Homelessness is a choice

Leaving homelessness takes time, effort, resources, and opportunities which are all out there for the homeless willing to change their status. There are many foundations and clinics to help people overcome homelessness such as Oasis, Haymarket and Lighthouse. Instead of seeking out these opportunities to overcome homelessness, many people are choosing drugs and alcohol as a way to escape their reality. When we take a look into some of these foundations such as Lighthouse, we can see in which ways they are offering opportunities for the homeless. The Lighthouse foundation offers 11 homes in Melbourne and regional Victoria where young people are supported. Lighthouse accommodates for 40 young people in these homes as well as hundreds more in their outreach and care programs. Due to this program, 700 young people have already successfully broken the cycle of homelessness.
There are many smaller support places in other regional towns. For example in Bendigo, we have a support place called St Luke’s which has a specialist homelessness service. This service provides housing assistance for both individuals and families. This program supports people who are homeless or at risk of being homeless to access and maintain safe, stable, long-term and affordable housing. In a 12 month period St Luke’s will work with more than 500 people. Looking at this large number we can say that seeking opportunities to overcome homelessness is easily obtained and these programs are effective in the support of homeless people.
More than 70 percent of the homeless remain so for less than two years due to the outreach of programs to help them overcome this. For most people, homelessness is a very brief phase in their lives. Only a minority actually remain chronically homeless due to the fact that they do not wish to seek help or change their homeless status, mainly due to the high abuse rates of alcohol and other drugs. Substance abuse is both a cause and result of homelessness.
Substance