Young People with a Disability, people who are homeless, or living in unsuitable housing

What is Disability

Each person's experience of disability is different. Experiences are influenced by what happens in your life, your access to information, services, opportunities, the environment where you live, and the attitudes of people in your community.

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) classify 'disability' as 'an umbrella term for any or all of the components: impairment, activity limitation and participation restriction, as influenced by environmental factors' (Disability prevalence and trends (2003)).

There are many different types of disability. A disability can be caused by a genetic condition, an illness or an accident, and includes:

  • Intellectual disability
  • Physical disability
  • Sensory disability
  • Acquired brain injury
  • Neurological impairment
  • Dual disability (one of the above and a psychiatric disability)
  • Disabilities that are unrelated to ageing
  • Any combination of these.

What is Homelessness

Homelessness is defined as when a person is left without a conventional home and lacks the economic and social supports that a home normally affords. He/she is often cut off from the support of relatives and friends, and has few independent resources. Often the person has no immediate means and in some cases, little prospect of independence.

There are many varying degrees of homelessness ranging from people living in insecure, unsafe or unaffordable housing, who are at risk of homelessness, to people living in the street, in parks or squats who are in a state of outright homelessness. People may become homeless from time to time as their income, mental and physical health or ability to maintain social networks vary.

Homelessness is not defined by those living in boxes, under bridges, or on subway grates. Homelessness is defined by a loss of one's environment.

Homelessness is exhibited in many ways, for example:

  • Some people live in rent-by-the-week motels. When they can no longer pay the rent, they may find themselves living on the streets or squats.
  • Others live on the kindness of relatives and/or strangers. However these accommodations tend to end quickly, so the person has to move on, often with children.
  • An individual becomes homeless when they can no longer manage the course of their life. This possibly happens as a result of job loss, substance use (drug and alcohol), and mental illness.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' National Census of Population and Housing uses the cultural definition of homelessness proposed by Chamberlain and MacKenzie (1992).

It identifies three segments in the homelessness population:

 

Primary homelessness

People without conventional accommodation, such as people living on the streets, sleeping in parks, squatting in derelict buildings, or using cars or railway carriages for temporary shelter.


Secondary homelessness

People who move frequently from one form of temporary shelter to another. It covers: people using emergency accommodation, such as hostels for the homeless or night shelters; teenagers staying in youth refuges; women and children escaping domestic violence staying in women's refuges; people residing temporarily with other families because they have no accommodation of their own; and those using boarding houses on an occasional or intermittent basis.


Tertiary homelessness

People who live in boarding houses on a medium to long-term basis. Residents of private boarding/rooming houses do not have a separate bedroom and living room; they do not have kitchen and bathroom facilities of their own; their accommodation is not self-contained; and they do not have security of tenure provided by a lease.


(Chamberlain, C. and MacKenzie, D. (1992) 'Understanding Contemporary Homelessness: Issues of Definition and Meaning', Australian Journal of Social Issues, 27(4), 274-297).

 

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