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Homelessness is a global challenge.

The United Nations Human Settlements Program estimates that 1.1 billion people live in inadequate housing, and the best data available suggest that more than 100 million people have no housing at all.

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A Global Framework for Understanding and Measuring Homelessness

Volker Busch-Geertsemaa

Dennis Culhane

Suzanne Fitzpatrick

There is no globally agreed definition of homelessness. Even within countries, the topic can be contentious. At the same time, we know we can’t measure and solve a problem we can’t define, so in 2015 IGH made developing shared language on homelessness a top priority. The result of this project is the IGH Framework, the product of collaboration from researchers, policy experts and on-the-ground leaders in six continents. While...

Geraldton Aboriginal Housing Action Plan

This Action Plan is the result of ideas generated during focus groups from the research process and from a two day MAOA Aboriginal Housing Action Planning Workshop held in Geraldton in July 2012 attended by a wide range of housing service providers and Aboriginal community members.

Homelessness and Substance Abuse: Which Comes First?

Guy Johnson

Chris Chamberlain

The present paper uses a social selection and social adaptation framework to investigate whether problematic substance use normally precedes or follows homelessness. Clarifying temporal order is important for policy and program design. The paper uses information from a large dataset (N4,291) gathered at two services in Melbourne, supplemented by 65 indepth interviews. We found that 43% of the sample had substance abuse...

The lived experiences of housing among Indigenous people with disability

Elizabeth Grant; George Zillante; Amit Srivastava; Selina Tually; Alwin Chong

This study investigated the interconnections between housing, community infrastructure and quality of life for Indigenous people living with disability. It incorporated three case studies from Yalata and Point Pearce in South Australia and Greater Geelong in Victoria that revealed poor health and disability are major issues facing the Indigenous populations in these areas. The research highlights the need for specialist...

Making every Australian count: challenges for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and the equal inclusion of homeless Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples with neurocognitive disability

This article highlights the dearth of accurate evidence available to inform the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) regarding the extent and nature of neurocognitive disability amongst homeless Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Without accurate prevalence rates of neurocognitive disability, homeless Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are in danger of not being counted by the NDIS and not...

‘Neither here nor there’: Refugee young people and homelessness in Australia

In Australia, one in four young people are from a refugee or migrant background. Young people from refugee backgrounds are some of the most vulnerable people in our community and they might reasonably be expected to have different complex needs compared with other young people. Resettlement in Australia may offer refugee young people the chance to reach their full potential. However, the tasks of resettlement are immense and...

Trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder among homeless adults in Sydney

International studies indicate high prevalence rates of post-traumatic stress disorder within homeless populations. In Australia, studies indicate high rates of trauma among homeless adults, yet post-traumatic stress disorder has not been investigated in homeless Australian adults. The primary aim of this project was to determine the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder among homeless adults in Sydney. Further,...

Housing Needs of Consumers of Mental Health Services in Rural New South Wales, Australia

A survey of the housing needs of 101 people with mentally illness treated by the Central Western Area Mental Health Service were compared with data from the 1994 Australian Housing Study (Australian Bureau of Statistics). The results indicate that people with mental illness want housing similar to Australians in general. However, unemployment or very low incomes may affect their ability to realise their housing choices....

The Causes of Homelessness in Later Life: Findings From a 3-Nation Study

Homelessness is an intractable problem in many affluent countries and affects people of all ages, although much research and service provision have concentrated on young adults. Since the late 1980s, a few studies have focused on older homeless people and have found that many become homeless for the first time in later life, raising questions about why this happens, the unmet support needs of older people, and how their...

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