Social Housing Sociology

Communities and Local Government. 2007. An International Review of Homelessness and Social Housing Policy. London

The issue of homelessness in regard to shelter in Australia has been prevalent for an extended period of time in the 21st century. Homelessness is the situation in which individuals are unable to attain a permanent and adequate quality of shelter. Shelter is a human right as stated under article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which specifies “Housing” as part of the standard of living required for an individual to maintain their wellbeing. Australia’s law specifies no legal right to shelter, however as a party of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Australian government must recognise that all individuals should be entitled to “an adequate standard of living for themself and their family”, where one criteria is “adequate housing” as stated in article 11. It is imperative that in order to fulfil both Australia’s obligation to uphold human rights and maintain social cohesion within society both legal and non-legal responses are effective in dealing with both the causes and effects of homelessness.

Much of these change have been focussed on achieving wider access to welfare benefits and having a tenancy to live in supported homes. The aim of supported living practice like mencap to achieve choice, control and community inclusion has been much less of a focus. The result has been a focus on the housing ‘mechanics’ and as a consequence housing rights are often denied in, institutional practices continue in supported living and community inclusion and networks are not achieved by

Homelessness is all our responsibility. Waking every morning in a warm bed in a secure house for some Australians is only a dream. Every day more and more people are becoming or are at risk of becoming homeless as the global economy crumbles away and monetary resources become harder to find. What is homelessness: the Australian Government Department of Health (2005) defines homelessness as a person who is without a conventional home. Homeless Australians have become disconnected from family and friend and has few, if any resource and very little prospect of achieving financial independence without Government assistant. This assessment will talk about Australia’s history with homelessness, it will go onto to talk about the Government’s role

According to Newman (2008), housing of the poor has to allow for economic independence and self-care while providing a safe and adequate place to live. The debate about decent housing alone is sufficient to provide a healthier living environment has its roots in the late 1920s, when the unhealthy environment of the slums was associated with numerous social ills. The hands-on approach of the housing and social service agencies was

Housing plays an important role in a person’s health and wellbeing. Access to open, green space and having good relationships with neighbours helps to boost mental health. Whilst, having a safe, dry and warm home to live in will benefit physical health (National Housing Federation, n.d.). According to the Royal College of Nursing (2012), there has been an enduring connection between poor health and bad housing.

Structural factors, such as the availability of low-income housing exacerbate on the already burdening individual factors. The rise in homelessness is mostly due to the decrease in the number of low-cost housing units. Nowadays, families were struggling to consolidate their current situations because they are unable to afford the housing need (Thomas Betar, 2012). Inadequate of affordable housing is one of the contributors of homelessness (Ghee WY, Omar RNBR, 2015). A large number of low-income people have been forced to move. Nearly 6,000 people older people who are aged 60 or above in Victoria need to pay the rent of more than thirty percent of their salary (Ronaldson, 1999). The shortage of affordable and available housing straightforwardly harmonizes to levels of homelessness and inadequacy income and insufficient of

This report analysis the number of homelessness by classify in four categories, such as marginally housed, tertiary homelessness, secondary homelessness and primary homelessness (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006, p. vii). Homelessness can be defined as members of community that are living unconventional accommodation, and facing the accommodation situation is below the minimum community standard (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006, p. vii). In recent years, the number of persons in different categories of the homeless population was increased. For example, from 2001 to 2006, the number of people sleepers out was increased from 14158 to 16375.

With a large homeless community and vacant houses one of the first natural thoughts could be to renovate these houses, and turn them into homes for the homeless. But, it just may not be that simple. In the article, Barbara Samuels, who is a managing attorney for the ACLU of Maryland’s Fair Housing Project referenced an attempt to do that exact same thing about two decades ago. A developer named James Rouse and city officials put forth more than $130 million into a poverty-stricken neighborhood to rehabilitate houses and build more, and sadly there are even more vacant houses than before. Unfornately, this probably caused some people to feel there is nothing that can be done, and loose all hope in restoring these homes.

According to the Department for Communities and Local Government the term ‘homeless’ is used to describe households who are threatened with the loss of a roof over their head or unable to continue with their current accommodation. A household is considered homeless if they no longer have a legal right to occupy their accommodation. A local authority has a “homelessness duty” to secure accommodation to “priority need groups” and

The Guardian (2013) states that homelessness has increased for three straight years, partly because of a housing shortage and multiple cuts to benefits, with roughly 185,000 people a year now affected in England. Almost two out of twenty people will experience homelessness at some point in their life, with one in fifty people having experienced homelessness in the last several years (The Guardian 2013). Although there is almost an estimated half a million people

Something I would like to see changed in the Canadian public policy is to implement ways for all Canadians to have sustainable housing. The government is for the people. Our country has more than enough resources that none of its citizens should be without a home and homeless people should not be viewed at or treated in another way than others. We are all human. Looking back at chapter 1 in “Staying Alive”, epidemiologists were trying to convey the overall message that inequality is bad for our health and that each individual must have the basic needs to survive. This relates back to the issue of homelessness, as they are ones who do not have the basic needs to survive. “The most commonly used measure of inequality is that of income differences” (Raphael, 2014, p.24).

Housing affordability can be defined as the ability to access appropriate housing at tenure or price which is not a significant burden upon household income. (1, 2) Australia has seen a significant decline in housing affordability; average house prices have increased by 147% between 2001 and 2011. This was not matched by increases in income. (1) This decline can be attributed to economic growth, population growth, more accessible finance and incentives for owners and investors. These factors create an incentive to buy and store wealth in housing, resulting in overinvestment and house price inflation. (2, 3) Consequently, this results in depletion of affordable housing for low-income households and increases pressure on social housing stocks. (1, 4) Supply and demand has a significant effect on housing affordability. (1)

A whole issue within itself is the accessibility to social housing for vulnerable Australians, with many families needing to seek short-term or crisis accommodation due to the lack of availabilities within the social housing sector, and for those who are able to obtain housing within the private sector often fall victim to private landlords as they display forms of power when rent falls into arears. These people then become victims within the private market, often becoming ‘blacklisted’ by landlords and their agents. It is believed that private renters who attempt to advocate for their rights are often locked out of their premises due to “disruptive behaviour.” (Sharam and Hulse, 2014)

Now a day’s council and social housing estates are seen to be the epitome of substandard, inferior, second-rate living where disorder and irresponsibility run rife. Weather this view of social housing is correct or not public opinion has very little choice but to be on the side of the private rental sector as they are the largest sector within the UK. Mass social housing seems to be a thing of the past as aspirations of voters, in a country where there is a national obsession with property prices, have moved