Discuss about the Symbolic Burden of Homelessness.
Helping others in bettering in their life invoke a sense of happiness. I also felt happy and proud, when I became a part of the Durbar Australia. It is a foundation created by the freedom fighters to fight homelessness in Australia, especially Sydney. The mission of the organization is to fight homelessness and support homeless children in Australia. The organization aims to help the children in Australia and Sydney.
The fund is obtained from the freedom fighters of Bangladesh, who are living in Australia. These people donate their money as they obtain it from the Bangladeshi government. Working with the organization, I felt immensely happy and proud. I was a part of the program addressed to meet the needs of several hundred homeless people in Australia.
Description of Organization
Durbar Australia is located at the center of Australia, which is continuously operating to provide services to the homeless people in Australia. The organization has its own building, facilities, and all the designs are served to support the poverty-stricken people and children in Australia. The organization has an excellent infrastructure to offer meals twice a day (Gaetz, S., Gulliver, T., and Richter, T. (2014). It also offers clothing and personal hygiene items, shower, shaving kit, non-perishable food items, and haircut facility. Above all, if offers facility to spend a night with safety.
The organization does not make any differences between different people and offer equivalent services to all the people. These services are provided seven days a week to all the employees. The volunteers, who participate in the program, are also provided free meals regularly. As a volunteer to the organization, I gathered and organized different donations such as food and personal hygiene items to the homeless people in the community. In the process, we placed the personal hygiene items to the homeless people. These items were given when the people were leaving after having their food (Ravenhill, 2016). The senior volunteers had given us the instructions that it is important to be pleasant and wish all the people with a cordial hello.
Before completing the voluntary program, I assumed that I will not be happy in serving food and personal toiletries to the homeless people for several hours. However, I realized that doing something for the society can bring immense happiness. Before the activity, I was also not familiar with the challenges faced by the homeless people. I was not sympathetic with the homeless people and considered them as a failure in life. However, after this activity, I realize that they struggle to obtain the basic necessities of life. The homeless people were underprivileged and unlucky in their lives. Subsequently, I was genuinely concerned about the issues of the homeless people. I realized that there are a large number of people, who have more than necessary; however, they waste without considering its importance (Glendening and Shinn, 2017). Soon, I felt that it I important to take a proactive approach towards uplifting the standard of these people.
While participating in the program, I realized that it is important to analyze the plight of homeless people in a different manner. I understood that daily shower, medical care and food are the basic necessity and available to everyone. I did not realize that these facilities are not available to everyone. Spending a little time with the homeless people, I realized that the homeless people struggle a lot in obtaining the basic necessities of the life (Martijn and Sharpe, 2006).
Working with the homeless people, I realized that the homelessness is omnipresent. In the present, homelessness has become a global issue. The homelessness is an issue, in which the people do not have a permanent dwelling or house. The long term shelter of these people is a shelter home, motel, or tent.
The homeless is a social issue as it provides roots, security and a sense of belonging to the people. It creates a large number of psychological issues to the customers. By getting associated with the organization, I realized that homelessness is a social issue. The majority of the homeless people are found in large suburban areas in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. According to the statistics, more than one million people in Australia can be categorized as homeless as they do not have a permanent shelter. There are several causes of homelessness; however, the primary reasons are drug addiction, unemployment, lack of support, poverty and disability (Auerswald and Eyre, 2002).
I learnt about various programs developed to support the homeless community in Australia. Australia has established Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP), which is a joint program between the Commonwealth and the State government of Australia. It provides funding to different organizations to assist the homeless people or the people struggling with homelessness. It is specially focused on women and children escaping domestic violence. The program is focused on offering various services such as refuges, shelter and range of supported services (Farrugia, 2011). Basically the program is focused on providing accommodation and related services to the customers. It will increase self-reliance and independence among the users.
In the recent years, the demographics of homeless people are also changing as the proportion of youth is increasing among the homeless people. It is due to high unemployment rates and relatively less wages to people with low education level. The inflation rate and the housing and renting cost have also contributed to the homelessness. The current statistics shows that homelessness in Australia is growing at a rate of 14%. There are also cases of growing number of older women on streets and people in overcrowded accommodation. According to my personal experience, the women over 65 are also increasingly becoming homeless (Crane, M., Byrne, K., Fu, R., Lipmann, B., Mirabelli, F., Rota-Bartelink, et al. 2005). I spoke to a number of women and realized that there are several issues such as domestic violence, social breakdown in social relationships and economic status. In such cases, women do not have enough financial support for themselves.
By communicating with my peers, I realized that there are a large number of invisible homeless people. It means that the people are living and sleeping at an overcrowded space. The cost of renting a house, food and other expenses go beyond the average income of these people. However, I realized that the issue of homelessness is not an issue of homelessness but it also results in breach of the fundamental human rights. The homeless people do not have a family, a social circle, which results in depression and loneliness. They are also more vulnerable to the violation of the human rights as they do not possess adequate loving standards (Rosenthal Mallett, and Myers, 2006). They struggle in getting a proper education, living securely. It can be critiqued that access to secure housing is a basic human right. A homeless person will face severe violation related to right to privacy, right to freedom and right to vote.
