The Pros And Cons Of Homelessness In Australia

1.1 What are the disadvantages of the homeless?

The disadvantages the homeless face include a variety of things:

Lack of security

Lack of storage (belongings are carried)

Lack of hygiene (no showers, cleaning products etc.)

Lack of money

Lack of education

Lack of health services

Lack of relationships with society

Lack of a permanent household

(guides.sl.nsw.gov.au, n.d)(peacefrog-homelessness.blogspot.com.au 2012).

Another disadvantage that occurs because someone has one or more of these traits is social exclusion (missionaustralia.com.au 2016). This is when an individual is excluded from society as a result of being different and in many cases the difference is being poor. Smith said that “Getting food everyday and basic shelter are big issues. The most important are food and shelter and the homeless don’t have that guarantee. One guy came one time (to the Valley) and he said he hadn’t eaten for 6 days.”

1.2 Who are the homeless?

The homeless in Australia has a broad category as to who they are as half of the amount of homeless are under the age of 24. In that population however, 10, 000 are children (salvationarmy.org.au 2015). The amount of homeless in Australia was said

Glenda Stevens the CEO of Homelessness Australia, said that “People are more likely to experience homelessness than diabetes, asthma or arthritis.” Stevens later went on to say that almost 2,350,000 Australians have experienced homelessness in their lives (homelessnessaustralia.org.au 2012). The cause for being homeless can be complex and hard to understand in some cases. Individuals can be involved with substance abuse and having mental health issues. Some factors that can be the leading cause for homelessness are housing affordability and availability. Over time, housing costs have shown a slow increase and availability has been lower than the demand. Both of these things make housing expensive to have and hard to find (see Appendix