The Issue of Homelessness

By Kat

105,237.

Currently, 105,237 people are homeless in Australia. 105,037 people lacking basic foundations for life. 105,237 people with no home to return to.

The concept of home is something that we often take for granted. It is what we have always had, it is something that has been always there to the point we give little thought to what life would be like should that liberty be taken away from us. The truth is that it is difficult to imagine, and yet the reality is imminent as it faces us everywhere.

Dank streets. The cold wind beats down on their faces, and their environment is relentless to them- people who lack the ability to feel safe, people who lack easy access to basic physiological needs that are so foundational on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. With all the spotlights on 'first-world problems', the harsh reality of the rest of the world doesn't always hit us as hard as it should.

Afraid of the rain tonight? We don't often realise how much more fear would sink into the hearts of those sleeping on the streets, hearing the cars moving past them as thunder crackles in the open skies.

Can't find a comfortable position to slumber? Try sleeping on the cold hard ground, with sounds of the city all around you and threatening to close in.

Perhaps money doesn’t make the world go around, but neither does being poor. It’s easy to say that money doesn’t matter, when we aren’t faced with the unfair truth of society.

But what can we do?

So often, people walk past the homeless on the streets without a second glance. Parents usher their children across the sidewalks at the very sight. We view them as 'hobos', as people who don't care where they end up and deserved their position. We view them as scum, dirt-marked souls who don't know how to do anything but beg. 

What a load of nonsense.

Many of the homeless sleeping out tonight are mere children. Mere children, too young to understand the weight of their situation, with parents desperate and hard-working, trying to get their lives back together. Homeless people are just that- people. Nobody wants to have to beg for the rest of their lives. But some people have no choice. They try endlessly to turn their lives around, and the least we can do is stop, and contribute one small act of kindness to a more accepting and supportive society.

In the end, change is not a responsibility, it is a choice. But this choice is the thing that helps people and societies move forward, and drives our wills to create and spread positive differences. 

Social injustices such as homelessness are not things that can be eradicated in the blink of an eye. Awareness is a growing thing, and the more people who begin to learn about and value change, the larger our potential for change as a collective society. It takes time and effort to move towards the ideal we strive towards, but in the end, it is something worth striving for.