There are several reasons of homelessness. Poverty and inability to find a shelter are leading cause of homelessness. However, these circumstances may result from various other reasons such as unemployment, other financial pressures, sharp rise on housing prices and rental cost.
There are also other contributing reasons in homelessness such as personal or family problems, which encompasses family problems, domestic violence, issues in physical or mental health or addiction to drugs or other abuse (Toro, Tompsett, Lombardo, Philippot, Nachtergael, Galand et al. 2007). When people became incapable to handle these situations, it results in complex problems.
In Australia, indigenous population is deeply affected by homelessness. These people face social and economic issues such as low level of education and training. They also suffer from other issues such as substance abuse and mental or physical health issue. In Australia, indigenous community has a majority in the homeless population. They also have to face a below average housing facility in comparison to the general public. Their accommodation also lack basic facilities such as sewerage and accessibility to telecommunication (Arthurson and Jacobs, 2004). The indigenous population has cultural challenges in housing or accommodation. They have a cultural importance of communal and outdoor living and using public space for cultural activities. However, it is not possible in modern housing.
With the personal observation, it has been analyzed that women constituent a major part in the homeless population. However, the homelessness organizations neglect to analyze the extent to which the homelessness affects women. The homeless women tend to remain out of sight as they are more prone to violence, rape or other form of abuse.
The women, who have faced domestic violence or sexual assault, are more likely to face homelessness later in their lives. During the volunteer experience, I heard the stories of these women and how they were oppressed by their family or spouses. I realized that these women often lacked control on their lives as they were financially dependent on others.
During the voluntary experience, I often encountered children and youth facing homelessness. There are several reasons of homelessness among children such as relationship, family breakdown, domestic violence, anxiety or mental disease and substance abuse. The children are severely impacted by the phenomenon of homelessness. According to fundamental rights, every child has a right to access appropriate living standards, which are adequate for the physical, mental and social development needs. They should be protected against all kind of exploitation or abuse.
However, homeless children are more likely to endure the violation of the human rights, which are detrimental to their health and development. Homeless children suffer from distress, low self-esteem, behavioral problems and depression. The homeless people have to face several situations, which can be detrimental to their mental health. These people face social isolation, which makes them extremely vulnerable and they lose control over their lives. Furthermore, people with mental illness also face homelessness. They need additional care. However, the current shelter homes are unable to address their special needs. I realized that the government and private entities should make coalitions with each other to give training to the staff members so that they provide adequate shelter and facilities to the people with mental illness.
Conclusion
Conclusively, it can be stated that the homelessness is a breach of human right. Every individual has a right to access adequate housing and living standards. It also negatively impacts on the mental and the physical health status. It is a serious and persistent violation of the human rights. The homelessness and mental or physical sickness is interrelated. Different kinds of mental or physical illness will reduce the ability of a person to find employment, which drifts him towards homelessness. Homelessness also results in various health issues such as depression, poor nutrition, sickness arising from poor hygiene. The homeless people also have little access to healthcare services in comparison to the broad population, which jeopardize the health issues. In addition to it, homelessness also affects the right to personal safety. The safety and security of a homeless person is under a constant threat. They lack a personal safe environment, which makes them vulnerable to personal crime or attacks. Children are also vulnerable to these attacks as they are vulnerable population. They are at a high risk to violence and sexual abuse.
References
Arthurson, K., and Jacobs, K. 2004. A critique of the concept of social exclusion and its utility for Australian social housing policy. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 39(1), 25-40.
Auerswald, C. L., and Eyre, S. L. 2002. Youth homelessness in San Francisco: A life cycle approach. Social science and medicine, 54(10), 1497-1512.
Crane, M., Byrne, K., Fu, R., Lipmann, B., Mirabelli, F., Rota-Bartelink, A., … and Warnes, A. M. 200). The causes of homelessness in later life: findings from a 3-nation study. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 60(3), S152-S159.
Farrugia, D. 2011. The symbolic burden of homelessness: Towards a theory of youth homelessness as embodied subjectivity. Journal of sociology, 47(1), 71-87.
Gaetz, S., Gulliver, T., and Richter, T. 2014. The state of homelessness in Canada 2014. Canadian Homelessness Research Network.
Glendening, Z., and Shinn, M. 2017. Risk Models for Returns to Housing Instability Among Families Experiencing Homelessness. Cityscape (Washington, DC), 19(3), 309.
Martijn, C., and Sharpe, L. 2006. Pathways to youth homelessness. Social science and medicine, 62(1), 1-12.
Ravenhill, M. 2016. The culture of homelessness. Routledge.
Rosenthal, D., Mallett, S., and Myers, P. 2006. Why do homeless young people leave home?. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 30(3), 281-285.
Toro, P. A., Tompsett, C. J., Lombardo, S., Philippot, P., Nachtergael, H., Galand, B., … and MacKay, L. 2007. Homelessness in Europe and the United States: A comparison of prevalence and public opinion. Journal of Social Issues, 63(3), 505-524.
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