fast re-home, which include housing selection, rent plus
move-in support, care coordination, and support.
This type of models can be adopted for quicker solutions of homelessness issues that are on
the rise recently around the world and as well in Australia.
Gender based issues
Although gender biasness has not been new to the world and certainly Australia not being an
exception to it, the country has seen many discriminations being made based on sex of an
individual starting from pay gap to employment prospects, working hours, educatio. Women
for the majority has been on the recipient of such discrimination. The stereotypes set by
society have oppressed women for centuries and has caused many distasteful memories for
the women.
Women not being allowed to do physical labor outside the proximity of the houses which
also remained unpaid or acknowledged in the least or take part in important decisions were
the most obnoxious trends that predominated till a few decades ago. Although there has been
a decrease in the severity of it, the issues still persist despite much push from the government
and many NGOs.
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Though late, the Australian government has come around to prevent such unjust
discrimination. While Australia has been subjected to criticism all over the world for having a
rampant racism scenario for decades in the country, this was mostly visible due to the clashes
between the aboriginal people of Australia and the non-indigenous communities (Salveron et
al., 2015). The indigenous people of the country were ousted by the other community and
often their lands were taken away causing many frictions to occur between the two. The
women were not even allowed to own property, and also were taken away to mission to
reform them. But all that happened there was torture for them.
Even the law and order of the past were not so inclined towards protecting the indigenous
people of the nation and often closed their eyes and let injustice prevail.
But now in the new decade this has seen some drastic changes after so much criticism from
the world (Kiram, 2020). The previous poor living conditions of the community are now
being attended to, many schemes are being implemented to uplift the aboriginal people's lives
in giving them new found heights, education has been one primary area where the change is
much emphasized as the government felt that the children especially the females of the
indigenous communities need the adequate improved knowledge to improve their
employability in the current market and also give them new perspective of the world for them
to make it big in the world and turn self sufficient.
The women of Australia have come a long way toward achieving gender equality in recent
years. An increasing number of women are assuming leadership positions, paving the way for
additional women and girls to pursue in colleges, businesses, corporate boards, and
administration (Edström & Brunila, 2016). Sexual violence and sexism in a variety of spheres
of public life are now illegal thanks to the Sex Discrimination Act, which went into effect in
1984.
Equality for women has advanced in this nation thanks in large part to the Act, which
implements Australia's commitments under international human rights law.
Notwithstanding these advancements, bias and injustice still affect women and girls in many
crucial aspects of one ’s life, which can restrict their options and possibilities (Bullen, 2015).
In Australia, there still remains a significant gender gap in the workplace, and traditionally
devalued fields with a female preponderance include elderly care, child care, medical
services, and outreach programs. Australian women still remain undervalued and prevented
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from upper management positions in leadership positions in both the commercial and
governmental sectors, with a disproportionate number of them working part-time jobs in low-
paying fields and insecure employment (Benjaminsen, 2016). Such barriers are still big
hurdles that much work to promote gender equality and remove gender bias attitudes of the
community.
Recommendations
1. From the findings in the review, the social workers can distinguish more in which
areas their interventions are absolutely necessary, for example - to protect the
homeless and help them find themselves into the rapid-rehousing programme.
2. The findings made it more apparent that the social workers are necessary to spread
awareness about different laws and powers the oppressed may choose to go to for
pleading justice for themselves.
3. Social workers can find themselves in a tight spot if they are not careful enough,
regarding the sentiments of a community or an individual while providing help. It is
better to research beforehand before taking actions.
4. It is better to run rescue or relief operations with some form of intervention from the
government, this can safeguard them from many troublesome situations as these are
sensitive issues there is always the risk of things going south.
5. While dealing with discrimination against people they can effectively position
themselves to be the key factor in helping the plaintiffs or the victims to get public
attention thus effectively pressurising the right authorities to take quick actions
(Edström & Brunila, 2016).
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Conclusion
To conclude there is higher issues with the indigenous communities of the Australian
population regarding homelessness due to higher rates of violence in the families resulting
from many stress factors and historical factors, the members being oppressed or scarred from
generation to generation has the tendency to behave the same way with their children, this has
created a vicious cycle leading to so many people having to move out of their homes.
And though there is a lesser number of people from the non indigenous community of the
population facing such harsh conditions being forced to move out, it still does not make them
any safer from the issue. Having poor financial conditions and lack of proper employment
can also lead to them having to lose their roof to hide their heads. Also, the permeating
stereotypes of men bearing the brunt of such issues and that females are still better off based
on not many sleeps on the roads or alleys is misleading and not true. The situation of females
is more complicated when they lose their homes and have to be responsible for their own
safety and their children's. Men generally just by being biologically, physically stronger
compared to women can at least make a living out of physical labour but women are ousted
in such areas. This in turn connects to gender based issues.
The stereotypes set in society do not allow women many choices thus they have to find a safe
way out. Although many amendments are being made and the world is seeing a more
egalitarian system, it by no means has reached the point of gender equality.
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