Injustice In Homeless People

People often tend to think that others are in the awful situations that they are in due to their own fault and poor choices. There is so much judgement in our daily lives, for example when it comes to seeing a homeless person, a common misconception is that they deserve the situation they are in. “Poverty is such a personal experience that only the poor can understand it”

(Misturelli, F. and Hefferman, C., 2008). I wrote this paper in a way that challenges you to put yourself in the shoes of the Aboriginal children and families who are experiencing these root causes of neglect first hand. To imagine yourself within these unfortunate situations as that is the best way I can think of to better understand many of their realities without judgement

Imagine having to choose which needs are most important because you don’t have the money to pay for all of them. Imagine that you are stuck and have been trying to get out of this demanding, recurring cycle for four years and need help desperately but you are terrified to ask for it because you think that if CAS finds out that your children are going without their basic needs met then they will be taken away from you. The unsafe drinking water is not your fault.

Now imagine having all of this on your plate every single day, that you can not escape from and try to imagine how difficult living in the vicious cycle of poverty would be and how difficult it is to get out of. Imagine that you are doing the very best that you can do but you are still neglecting your children because you are failing to meet their basic needs. This is a devastating reality for many families living in poverty.

Economic root causes of poverty consist of; food insecurity, unaffordable food, access to nutritious food, access to clean drinking water, unaffordable medication, poor housing conditions, structural housing issues, under housing, and overpopulated housing

You do not have any social supports or anyone you can turn to, that you trust. You have no money because your partner is controlling and does not allow you to work. Even if you could build up the courage to leave you would have nowhere to go, nowhere to stay and nothing to eat. You think he only abuses me when he drinks so maybe if I convince him to drink less me and my family will be safe.

Sometimes intimate partner violence escalates because substance abuse is involved.

Substance abuse is the overindulgence of, or dependence on an addictive substance; most commonly drugs or alcohol. The reason why less Aboriginal people perpetuate cycles of violence is because they harm themselves instead of harming others, by abusing substances.

Substance abuse is felt deeply in many Aboriginal families and communities which has become a major problem to the extent that dry reserves have had to be enforced. A dry reserve is a reserve where no alcohol is permitted (CBC News, 2008). Alcohol is not the only substance being abused, drugs are also abused. The CAS risk factor analysis makes having any kind of substance abuse issues in the past including both drugs and alcohol, get an automatic higher risk