Personal Narrative-Homeless

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Hey! - Is that your Aussie brother out on the street? “Each day nearly 1 in every 200 Australians is homeless, without safe, secure or affordable housing. Last year, 220,000 Australians received support from specialist homelessness services, this equates to 1 in every 100 people"[i]. Who are these people? Your neighbours? Your Cousins? The people you used to see shuffling down your street? Or are they just some nameless, faceless, silent unseen mob? Are they what my old Grandad used to call “The Great Unwashed”? He was always referring to the unemployed that way. What is the link between unemployment and homelessness? Where do they wash and why don’t they just scrub up and go and get themselves a job? A grimy looking old man limps…show more content…
I think surely he isn’t happy living the life he appears to live. Why doesn’t he get a job? Does he have a choice? Or is he one of the 220,000 Australians we don’t seem to have a place for? The vacant look I observe on his grimy looking face could be all he can do to mask his despair. At first I have read it as “I don’t care”, but he doesn’t look happy, and there is something kind of desperate and questioning in there. Almost as if he is trying not to get his hopes up while looking for someone, or something to arrive, because he doesn’t really expect it to. Not today, nor tomorrow, but he does not want to think things will never change. Unfortunately the state of having no fixed address, or being at risk of homelessness, is not usually short-lived. Once you lose the roof over your head it can be very difficult to get away from the problems that got you there. For example, the cruel cycle of poverty and homelessness - housing costs money. As newspapers often report, rent can eat up most of a welfare payment. To get a job to earn any more money, applicants need to be well presented, look lively, rested and fit for work, and they need an address. To get an address, landlords need to believe an applicant can pay their rent. The bricks and mortar of a bedroom, wardrobe and bathroom are a landlord’s affair, not your lack of access to it.…show more content…
1 in 4 people who experience homelessness on any given night are under the age of 18"[iii]. Newspapers report that the charities which provide support services to the homeless are helping more and more families being plunged into homelessness. Mums and Dads with school aged children, or younger, who used to work and pay all their bills have lost their jobs in tough economic times. The rising cost of living can take the roof from over their heads and they too are left wondering where to go next. Homelessness is not a simple problem. All sorts of everyday Australians can be plunged into poverty and fall into the sad grey world of homelessness, unable to secure safe, affordable housing. How many people do you know who are couch surfing just to keep themselves out of trouble, going from one family member or friend to another, just to keep off the streets? Is that your brother? Is that your mate out on the street? Perhaps its not just your bedroom he needs to borrow but your bathroom, wardrobe and address to have a chance at getting himself a job, rather than just spending another day wondering where he will go
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