What if someone in this room was suddenly living on the streets? Should I change my views and opinions on them and what if I did? How do you think they would feel? And how would you feel in their position? Today I will be talking about the stereotypes that are put on the homeless and how wrong those stereotypes actually are. My argument will include the average age and gender of the homeless in Australia, the countless causes of homelessness, and the responsibility we have as a community and a country to ensure that in our future anyone who is hit with bad times isn’t cast straight onto the streets.
I’m sure that if asked to describe the average homeless person you would all agree on the same thing, the classic middle aged man, dressed in dirty old clothes who is probably a drunk. Although these people may exist they do not make up for the entire homeless community. The 2011 Census showed that 105,237 people were considered homeless, this is an increase of 15,509 people from 2006’s census. Of those 105,237 people 44% were Female. The 2011 census also found that 28,758 (that’s 27%) of these people are under the age of 18, and that 14,851 (that’s 14%) are 55 years old and above some of them are even older than 75. It also found a total of 6,745 homeless families. Unfortunately this information isn’t exactly well known so a lot of people really don’t care all they know is that the homeless are a bunch of men that drink. But I’m sure that if all of Australia knew that 27% of the homeless were children and teens, and that 14% were respectable elders. More aid would be given to those in need
Continuing with the stereotypes a lot of people are positive that the majority of the homeless are indeed homeless because they brought it upon themselves probably due to drug and alcohol abuse, yet they wouldn’t know it was found that the single largest cause of homelessness in Australia is domestic and family violence, which largely affects children and teens. They