Homelessness is to have no home – do you care?
I believe homelessness can be solved. Definitely.
See report https://www.launchhousing.org.au/site/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/LaunchHousing_AHM2018_Overview.pdf
It’s mostly hidden in the backs of cars, on friend’s couches
and in overcrowded houses.
Most homelessness is caused by expensive rent and unaffordable houses.
It’s become so normal that it’s practically invisible.
Do you care?
Australian Homelessness Monitor
Homelessness is a national crisis.
The 2016 ABS Census shocked us when we learned that older people age 55-74 are the fastest growing age cohort experiencing homelessness.
Who is ‘at-risk’ of homelessness?
Prevention is a key part of homelessness policy in the developed world. Prevention efforts aim to target interventions to those ‘at-risk’. But what does ‘at-risk of homelessness’ actually mean?
Offering a helping hand
Launch Housing acts as a voice for vulnerable people at-risk of or experiencing homelessness. There’s no one right way to respond if you see someone sleeping rough, but there are some practical things you can do to help.
About Homelessness
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- Homelessness, Research & Advocacy
- About Homelessness
We will improve the lives of thousands of Victorians experiencing homelessness each year.
Homelessness affects more than 100,000 Australians every day of the year. In Victoria, more than 24,800 Victorians registered as homeless in the 2016 Census. We have seen an increase in demand on our services as rising rents and shrinking affordable housing and public housing stock force people into homelessness.
Sleeping rough, in cars or in unsafe, unaffordable transient or insecure housing has severe effects, it is extremely stressful and damaging to people’s physical and mental health due to the fear, anxiety and violence that people who are homeless often experience.
What are the causes?
People become homeless for many reasons, the most common being family violence and breakdown, poverty and serious physical and/or mental health issues.
We believe homelessness can be solved. The solutions are common sense, practical and cost effective. Trauma can be averted and lives can be transformed with the right combination of housing and support.
The best solution to homelessness is to address the causes and prevent people becoming homeless in the first place. This involves ensuring sufficient affordable housing, providing people with access to education, training and employment, preventing ill health and ensuring everyone has someone they can turn to in times of need.
With a combined 75 year history serving Melbourne’s community, Launch Housing provides housing and support to people experiencing homelessness in Melbourne, including short term, medium and long term accommodation, support to rebuild people’s lives and assistance into education and employment. However, more can be done. We would like to be able to provide:
- more long term housing for those with a high level of need
- education and training for people who need help to get back into study and work
- assistance to prevent people from becoming mentally ill as a result of homelessness.
At-risk of homelessness
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By guest blogger Deb Batterham, Researcher, Launch Housing
Preventing homelessness is a key part of homelessness policy in the developed world. Prevention efforts aim to target interventions to those ‘at risk’ to prevent their future homelessness and reduce overall homelessness rates. But despite the importance of prevention, we don’t really have a clear definition of ‘at-risk of homelessness.’
My recent journal article, “Defining “At-risk of Homelessness”: Re-connecting Causes, Mechanisms and Risk,” proposes such a definition, and in doing so it reconnects homelessness risk to the broader causes of homelessness.
The article focuses on:
- Explaining the type of causality involved in homelessness.
- Developing a deeper understanding of the complex causes of homelessness
- Reconnecting homelessness risk to the broader causes of homelessness
After moving through each of these steps, including reviewing the homelessness literature in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom and Ireland, I argued that the following five factors are commonly involved in bringing about homelessness:
- Low income and/or income instability*
- Experiencing discrimination
- The need for support to access or maintain a living situation
- Limited social capital and supports
- Housing market tightness
These categorised causes don’t act in isolation to produce homelessness. Instead, it’s often the intersection of several of these factors which leads to homelessness.
For example, it’s not just a separation from a partner (reduced social capital and supports) that leads to homelessness but also a concurrent drop in income and difficulty accessing the private rental market.
Equally, it’s not just having a mental health issue (which may mean the need for support to access or maintain a living situation) that causes homelessness, it could also involve having low income, and a lack of family or other social supports (limited social capital and supports). Because of this, the threshold for being considered ‘at-risk of homelessness’ has been set at two or more of these five factors.
That is, someone should be considered at risk of homelessness if they are experiencing two or more of the five factors outlined above.
Future Research
So what’s so exciting about a definition? It can be used to define the characteristics and geography of a population who should be considered at-risk of homelessness. Using longitudinal data we could examine how risk turns into homelessness and which of these risk factors is most important. This will help us understand better what causes homelessness. Work is currently underway applying and testing this definition and early results are promising.
Prevention Initiatives
Defining homelessness risk by clearly connecting it to the causes of homelessness provides a clear way forward for prevention initiatives. Prevention should aim to tackle the five risk factors listed above, by addressing low or unstable low income for example, or enhancing and expanding services for those who may need support to access or maintain a living situation (those with a disability, long-term physical health conditions, mental health issues or problematic substance use).
Broader Policy Connections
Prevention policy could also aim to address the origins of these risk factors in the broader causes of homelessness. For example, through industrial-relations policy, the social safety net, the provision of health services and the effects of social stratification and inequality more broadly. This provides a sound rationale to link homelessness policy with broader policy areas such as health and social security and to broader campaigns to tackle poverty and inequality.
This blog piece is a summary of a journal article that was published in December 2017. Read the full article, including information on the re-categorised causes, what they include and how they affect homelessness.
*More information read blog from Launch Housing ‘Link Between Poverty and Homelessness’
If you experience problems obtaining a copy of this paper please email Deb .