OUR TAKE

Loneliness, Isolation and Homelessness.

When one aspires to change his or her life and move into a different country, least does that person think about being encountered by loneliness or isolation. Migration in these recent times has become a leading cause of separation from family, friends and colleagues which has lead to being lonely, alone by themselves in a strange country where a few may not know the language to have meaning ful conversations. If you are not open to integration, or to learn other languages and culture, survival in a different country than your native country of birth becomes difficult.

These days a lot of students travel across the globe to further their knowledge and improve their prospects to get better jobs than they would in their homeland. This forces them to leave their kins behind, uproot themselves from the comfort zones and tread on a path that is not familiar mostly which is unknown. This could lead to fear, apprehension, and be detached. It thus becomes important to learn the people skills to have conversations with strangers, remove any biases and stereotypes you yourself have regards to race, color, and economic status. One has to be non-judgemental and have a good self esteem. These traits help to be outgoing and also improve the quality of life one leads.

Isolation is directly related to the trait how outgoing you are. If you are extrovert and love friends or people around then you may not be affected by isolation. However, those who are introverts and are shy, fearful, and rigid in thought may be an easy victim of isolation.

It is thus important to know and undertsand your mental temperaments. If you detach too much you are liekly to become isolated.

Homelessness on the other hand is an economic factor that brings you on streets as a result of not being able to afford a house. This is more to do with financial ability and opportunities given to work and earn a living. Ofcourse there are many factors leading to homelessness apart from economic factors but those could be beyond your control and nothing much you do would improve the situation. Hence if one is experiencing homelessness the key is to first contact centerlink and register your bankruptcy or any incidental situations that has affected you to be on streets.

Today the statistics tells us that the population that is experiencing loneliness, isolation and homelessness has increased because of COVID -19 and not much has improved since then.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics; With a population of 1.2 million people, Brisbane is the third largest city facing homelessness. 122,494 people in Australis were estimated to be experiencing homelessness on Census night in 2021.

In January 2023, at least 325 people in Brisbane were known to have slept rough (meaning they were experiencing unsheltered homelessness), 150 of which were also experiencing chronic homelessness.

These are some of the most vulnerable members of the community and have often spent the longest amount of time sleeping rough. As estimated by interviews with more than 100 people who were then chronically sleeping rough — was 7.7 years. By 2022, this length of time had been reduced to an average of 4.6 years — a roughly 40% reduction.

Today, Brisbane is one of 30 communities working to end homelessness as part of the country’s Advance to Zero Campaign, a national initiative of the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness (AAEH). Formally launched in 2022, the Brisbane Zero Campaign, their main initiative of the Brisbane Alliance to End Homelessness, is a collaborative effort to end street homelessness for all single adults and families in Brisbane.

As community leaders and community organisations it is a must for organisations to take up projects that will rehabilitate the homeless , reduce the loneliness and eliminate isolation. Bring back the community living, taking care of eachother, looking after eachother even if they are not your relatives will make a huge change in the lives of many who are doing it rough. Hence a by name data collection becomes necessary to document and count people in the census.

Karyn Walsh, CEO of Micah Projects, a Brisbane-based not-for-profit organization that provides backbone support to Brisbane Zero explains that. “The whole purpose of by-name data is to house and support people. So it’s not just collecting data. It is a triage tool to assist in housing options, health care, and support services to access and transition to housing.”

Article written by Amrita Deshpande (Associate Editor. MCCQ and New Media Artist)