I rarely come into the city center this early, 7.30 am. Circumstances dictated that I did this morning.
In the 400 meters from the Bus Port to this coffee shop I counted 11 vagrants sleeping in shop alcoves.
Australia has twice as many homeless, per capita than the US. (Aus 48 per 10,000, US 23 per 10,000)
UK figures are 56 homeless per 10,000
I have written often about the inequality of Australia, and though we are looked on as a “Rich” Country, only a few are up there in the comfortable level.
The rest? Totally ignored and shunned by society
I do sometimes see a few sleeping bags in our open ended shopping centre, but they are often moved on. Don’t see more evidence of it, as in London where I moved from.
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It is soul destroying being rejected by society.
Not even worthy of a glance or a smile.
I know, I was homeless for a time.
This is a topic of sporadic memories.
In the city of Houston, about 30 years ago, Star of Hope visit resulted in knowing there are community centers trying to provide temporary living. From vague memory, limited resource, and a timeframe for people to move in and out (Find a job).
Fast forward a bit, people at stop lights walking up to cars asking for money. This still exists and unsettling at times. General communication had been homeless are encouraged to get assistance from community centers, however given its 45 min anywhere from Houston, its a circle of ???.
There are times, when walking through downtown to board Metro buses, you see homeless individuals conglomerate under certain bridge walkways.
I think there’s a good number of states criminalize some aspects of being homeless. This gets into another discussion of is that helping the homeless population or decreasing visibility.
I dont think community programs will fix all elements, however it is good to see it in action.
The most disturbing continuous thought on homelessness…I venture to guess not all started without housing, some probably fell into homelessness, and to that I would agree with Bretrick.
No solutions on this post, but a continuous thought in my mind.
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The problem continues to worsen.
I rarely give to the homeless.
Angers me when I see beggars smoking a cigarette asking for money.
When I was homeless I could not afford cigarettes. One has to prioritise.
Why should the public be asked to support a vice?
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I find going to back to the UK and London, which I do about twice a year, is made much worse by the levels of visible homelessness. It was bad when I last worked in London about 8 years ago but it seems a lot worse now. Loads of occupied or simply left sleeping bags, lots of rubbish - all told dismal and depressing (and I’m not the homeless one).
It is striking that homelessness, and particularly rough sleeping, has got so much worse since austerity was put in place by the government. And that’s visible homeless, the rough sleepers, are only a small percentage of total homeless (temporary accommodation, sofa surfing, etc.).
There are surely two ways to look at the problem - its the fault & failing of the individual to get into that position, or its a terrible state that people should be helped out of as quickly as possible. I can see a bit of both views in the comments in this thread.
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It is a problem in The Midlands,has been for many years.
My parents run a social club in the 70s,and every Friday night my Father would buy them fish and chips after closing time.
I was in my mid teens and remember thinking how awful it was for them.
Not too prevalent around here but it does exist. We’ve never given money but felt sorry for one fellow we saw and bought him a roll from Greggs.
Its not very common here, but you do see it in our high street, given the number of abandoned closed shops there are around. I have never given to the homeless directly, but I have given to one of the charities that deal with the homeless.
It’s getting worse in a lot of places, especially post-pandemic. Rising rents, stagnant wages, and lack of affordable housing create a perfect storm. The numbers are heartbreaking, but what really gets me is how normalized it’s become. Like people just step over it, both literally and politically.
It isn’t an issue in my immediate environment but homelessness is a nationwide problem, particularly in large cities. It doubled in recent years due to the influx of refugees. The figures I found relate to 2024 and are likely to rise.
It’s the worst in the UK with 42 people per 10,000 people, followed by France (30), Check Rep.(28) and Germany (26/10,000).
I think there are other factors at play than just the arrival of people seeking asylum. In fact, if asked, one might state that it is more plausible to see the impact of the policies of austerity on homelessness. But if you’ve definite information that asylum seekers cause homelessness I would be very interested in how that cause and affect works.
Homelessness is a big problem where I live in Denver, Colorado (USA). Most of the homeless live downtown in tents pitched on sidewalks, but there are also homeless encampments at various places along highways.
Housing prices have gone through the roof in Colorado – so much that some of the homeless actually work full time but still can’t get off the streets!
Some homeless people live in their cars. They need their cars to get to work, and I guess it provides a little security from violence, which I’ve read is a big problem for people living on the streets – so much so that some homeless people stay awake at night for protection and then sleep during the day when it’s safer.
I couldn’t imagine how boring it must be to live on the streets. That on top of hunger and cold in the winter, plus having to sleep on concrete. What a miserable existence it must be. What gives them the will to go on living?
