Topic Tuesday// Housing Insecurity & Homelessness// Tues 26th July 2022 7-8:30PM AEST

Q: Does appreciating all the external factors at play help you to feel a bit less hard on yourself?

There can be so much stigma (which can then be internalised) about poverty, housing insecurity, and homelessness. Awful stereotypes that these can result from "laziness," or that people might somehow "deserve it." Growing up I felt shame about the precarious financial position my family was in, which still persists to some extent.

The more I understood about the global distribution of wealth, though, and how deliberately uneven its designed to be (so it is not an accident at all that many live in poverty) - this helped challenge those ideas that it was any clear fault of us as the affected individuals and communities.

Some resources to learn more about external causes of poverty, housing insecurity, and homelessness -

Wealth inequality in Australia: many of us struggle given a minority amass enormous, disproportionate, and increasing wealth: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-21/australias-rich-keep-getting-richer/10731700

A visual idea of what wealth inequality looks like globally: https://vividmaps.com/global-wealth-inequality-mapped/

Many other factors contribute to housing insecurity and homelessness, including the rising cost of living, low or no growth in wages & income support, insufficient social housing supply for the demand, the income gap for women, family and domestic violence, plus government policies (or lacks thereof) that have resulted in low rental vacancy rates and masses of empty/unused houses.

What do we think needs to be done to help end homelessness and housing insecurity?

And in the meantime, are there any things that have helped, or could help, to get through such rough times?

Very true @Jacques

It is golly hard , for us being self employed and struggling to keep a roof over our heads

I'm sorry to hear of what you've been through @Jacques. That does sound really rough. Thanks so much for sharing with us 💚

@chibam to address your concern, it is valuable to hear the perspectives you are bringing- please do continue to share your thoughts 😊

I know I will be homeless one day @Shaz51 my pension is so insecure. I know the government are being more and more harsh on the criteria of mentally ill people.

@TideisTurning I think the government needs to change what it prioritises, they chose not to build social housing, privatising it has been a disaster under the Howard government. More public housing, opening up more land for development and forcing developers to include public housing as part of their estates as "good will" would change things. Maybe even convert empty commercial buildings into hostels.

What do we think needs to be done to help end homelessness and housing insecurity?

I think the laws/rules in each state (or better yet have national laws/rules for consisency) should protect and advocate for renters. I miss having a dog so much and know that it would help my mental health so much to be able to have a dog and that companionship. I'm very alone and its a struggle. There needs to be equitable access to affordable homes in all areas. There needs to be long term plans to ensure that people are able to buy a home. I dont often think far into the future but when i do i know that being as alone as i am, without much super from having children etc and having no assets, there will probably be no way to 'retire'. Homelessness and housing is a life long issue for so many reasons. I dont know the answers really because it is so complicated but my sense of the world as a 'fair' place where anyone can 'make it' if they 'try hard enough' is gone.

And in the meantime, are there any things that have helped, or could help, to get through such rough times?

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@Former-Member wrote:

@chibam to address your concern, it is valuable to hear the perspectives you are bringing- please do continue to share your thoughts 😊

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Thanks, @Former-Member . 🤗🙂

How can we support each other moving forward, and what resources and supports are available?

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@TideisTurning wrote:

What do we think needs to be done to help end homelessness and housing insecurity?

And in the meantime, are there any things that have helped, or could help, to get through such rough times?

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Well, I can only offer anecdotal commentary here. But a couple ideas I've heard from others are:

1. Much more robust police presence in high-crime areas (to increase peoples' sense of safety), with reliable security services in buildings/complexes known to have safety issues with troublesome residants.

2. The conversion of shipping containers into makeshift apartments is supposedly a cheap, yet reliable way of creating living spaces for homeless people. This should only be viewed as a stopgap solution for somebody's homelessness, of course. But even stopgap solutions are often preferable to no solution at all.