To read the other day about ‘thousands’ of homeless people sleeping in the city alley ways and in the parks of Melbourne just seems so unreal. The ‘official’ figure of homeless people in Australia sits at 105,000.
Prime Minister Rudd described homelessness as a “National Obscenity” and has pledged $1.2 billion towards Homeless Services and Housing programs over four years.
Certainly financial help for the hundreds of organizations that cater for the poor, the homeless and those ‘marginalized’ within our society will, I’m sure, be well received.
Australia is considered a prosperous country with high standards of living. To most Australians ‘Homelessness” is something we observe and read about, but expect to see more in third world countries, or some of the ‘crowded’ cities in Europe and the U.S.A.
However ‘prosperous’ a society might be there will always be degrees of: domestic violence, alcoholism, long-term unemployment, relationship/family breakdowns, financial difficulty, usual accommodation unavailable.
The above are the ‘official’ causes of Homelessness from the last census (2001). Domestic violence is the biggest course at 22% and other stats show that of all Homeless people 54% were male, 36% were between the ages of 12-21 10% were under the age of 12.
The only comforting stat on census night in 2001 was the 49% of Homeless people who were staying with friends and relatives (short-term accommodation I presume). The ‘hard’ stat is that 14,000 people sleep ‘rough’ every night.
So where am I heading here? I suppose I’m trying to think as a husband, a father, a grandfather – and feeling blessed in having been brought up in a happy, safe and comfortable household, the experience of which I would pass on to my immediate family and future generations thereof. I’m trying to work out just how one can break the opposite cycle of violence, gambling and/or drug addiction, family and relationship breakdown – resulting in homelessness.
While an employer cannot interfere in the personal lives of its employees, it can provide a ‘warm bed’ and ‘secure accommodation’ at the work place for its employees. I wrote in the June Builders Bulletin about support, respect and making people’s lives less stressful. I strongly believe that any business that employs people has to understand that while the profitability of the entity is paramount the overall success of the business cannot preclude support and fair treatment of its employees.
The Government plan is to support the organizations working to eradicate Homelessness while at the same time building more accommodation that might be affordable and available for homeless people to live in. While all this must, and should happen it is also critical that leaders and people in a position to influence the way people conduct their lives, should be encouraged to do just that.
At every level society has to change a number of cycles (or vicious circles?) – Homelessness for a wife or woman who has been bashed is just a terrible thing. The male involved either came from a family of violence himself, was addicted to drugs or alcohol, was depressed, unemployed – who knows!?
If Bowens (for example), can act morally and responsibly as a business, can create jobs within an atmosphere of respect and support, then that is the sort of leadership that can make a change.
It is only part of an answer, but it is attainable and every business should be influenced to take on this ‘moral’ responsibility – while still making a profit that can sustain the stakeholders and keep the business in a healthy position.
While thinking about this in my warm bed the other night, I also had the experience with my wife of recently looking after our 18month old grandson. We loved looking after him – we probably spoilt him - but more importantly we continued the wonderful care that he receives at home. During this time we read about the little girl who had been bashed (to death) by her father, and again looked at that sad photo of Daniel Valerio, who suffered the same fate back in 1990.
Domestic violence is not exclusively related to the disadvantaged in our society – we all know that. But the ability to hold a secure job and to live under a secure roof should be a prerequisite for every person on this planet. Homelessness will always be a fact within society, but not something that should ever be accepted.
If domestic violence and relationship/family breakdowns represent 33% of the cause of Homelessness, then it is pretty obvious we need to establish what causes a person to be violent, and what causes a couple to break-up. That is a whole different and complicated subject which every society, every Government, every church and a plethora of community - help organizations have been trying to tackle for years.
All we can do is start at home, start with our business and show more positive example to all those around us. We all have the responsibility to provide a stable family environment and for fathers in particular to be committed within a relationship.
In 1993, Dr Alan Tapper of Edith Cowan University published the facts and figures to support his statement, “Family Breakdown in the form of divorce and separation is the main cause of crime”. But adding to this finding, in 1995 Brian Rodgers, reporting on Australian Research findings in ‘Australian Psychologist’ in 1995, said: “Australian studies with adequate samples have shown parental divorce to be a risk factor for a wide range of social and psychological problems in adolescence and adulthood, including poor academic achievement, low self-esteem, psychological distress, delinquency and recidivism, substance use and abuse, sexual precocity, adult criminal offending, depression and suicidal behavior”. (WOW!!)
Let’s just keep it simple, eh! Go home tonight, give your partner a kiss and your kids (little or big) a nice hug, turn the tele off and have a good chat about how things are going! think yourself lucky, and keep it that way.