Is it possible to be a little bit homeless?
Is it possible to be a little bit homeless? Yes, I think so.
Is any amount of homelessness still devastating? Yes, absolutely!
What is homelessness?
There are no standard and agreed definitions of homelessness. Across the world, definitions range from rooflessness to living in housing that isn't suitable as a home. In some countries, only rough sleepers are counted as homeless. In other countries, any person without a permanent residence is counted as homeless.
In Australia, we use one of the broader definitions of homelessness. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, "home" provides "a sense of security, stability, privacy, safety, and the ability to control living space." Any person who does not have this counts as homeless.
Homelessness, in Australia, includes:
People sleeping rough
Living in improvised dwellings
Staying in crisis accommodation
Couch surfing
Living in housing that is overcrowded or substandard
People living in rooming houses
Not counted as homeless, but with many who would fit the Australian Bureau of Statistics definition, are people living in private rental.
I noticed recently that the changes in the Australian rental market over the past few years have meant that I feel less secure in my rental housing now than I did twenty years ago. This shocked me because twenty years ago I was earlier in my career, living with untreated mental and physical health conditions, and making much less sensible, but often very fun, life choices.
I can remember worrying about a $10 or $20 rent rise making my rent tight. Now I am worried about the likely $100 rent rise at the end of my lease. My home currently feels very vulnerable.
Housing vulnerability, housing stress, housing precarity, or homelessness?
One of the problems in how we talk about homelessness is that we're often talking about other people. This is reinforced by fundraising narratives of homelessness, that appeal to "us" to give money to help "them."
After the years I've spent researching lived/living experience led homelessness services and research, I also believe that this is reinforced by who gets to do the research, who gets to write about whom.
Some homelessness researchers have suggested that we need to stop talking about people experiencing homelessness as "other" and instead recognise that people experiencing homelessness are part of the vulnerability that we are all experiencing.
Housing vulnerability is an expected experience now as rental prices in Australia are increasingly unaffordable, and even people who have purchased their home are under housing stress as they try to meet loan repayments. I believe it is helpful to see that we are all in this together.
But there are differences between housing vulnerability and housing precarity. At the moment I am experiencing housing stress because my rent is high compared to my income and because the rent increase I expect to see at the end of my lease is utterly unaffordable. At the moment I don't expect to be able to afford a place that I want to live in in this rental market. But I am not experiencing housing precarity.
I have the protection of a lease until mid next year. I have an income that I can rely on until mid next year. I am not about to become roofless.
Even if I can't pay any rent next year, I will not be roofless for a long time. My twenty plus years of some sort of housing stability have meant that I have built resources. My mental health is the best it has ever been (thank you medication and therapy) and I have accumulated enough social capital that I could probably comfortably couch surf for years.
I am in the best position I ever have been to become homeless and still find options that I can live with. I am extremely lucky.
But this could change. People have told me their stories of being employed and stable but then having a series of life events that knocked them around and, gradually, over many years, led to them rough sleeping. Others have told me that they never really had stability and so one life event led them to living on the streets. Others had social housing before ending up on the streets.
Surprisingly, some have told me that they didn't even realise that they were homeless until after they had been sleeping rough for some time.
What does this mean for housing justice?
I think that an important consideration for housing justice is that, yes, most of us are at risk of homelessness to greater or lesser degrees. Some of us might already be a little bit homeless but haven't yet clocked it. But also, we are not all the same in our homelessness.
For me to feel safe from homelessness, I just need to be able to afford my rent. Housing affordability is the only answer. For others, they might need a period of intensive supports, or lifelong supports.
After twenty years of working in homelessness and social housing I feel certain that the only person who can tell you what they need to feel safe from homelessness is the person themselves. And that they might not yet know all that they will need.
My guess is that it's always housing first. And this is so important that I will repeat it: it’s probably always housing first. This is the foundational principle of the Housing First models of intervention. But I think that we need to keep listening beyond housing, and to keep working together towards what we all need to feel safe and secure in our homes.