Family Breakdown - A cause of homelessness?

I have yet to meet a person who has freely chosen to live a homeless life on the streets. A life of sleeping rough, hungry and cold, with little human contact, no job and seemingly no chance of escaping this dangerous miserable life. A vast majority of the people we support are not drug addicts, alcoholics or people with no intention of helping themselves. Family breakdown, domestic violence, gambling, lack of work, loss of self confidence and esteem are one of the worst forms of human mental destruction. And yet the answers are so simple – love, care and kindness.

 

This blog, I discuss family breakdown.

Family breakdown is, I believe, a major cause of homelessness and misery. It is the children who suffer the most at these times. In many cases this is the start of a life drifting from shelter to shelter, couch surfing, seedy bars or a life of crime and living on the streets. At a critical time in these children’s developing lives, the true meaning of life and morals is not taught them. To survive the harshness of the streets leads to an existence the majority of society shuns and frowns upon. Yet, this forced lifestyle is often their only means of survival.

 

Late at night and on the streets, there is no room for weakness.  I have met boys and girls as young as 14 living on the streets. And what is the reason for their running from home? It is often the abuse by de facto parents or partners, marriage breakdown and separation that drives the child from the safe place they once called home. On the streets at such a tender age, children rightly cannot legally access an adult shelter or motel. Often the authorities who locate such children simply return them home to their abuse once more.

 

A child or young person on the streets matures and hardens quickly and in their circumstances, their belief and faith in adults, the law and religion, is very different to that held by most other children. Street survival is a way of life most people cannot imagine and it is only these young people’s cunning and street smarts that get them through. There are always the drug pushers looking for new clients. Clients they can addict and turn into couriers, pushers or a life of prostitution.

 

I am unable to truly imagine and describe the loneliness and fear a child experiences on the streets alone at night. Sadly though, that is often preferable to the life they are running from. Many an adult we meet living a life of loneliness on the streets started their street life in just such a way.

Domestic violence is another major cause of homelessness. At such times often the only choice for abused women is to take the children and whatever is at hand and flee the home. And then police and courts become involved. In many cases this is the start of a life hiding from abusive partners search for them often ignoring court orders. So begins the woman and children’s life of fear and moving from place to place, sometimes sleeping in cars, on couches in barns or sheds. If in their flee from the violence, leases are broken, or accommodation destroyed, it is often the woman and children who are then no longer eligible for rental accommodation. At such times mothers stand a good chance of losing their children to the authorities. To avoid sibling confiscation mothers may start another life on the run and one of lies, constantly moving and abandoning welfare payments to remain anonymous.

 

We cannot judge and have no right to judge.