Homelessness Becoming a Significant Issue in Australia

Question: Discuss about the Homelessness Becoming a Significant Issue in Australia. Answer: Introduction Homelessness is one of the leading social problems in Australia. Different countries define this term homelessness differently. In Australia, it refers to individuals who do not have safe and secure access to shelter. People with no legal claim on the places where they live are also considered homeless. About 105, 000 people in Australia are deemed homeless. For Australia to be able to find a solution to this social problem, it needs to rely on credible research on the problems that lead to homelessness (Zufferey Chung, 2015). Research studies untaken by Professor Gavin Wood and Dr. Melek Cigdem at the AHURI Research Center and Ms. Deb Batterham and professor Shelley Mallets at Hanover Welfare Services provides a detailed explanation of the geography of homelessness in Australia and the possible causes of homelessness in the country (Wood et al., 2015). Research Findings Homelessness is mostly prevalent in the major urban areas such as Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. Forty-two percent of Australias homeless population could be found in 33 of the 328 regions in 2011. However, today homelessness has become less concentrated. It is becoming less prevalent in certain places such as remote Australia, and it is rising in some areas such as the coastal fringe (Wood et al., 2015). The research also found that there is no connection between homelessness and affordable housing shortage and unemployment. It indicated that regions with significantly high homelessness already have a higher access to affordable housing. Moreover, some stable labor markets are associated with higher per capital homelessness rates (Wood et al., 2015). Demographics also explain geographical variations in homelessness. Regions with many males, single parents, and indigenous people have higher levels of homelessness. Incidences of indigenous people are critical in explaining homelessness in both remote and regional areas of Australia. In urban areas, regions with younger demographic profiles have elevated rates of homelessness. Regions with high-income inequalities were as negatively affected. This happens since these regions have a large pool of poor people, which makes the demand for low-cost housing high (Wood et al., 2015). Homelessness services also do not affect homelessness. In areas with high homelessness rates, there is higher service capacity. However, these services are insufficient to meet the need in those areas. Areas in Australia which had inadequate service capacity in 2001 have experienced significant growth in homelessness (Wood et al., 2015). The research also established that homelessness outcomes are improving. The rate at which homelessness increases nationally declined between 2001 and 2006 and rebounded a few years later, in 2011. Structural factors such as demographic profiles have made this reality. However, other studies have indicators that other unique factors can cause homelessness. These factors are lack of affordable housing, drug abuse, and family and relationship breakdown (Wood et al., 2015). Discussion The study provides that the impact of structural factors that include housing and labor market conditions are covered by interrelationships between employment rates in the labor market and prices of houses or they are simply absent. Move by vulnerable people to homelessness could help to explain the apparent absence of a relationship with structural variables (Owen, 2000). A practical explanation for the lack of a link between homelessness and unemployment or affordable housing is that areas with high unemployment rates and lower incomes rates have a higher number of at risk-persons. If only some fraction of the population becomes homeless, that will mean many of them make the streets their home. On the other hand, areas with low unemployment have a smaller at-risk population, but they are at risk of losing their homes because high rent aggravates the shortage of affordable private housing (Mykyta, 2013). The decline of homelessness has also been linked to structural factors, which reinforces the fact that the government should not solely focus on fighting addition debt, poverty, disability, and having refugee status in its attempt to eliminate homelessness (Booth 2006). The cost of homelessness is incredibly high. Estimates indicate that the Australian government spends approximately 30, 000 USD annually on every homeless individual. Other estimates also put it at 5.5 USD million (Thoresen Liddiard, 2011). The high cost arises because the government has to provide legal services, medical services, and custodian services to them. A significant fraction of this cost caters for corrective, police, and court services. While it has been argued that lack of access to these services is responsible for the increase of homelessness in many regions within the country, it appears that they are not the root cause of homelessness. Some families have access to these facilities but are still homeless (Homelessness, Australia, 2016; Proudfoot 2005). Recommendations The government needs enact policies that are able to deal with the changing spatial distribution of homelessness. It should, for example, increase service capacity in locations of high demand, particularly in regions where there are high portions of people at high risk such as sole parents, males, young people, and indigenous people. Policymakers should also ensure there is an increase in ability of people to access affordable housing. This strategy can help people who are prone homelessness when they move into regions with strong labor markets and tight housing markets. The government needs to have a clear understanding of the contribution of mobility in the geography of homelessness. The solution to homelessness caused by lack of affordable housing, drug and alcohol abuse, and family and relationship breakdown is building stable families. Social and support networks can help families to be stable. Conclusion Several studies have linked homelessness to circumstances, practices of individuals who experience this social problem, and their personal characteristics. However, this recent research suggests that it might as well be caused by structural issues with weak labor markets and expensive housing markets that work together to increase the rates of homelessness. The common argument in key policy document that homelessness is, in part, a housing problem and that unemployment are one of the main causes of homelessness may have ignored many critical issues. This idea is based on the fact that there has been little research to back them up. This research has filled this knowledge gap after examining whether spatial variations in homelessness have a connection with differences in labor and housing market conditions. The single most effective solution to this social problem, therefore, is effective policy responses and interventions that focus on the distinctive geography of Australias homelessness. References Booth, S. (2006). Eating rough: food sources and acquisition practices of homeless young people in Adelaide, South Australia. Public Health Nutrition, 9(02). doi:10.1079/phn2005848 Homelessness: A Consequence of Abuse of Women in Brisbane, Australia. (2016). Interpersonal Criminology, 29-39. doi:10.1201/9781315368528-4 Mykyta, L. J. (2013). Rethinking psychotropics in nursing homes. The Medical Journal of Australia, 199(2), 98-99. doi:10.5694/mja13.10150 Owen, L. (2000). Mean streets, Youth crime and homelessness, John Hagan and Bill McCarthy, Cambridge University Press, 1998. Children Australia, 25(03), 36. doi:10.1017/s1035077200009822 Proudfoot, C. (2005). Tuberculosis and homeless people. Primary Health Care, 15(2), 16-19. doi:10.7748/phc2005.03.15.2.16.c533 Thoresen, S. H., Liddiard, M. (2011). Failure of Care in State Care: In-Care Abuse and Postcare Homelessness. Children Australia, 36(01), 4-11. doi:10.1375/jcas.36.1.4 Wood, G., Batterham, D., Cigdem, M. and Mallett, S. (2015) The structural drivers of homelessness in Australia 200111, AHURI Final Report No. 238, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Limited, Melbourne, https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/238. Zufferey, C., Chung, D. (2015). Red dust homelessness: Housing, home and homelessness in remote Australia. Journal of Rural Studies, 41, 13-22. doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2015.07.002