Monash Magazine

No place to call home

A Monash researcher is shedding light on a hidden problem -- the alarming extent of homelessness in Australia.

By Kay Ansell

Homelessness used to raise images of older men with alcohol problems -- 'deros' easily recognised in the street and quickly labelled. But so pervasive is the problem now that today's homeless could be almost anyone in a crowd, perhaps a couple with young children or a teenager with his mates.

"Even for those managing on welfare or unemployment benefits, all it takes is an unexpected expense, such as a big medical bill, to tip them into the street."

Although homelessness is more common, it has become less visible and nobody has accurately recorded how many Australians have no place to call their own.

Until now, that is. For the past 10 years, the head of sociology at Monash University, Dr Chris Chamberlain, has been exploring the issue and he recently helped the Australian Bureau of Statistics measure homelessness using data from the 1996 census.

Dr Chamberlain analysed the bureau's information and produced startling results -- doubling previous estimates of homelessness in Australia. Previous 'guess-timates' from sources such as welfare agencies had suggested about 50,000 people were homeless. Dr Chamberlain's ABS report found that 105,000 Australians are homeless, including about 17,000 children.

In the 1996 census, for the first time, people staying with friends or family temporarily had the option to write 'no usual address' on their census form. Together with those in emergency accommodation on census night, they totalled about 48,000.

About 20,000 'slept rough', in tents, shacks or the streets. A further 23,000 were staying in boarding houses, living in single rooms and 13,000 were accommodated under the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP). Statistical adjustments brought the total to 105,000, which did not include people in squats, omitted due to the difficulty of reaching them.

Dr Chris Chamberlain's research shows how people can fall through the system.

Dr Chamberlain suspects the real total could be up to 10,000 higher. His research revealed that there is no longer a typical homeless person -- although poverty is obviously common to all.

As a result of the Burdekin report a decade ago, the homeless derelict male stereotype was replaced by another -- street kids. But the ABS report showed that homelessness struck people of all ages and 25 per cent of them were families. As the 1990s ended on such an economic high, why were so many left out in the cold?

Compared to the boom of the 1960s, when most people had a job, says Dr Chamberlain, unemployment has become a permanent feature of the Australian economy. "Since the mid--1970s, unemployment has grown and hovered between about 5 and 10 per cent."

High unemployment increases poverty. Exacerbated by the impact of factors such as family breakdowns, it can be a short slide into homelessness.

Even for those managing on welfare or unemployment benefits, says Dr Chamberlain, all it takes is an unexpected expense, such as a big medical bill, to tip them into the street. Some people never again have a permanent home, such is the difficulty of overcoming poverty without an address.

System failing

This was shown by the census discovery that 70 per cent of homeless people had been in that predicament for more than six months. This reflects how people at the bottom end fall through the system, according to Dr Chamberlain.

It's a system in which almost 90 per cent of homeless people do not receive help from the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program, he says. More emergency accommodation and longer-term solutions are needed, but the first step to providing more support is assessing demand -- by counting the hidden homeless.

For information on postgraduate study opportunities offered by the School of Political and Social Inquiry, contact the school's postgraduate administrator, Mrs Sue Stevenson, on +61 3 9905 2991 or email sue.stevenson@arts.monash.edu.au

Life at 'No fixed abode'

Funny how conversations can change lives.

Just before Christmas, a homeless man became a new regular among the 400--plus people fed daily by Melbourne's Sacred Heart Mission. A staff member befriended him and discovered that he had family he had not contacted in 20 years in Western Australia. Within 30 minutes, she had traced his mother and within weeks, he was writing to the mission about the joy of their reunion.

Sacred Heart's chief executive officer, Mr Mark Nicklen (BSocWk 1981, BA 1985), says the man had schizophrenia and had fallen out with his stepfather 20 years before. But circumstances had changed, and he was now happy to return home.

Mr Nicklen cites the encounter as an example of how everyone has a story -- each of the 700 people the St Kilda mission helps every day.

"It's difficult for a heroin addict to sign up for a detox program, if they have no address."

Like other welfare workers, Mr Nicklen sees the human side of the ABS statistics (see main story), and how homelessness stops people from helping themselves. It's difficult for a heroin addict to sign up for a detox program, for example, if they have no address, he says.

Among the mission's many services are aged care hostels and outreach programs that help disadvantaged people, including residents of special accommodation houses and rooming houses.

Mr Nicklen says areas needing more support include accommodation for those with psychiatric disabilities, and for young, single women, especially if they have a drug habit. Without support, they can easily end up working in street prostitution.

The gentrification of areas contributes to homelessness, says Mr Nicklen, as cheap accommodation makes way for townhouses. Even some of the mission's dedicated volunteers have been made homeless by the trend.

Retired barmaid 'Rosie', 67, was commuting to the mission from outer Melbourne after her St Kilda flat was sold out from under her, he says. It took two months to find her affordable accommodation on her home turf, among her own friends.

- Kay Ansell