Podcast: Housing the Homeless – The Solution
28 March 2017 at 8:44 am
Homelessness is a broad term which encompasses a diverse range of people and experiences, but in it’s simplest form, it is the state of having no home.
In Australia an increasing number of people are finding themselves in this state due in part to a lack of affordable housing, which can both lead to homelessness and further entrench it.
While there is no silver bullet for homelessness, a number of solutions are now putting housing first, based on the belief that housing is a human right.
In the second episode of our three-part series, Housing the Homeless: The Solution, we explore whether a housing-led approach is the best solution to homelessness.
We talk to the father of the housing first model and hear from people who have lived and worked it.
Featured in this episode:
- Dr Sam Tsemberis, the founder and executive director of Pathways to Housing
- Chris Bratchford, Mission Australia housing executive
- Cheryl, Common Ground tenant
- Professor Guy Johnson, Unison Professor of Urban Housing and Homelessness.
Produced by Ellie Cooper and Wendy Williams and brought to you by Akolade, not-for-profit event specialists.
There actually is a silver bullet for homelessness and it’s called housing. However, there are no silver bullets for poverty….that is a multi-dimensional issue and there are many reasons people are living in poverty. There are a raft of social policy and employment issues that need to be addressed in order to address poverty. Homelessness is easier, most people just need housing to solve their homelessness. A smaller group with significant disability and health problems will need both housing and ongoing support to sustain tenancies.
Also, we need to think carefully about how we describe people who experience homelessness. It is not a personal attribute, so I think it’s important we don’t refer to them as ‘the homeless’. It helps to remind us all that it need only be a brief experience and not an ongoing aspect of some people’s lives.