Addiction And Homelessness Is A Homeless Issue In Australia

Homelessness is defined as a “person who does not have suitable accommodation alternatives and their current living arrangement is in a dwelling that is inadequate, has no tenure or does not allow them to have control of and access to space for social relations” (ABS, 2012). Homelessness is becoming a huge issue in Australia. In the herald sun article, “Homeless man ‘Mousey’ fatally stabbed in Melbourne city park” it explains how one of Melbourne’s popular homeless individuals was fatally stabbed and murdered. The article explains how this certain individual resulted in homelessness “then my sister left, I was left with nowhere to live” which then resulted in “being moved to a crisis centre in St Kilda where he met shady characters and become involved in drug-dealing and later fled from escalating gang violence, moving between squatting and living on the street.” (Dow & Toscano, 2014). ‘Mousey” had battled homelessness for 28 years and describes it as hard and depressing. There are many social determinants that impact upon homelessness; however, Addiction and unemployment are two that can have particularly negative impacts upon these members of society.

Addiction is a compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal (Merriam-Webster). In the solid facts report it states, “individuals turn to alcohol, drugs and tobacco and suffer from their use, but use is influenced by the wider social setting.” Alcohol dependence, illicit drug use and cigarette smoking are all closely associated with markers of social and economic disadvantages (Wilkinson & Marmot, 2003). Addiction is caused by repeated use of addictive substance and how the brain expe...

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...ess initiatives are implemented to address the social determinants that impact them. In the herald sun article, ‘Mousey” explains that “It’s long and it’s cold. And you have to sleep with one eye open because you don’t know who’s going to bash you or stab you or rob you” (Dow & Toscano, 2014). Wilkinson and Marmot discuss the policy implications of unemployment in the solid fact report and imply that the “policy should have three goals; to prevent unemployment and job insecurity; to reduce the hardship suffered by the unemployed; and to restore people to secure jobs” by doing this, the rate of homelessness may decrease in the coming years, providing employment opportunities to those who need them. Brendan Nottle explains in the herald sun article that “When you work with homeless people they’re not nobodies. They actually become family to you” (Dow & Toscano, 2014)