The homeless; haggard faces, dishevelled clothes, overpowering stenches. They huddle in alleys swigging whisky, scrounging money to feed their drug addiction whilst continually aware that they have happily chosen this life (if you were to believe preconceptions and some politicians).
A life jam packed with entertainment, fun, excitement and laughter. The fact that they don’t know where they will sleep each night, where the next meal is coming from or when they will be spontaneously attacked again just adds to this beautiful life.
“In reality, homelessness is a physically and spiritually punishing lifestyle. Smug nobility has no place when you’re struggling to survive,”
Chris Middendorp, The Age, 2004
Time and again the stereotypes of the homeless being bludgers and/or derros and/or harsher derogatory terms are circulated by the media and society. How many times are we told that the homeless like the lives they live and don’t want to put in the hard graft because they receive heavy dole payments every fortnight?
Research has shown that the major causes of homelessness are; lack of affordable housing, abuse, unemployment, mental illness, poverty, familial/relationship breakdown, physical illness and social discrimination. So how are these people choosing the life they lead? Correct me if I’m wrong, but these factors are generally beyond your own personal control.
People must therefore choose to suffer from a mental or physical illness? Or maybe they sit there in the evening wishing they could be the victim of physical, emotional or sexual abuse just to spice their lives up a little. Maybe, when innocently walking down the street, people are secretly begging to be discriminated against because one facet of their personality differs from the socially accepted norm – discrimination which will lead to constant job refusals, alienation from social relationships and poverty.
This is (quite obviously) ridiculous.
If I was to stand up and say someone brought rape upon themselves or selected to have a life riddled with physical or emotional abuse I would – quite rightly – be met with widespread vilification and in some parts of the country lynched by an angry mob – quite wrongly.
Yet, it is still socially accepted to criticise and attack the homeless as being facilitators rather than victims. It is their fault they are bludging off society because they are derelict in their duties to secure a job and future.
It is easier to see them as the cliché ridden cartoons of haggard faces, dishevelled clothes and overpowering stenches. All of whom suffer from alcohol or drug dependency. Viewing them like this means we don’t have to face up to our own flaws, faults and responsibilities as a society.
“If the homeless are seen as cartoon characters, we don’t need to worry about them. It helps us to ignore the discomforting fact that our social system is failing thousands upon thousands of men, women and children,”
Chris Middendorp, The Age, 2005.
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I describe myself as becoming homeless in August 2009. However, if I were to use a standard definition of homeless in Australia (being “A homeless person is someone who has inadequate access to safe and secure housing”) I have been homeless since June 2007.
My face isn’t haggard (but feels it), my clothes are only somewhat dishevelled, and as far as I’m aware my stench isn’t overpowering. I don’t drink, do drugs and I’d never describe myself as a bludger or derro. Like many homeless I suffer from mental illness, but I’ve already written a blog about that. I didn’t choose this life, it chose me, and I’ve been working hard for many years to find my way home and become once again who I want to be.
Those who are homeless are people, not statistics or cartoons. We all have hopes, dreams, thoughts and desires just as everyone does. It’s this cornucopia of stray thoughts and possibilities I’ll be writing about on a blog where you never know what will be coming next.
