Homelessness and the next generation shows clearly that many homeless people do not believe their homes are safe and that the experience of homelessness can leave an enduring negative impact on their lives.
Domestic violence and family breakdown too often sets families adrift in a strange and unfamiliar world of emergency shelters or life on the streets.
Each night, Wesley Mission provides accommodation and support to 600 people who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness. One in every five (21.62 per cent) people who seek homelessness support from Wesley Mission identifies domestic violence as the main cause of their homelessness. A further 8.1 per cent claim relationship and family breakdown as the prime cause.
'What is disturbing but not surprising is that home is often considered less safe than the alternatives – even sleeping rough,' the CEO of Wesley Mission the Rev Dr Keith Garner said at the Sydney news conference. 'While the causes of homelessness are often related to domestic and family violence, eviction, financial stress and loss of employment it is other factors including crime, substance abuse, domestic violence and mental illness that play their part.
'It is a sad fact that nationally, almost one third of homeless people who receive support are homeless families – and that number is expected to grow in the coming years.'
More than 17 per cent of Australia's homeless are now under the age of 12, 27 per cent are under the age of 18, and another 15 per cent are aged 19 to 24 years. Families are the most likely group to be turned away from homeless services while two out of every three children who accompany a sole parent are turned away each day.
Almost all of the 22 participants in the Wesley Mission study felt that experiencing homelessness at a young age had a considerable impact on their life as an adult and any subsequent episodes of homelessness.
Many participants in the study felt that exposure to the stress of homelessness as a child had resulted in difficulty forming meaningful relationships as an adult. Many spoke about a sense of deep distrust of others and their inability to interact socially. Several participants spoke of losing their innocence as a result of experiencing homelessness as children. Many had witnessed violence, illegal drug taking and crime – things they should never had seen as children.
Many homeless people felt their early exposure to homelessness and the resulting cycle of homelessness had meant significant mental and physical problems. Some medicated with drugs and alcohol to block out the pain. It also affected their attitude to education and their ability to hold a job. Some participants said their experience of homelessness as a child had resulted in negative learned behaviour with an increased likelihood of regressing to homelessness as an adult.
In fact, homelessness could be initiated as a default state during times of stress. One participant said that after many years of 'normal' functioning, she experienced an extremely stressful time in her life and found herself in the same place she had been when she was a homeless young person. At this point, she found herself trying to find a blanket and contemplating sleeping under the bridge where she had slept as a child.
The Wesley Report also found that it is vitally important that homeless families get quick and easy access to stable, social housing. This also acts as a circuit breaker giving a family time to think clearly about their future rather than live in the shadow of fear and insecurity.
At the same time families need tailored support to not only help them through the crisis but provide a firm foundation to meet future challenges. Appropriate support can also build resilience in children who can all too easily withdraw from relationships, disengage from learning and employment, lose trust, and learn behaviours which can cause them to relapse into homelessness later in life.
The study also found the issues which were being addressed by homeless services went beyond the obvious - food, shelter and safety – to deeper issues associated with social and emotional wellbeing. In almost all cases those surveyed named security, safety and stability of circumstance as core benefits.
Homeless families defined security as a sense of physical safety associated with locks on doors and private rooms in accommodation centres. Safety itself was more closely related to the removal of external risks such as exposure to domestic violence as a result of relationship breakdown, or access to drugs or alcohol.
In many cases, children and parents had left extremely disruptive environments, often surrounded by violence, aggression, extreme poverty or drugs and alcohol-related concerns. While counselling and case worker support, housing and meals were highly valued, services which ensured safe, security and the ability to 'stop and pause' laid the platform for more vital benefits to be realised.
'Without meeting these needs, it was very difficult for a service to address any of the deeper, long-term social and emotional wellbeing issues,' Dr Garner said.
Wesley Mission staff have seen a seismic shift in the face of homelessness - from an experience largely defined by single, older men to one where women, families and children are pronounced. 'If we are to adequately address the major issues, it is the experiences and concerns of families and children that need to inform service delivery and policy reform,' Dr Garner said. 'It is important that both government and non-government hear the voice of the marginalised.'
The Wesley Report recommends that both government and non-government provide more family focused, integrated and flexible services that address the unique strengths and vulnerabilities of families.
'Multiple vulnerabilities and the breakdown of parent/child relationships need multi-disciplined solutions," Dr Garner said. 'This streamlining and service integration can be enhanced by greater interagency or community interaction so to take advantage of the suite of services on offer.'
Shared information platforms are also vital. Homeless people grow weary and distrustful of agencies who continually ask them to retell their stories to qualify for support or help.
While the Commonwealth Government allocated $5.6 billion to build 20,000 new social housing units, an initiative such as this needs to reflect the growing number of families who require three or four bedroom dwellings. Currently there are simply not enough services to cater for larger families. In NSW almost 97 per cent of new dwellings that were earmarked for construction under the National Building program in 2010 were one and two bedroom (4409) while only three per cent were either three or four bedroom (142).