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Sorry for the delay. I was told that my reply would have to be approved by the moderator.
The point was not to list the usual suspects like unemployment, illness, accident, addiction, strokes of fate which may set a downward spiral of poverty in motion which finally forces people out of their homes. These permanent factors wouldn’t account for that marked rise in homeless people. Nor would other factors like the neglect of social housing, index-linked rents, and subletting for tourism purposes via portals such as Airbnb or landlords preferring to terminate tenancies in order to re-let the apartments at higher prices, especially in the case of older tenancy agreements explain the sharp increase in homelessness. It’s exceptional effects that do.
The causal chain starts with the sheer number of immigrants and refugees coming to Germany who don’t find a job because they aren’t qualified for our labour market. They neither have sufficient language skills nor marketable professional skills and would have to be trained first. Way too many of them get stuck in the already strained social welfare system which makes them a vulnerable group. Due to a tight housing market they can’t be offered a social flat in the protected market and they can’t afford to rent a flat in the free market either even if they have a job because it’s badly paid. The vast majority of immigrants is unable to change the precarious conditions they are in and faces the risk of getting homeless when the above mentioned factors kick in.
Clearly, there’s a scarcity of affordable housing and each new government promises to do something about it but that is not the root of the problem. Immigration is, since it worsens the situation. In the case of Germany, institutions like the Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Wohnungslosenhilfe (Federal Working Group on Assistance for the Homeless) and practitioners acting on a local level agree that the growth in homeless people is primarily due to a rising number of non-Germans, especially refugees from Ukraine. A differentiation between German and non-German homeless people shows an increase of five percent for German homeless people but 118 percent for non-German homeless people. (see charts)
There are, of course, a couple of other factors like bureaucratic regulations, discrimination, housing speculation, etc., that aggravate the situation.
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Same, provided a reply, awaiting approval. Fool me for spelling m1grant correctly.
Thanks for your detailed and considered response.
I agree that the “usual suspects” are not the issue - these are causes that can lead to loss of dwelling, but are not in themselves what causes prolonged homelessness.
I’d also thank you for making me aware of different issues in different countries. And for separating asylum seekers from migrants allowed in from distressed countries. These are two different influxes that are treated differently and create different problems and knock on effects.
I think you perhaps hit on the main issues where migration causes an impact on housing. That is, governments are good at big gestures (allowing people in from distressed countries as an act of humanity). But much less good at thinking through and funding the consequences of a large influx. This exact issue has caused a huge rise in violent, gang related crime in Sweden. There was a large influx and a good effort to house these new arrivals. But the nice housing (large blocks of low rise buildings) were set up in areas on the outskirts of cities - poor transport, low work opportunities, separation from the existing population. The result is disillusioned youth, illegal activities to gain money, gangs and gang violence - and close to no integration into the local society.
All this aligns, I think, with your observations.
I would add in top down housing cost pressure. All the above point to bottom up pressure on social and low cost housing - making them less available. But equally (depending on the country and the local market, maybe more so) is top down price pressure. As the wealthy get more rich they then seek uses for their money - investments to generate payback. A good and steady return is almost always possible from property. So the rich buy up property. This pushes up prices at all levels. And this top down price pressure soon moves even ordinary housing out of the affordability of the majority. This lack of affordable housing also causes homelessness - especially the not-visible, such as sleeping in cars, sofa surfing, etc.
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When i was working pre retirement i had a small company providing services, ie cleaning rented properties for rental agents & Industrial window cleaning etc; I’d done this work for some 15years and employed 15 people, So you could say it was a proven way of earning a living,
One of my customers was MARKS & SPENCER in the city centre
In the doorway every day was down and outs I was told to remove them befor the store opened it’s doors to the public, One man became a regular user of the doorway and he had a small dog with him and I made the mistake of giving this man 50pence every morning to get the dog something to eat, Well this one morning i did not have any loose change on me and I was asked for “the 50pence” I said i did"nt have it today And as i turned to start cleaning the window a passing window cleaner screamed “LOOK OUT” i turned and felt a sharp pain in my arm, He’d stabbed me with a Biro pen, Lucky enough it had not broken my skin and a passing Police man saw what happend, He was not charged as he was known to the police and they said he was suffering a mental illness
It’s a shame some of these people have no one to look after them and they end up living on the streets,.
It is also a shame when there are services but the homeless/ill choose not to use those services.
All councils say they do not have the funds which is a mistruth.
One only needs to see the obscene amount of money spent on unnecessary infrastructure.
100s of millions of dollars is wasted every year but when it comes to allocating extra funds for those in dire need? - no funds
Can only guess, some homeless folks may feel safer under the stars than in a commune.
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