The Cause Of Homelessness In Australia

Introduction

Every day in states across the Australia, homeless women, men and children walk the streets, often begging for money, carrying plastic bags or pushing shopping carts filled with what little personal possessions they own. It is hard to comprehend that in a country as affluent as Australia with an average annual GDP of $US44,073,81 per capita there is such a large amount of people in the community who do not have homes (Jericho, 2013). Over the last couple of decade’s homelessness and poverty has become a serious issue due to the increase in unemployment rates in Australia (Abs.gov.au 2013).

This investigation will be looking at how being homeless affects an individual’s life as well as looking at what the State and Federal governments

Women and children are overwhelming affected by this, with one in two homeless women with children in homeless services are escaping domestic violence (Homelessness in Australia 2012). In addition to domestic violence the other frequent seen causes of homelessness are, lack of affordable housing, intergenerational poverty, unemployment, mental illnesses and young people exiting state care (Homelessnessaustralia.org.au, 2015).

A common misconception is that mental health and drug addiction are the main circumstances for people being homeless(Roger, June 2015) .Although there is a link between the two circumstances most homeless individuals develop mental health issues and drug addiction after living on the streets for a long period of time (Homelessness in Australia 2012). Amongst these individuals teenagers living on the streets are at a higher risk of developing drug addictions and mental illnesses, mainly due to how young and impressionable they are (Homelessness in Australia 2012). According to Youth Of The Streets, a non-profit organisation that helps youths living in difficult substitutions find better living accommodation. Within the first 5 days of being homeless young people are at a high risk of developing a drug addiction (Homelessness in Australia 2012. Evidence suggests that

(Humanrightsactionplan.org.au). The cost of living in Australia is currently higher than other developed countries, on average living in Australia is 12% most expensive than other developed nations such as the United States (Janda, M. 2015). In addition to the high cost living, record low numbers of affordable homes have also contributed to the increase in homelessness (Homelessnessaustralia, 2015). It is estimated that’s there’s a shortage of nearly 500,000 homes across regional South Australia are available for low and moderate income earners to rents or buy (Humanrightsactionplan.org.au). It is not surprising that this shortage has increased the number of people living in boarding houses and on the streets. (Homelessnessaustralia, 2015. Although the Federal government does provide supported accommodation, there is simply not enough (Homelessness in Australia 2012). While Australia is still considered a rich country, if there is a large inequality between social classes it could harm the country’s economic prosperity. Further increasing the gap making more Australian’s at risk of experiencing financial difficulties (Holmes, D.