Homelessness is the lack of a reliable housing such as a house or apartment to dwell in (Zufferey, 2017). Homelessness can directly or indirectly lead to the inability to acquire other important amenities and conditions for a safe and comfortable livelihood. This includes nutrition and health, safety, stigma hygiene, and prone to exploitation (Lüsted, 2017). According to Phelan, Link, Moore, and Stueve (1997), homeless people are far more likely to face stigmatization as compared to the general poor people. Such people are, in most cases, labeled as mentally ill which is socially discrediting to them and disqualifying them from societal social acceptance. The importance of this topic is to understand the factors leading to homelessness, the perceptions of the society towards the victims and how best to solve homelessness and enhance inclusivity.
Homelessness is widely attributed to poverty. Consequently, it has been found out that the Americans and Britons attribute poverty to the poor people’s behaviors, characteristics, and shortcomings whereby they lack proper management of their finances as well as loose morals. Therefore, the rich have a negative attitude towards the poor and more severe to the homeless. The increased stereotyping of the homeless is based to the fact that they reside in the public areas, they are more visible and disruptive in comparison to other forms of poverty (Phelan, Link, Moore " Stueve, 1997).
Belcher " DeForge, 2012 highlights the causes of homelessness to include both individual attributes and structural factors. Among the structural factors includes; the societal structure, public policy, lack of employment opportunities, inadequate or lack housing markets. These factors are also linked to the effects of capitalism and class stratification which can be termed as responsible for the skewed distribution of wealth and resources which in turn leads to inequality in the provision of health, housing, employment, nutrition among other necessary life domains (Belcher " DeForge, 2012). In this case, social stigmatization and stratification conceive the homeless to belong in the lowest social strata. Viewing this problem from a capitalistic lens, the society does not want it to end and the economy continuously creates losers and winners (Belcher " DeForge, 2012). Therefore, the homeless remain homeless and poor.
On the other hand, research shows that almost a third of the homeless and poor are victims of addictions that attribute to their continued poor state. Consequently, the same fraction is found out to be suffering from mental illnesses hence increasing their social exclusion from their communities (Schmutzler, 2017). Social stigma involves the labeling, stereotyping, separating from the general public, inequality in the provision and acquisition of social, economic and political privileges. In this case, the homeless are considered to be humans of less quality, less productive, dangerous and generally more culpable (Phillips, 2014). Moreover, the society has placed the burden cause of homelessness on the individuals hence making it a normal problem. Due to this public and social dogma, it has been difficult to pass public reforms that favor the solutions towards reducing or bringing to an end to the increased homelessness rate. Social stigma has made it acceptable to blame the victims for their conditions as opposed to having leaders and the governments coming up with structural solutions that eradicate the structural causes that lead to the problem such as unemployment, poor housing markets, and societal structure (Phillips, 2014).
The capitalistic perspective considers the problem as contagious and can be spread and hence ensure the separation of the elites and the poor. in a capitalistic society, blame is laid on the victims only and consider that they should be held accountable for their situations. Capitalism extends stigma by refuting any idea that structural changes could ease the situation (Belcher " DeForge, 2012). In capitalistic countries, individualism is highly valued and hence most of the political and governance systems offer limited or inferior support to the homeless. The media has also in the past been used to push this stigmatization. For instance, the “Not in My Back Yard Campaign” (NIMBY) which was a new paper campaign aiding the closure of homeless shelters in a community. The media portrays a negative perception of the homeless showing their linkages to negative characteristics such as substance abuse, mentally ill, and criminals (Lüsted, 2017).
As a result of all the above factors, homeless people are devalued and rejected and often perceived as a separate category in the society other than normal human beings (Donley " Jackson, 2014). This intensifies their sufferings leading to them losing their self-worth and significance in the society. More often than not, the homeless have little or no social roles in the society unlike other individuals and hence lack a positive social utility in the society and moral worth. This also goes deeper to the family level and social interactions. Due to such stigma, the homeless seek interventions that could help them minimize these effects through exclusion and seclusion (Romano " Hardin, 2017). This includes; reducing their visibility. Given the fact that the normal people feel endangered by the homeless with a preset mentality that they are dangerous hence secluding them, the homeless opt to stay away from the public for their own self-worth as well as avoiding being discriminated (Donley " Jackson, 2014). Others practice the act of blending in by keeping their homelessness condition a secret. In this case, they tidy up and dress in a more presentable way. This ensures that the world does not suspect their homelessness condition which consequently allows them to maintain their self-worth and social role in the society.
In trying to solve the menace, interventions such as social change should be implemented. This includes doing away with service interventions that promote dependence hence making the homeless remain in the same state but at the mercy of the caregiving institutions such as churches (Donley " Jackson, 2014). For instance, Sanford which is nicknames a destination for the homeless has various organizations and churches that provide meals and picnic projects making the victims dependent on charity alone (Donley " Jackson, 2014). Instead, the societal perception of the poor should change enhancing openness, ending the stigmatization attitude and coming up with progressive public policies that help solve the structural causes of both poverty and homelessness (Donley " Jackson, 2014). This includes; availing resources, creating a conducive environment for the homeless to thrive, creating more employment opportunities, implementing policies that legitimately take into consideration the needs of the homeless, as well as shifting the blame form the homeless in a bid to reduce stigma (Donley " Jackson, 2014). These measures can be achieved through meaningful advocacy to the right agencies, institutions, and authorities.
The Australian Administration has put in place interventions in trying to solve the problem through the social inclusion agenda. This policy ensures the equality of all citizens in securing a job, accessing any kind of service, interacting with others through work, personal interests and the society, in dealing with personal crisis, being heard, as well as actively participating in issues that affect them when needed to (Batterham, Hollows, " Kolar, 2011). In this case, this eliminates all incidences of discrimination and social disadvantage to the poor and homeless.
In conclusion, it is evident that homeless people face social exclusion and discrimination from the communities they reside in. This is in addition to the difficulties and challenges associated with poverty and lack of important services to survive. This leads to psychological consequences such as low self-esteem, and lack of self-worth. The greatest barrier to achieving inclusion is the societal attitudes towards the homeless among other structural barriers such as unemployment and poor policies. However, over the past years and especially in capitalistic communities, the blame has solely been placed on the victims. Nevertheless, the tide is changing with governments such as Australia’s implementing social inclusion agendas.
References
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