Dealing with Homelessness in Australia

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Homelessness is all our responsibility. Waking every morning in a warm bed in a secure house for some Australians is only a dream. Every day more and more people are becoming or are at risk of becoming homeless as the global economy crumbles away and monetary resources become harder to find. What is homelessness: the Australian Government Department of Health (2005) defines homelessness as a person who is without a conventional home. Homeless Australians have become disconnected from family and friend and has few, if any resource and very little prospect of achieving financial independence without Government assistant. This assessment will talk about Australia’s history with homelessness, it will go onto to talk about the Government’s role in preventing homelessness and the AASW view on the current social problem. An example of how human service delivery organisation are impacted by current political and society’s view. Homelessness has a face and now more than ever society must ensure that the Government fulfils promise made to all of its citizens.
To understand the Australian Social Policy on Homelessness and service delivery of today, society needs to look back into the 1800’s.As early as about 1830 CarolineChisholm started to provide assistance tosingle women in crisis by establishing an accommodation facility.Australian history regarding homelessness policy’s can be traced back to the mid 1800’s and to The Vagrancy Legislation Act of 1851 (Groves 2005). As a fledgling country Australians policies were still aliened with English Law. The early service delivery for the homeless in the 1800’s was limited to charitable organisations and Churches(Catholic Australian 2014 & Alexander 2013) who ran workhouses to help alleviated vic...

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...n Government, The Macmillan Press Ltd. Houndmills.
Supported Accommodation Assistance act 1994 (cth)
The Vagrancy Legislation Act of 1851
Australian Government Department of Health 2005, Definition of homelessness, http://www.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-homeless-toc~mental-homeless-1~mental-homeless-1-2
Alexander, A 2006, Benevolent Societies, viewed 8 May 2014. http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/B/Benevolent%20Societies.htm
Catholic Australia 2014, History, viewed 8 May 2014. http://www.catholicaustralia.com.au/index.php
Alice Springs Women Shelter 2014, Overview, viewed 21 May 2014, http://asws.org.au/services/overview
Australian Government 2014, Budget 2014-15, Viewed 22 May 2014, http://www.budget.gov.au/2014-15/index.htm
Homelessness, viewed 22 May 2014, http://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/2221

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