On a pavement of George street near Town Hall, there is always an old man lying head down and sleeping regardless of street noise and people walking by. His clothes are in rags and tatters and very dirty. Hardly ever have I seen his face though I passed by him so many times. He looks miserable with his clumsy stuffs around and a written paper sits on his head which begs for people’s charity. Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of him. Such pitty man makes me think like “never hurt him by any means”.
I call him “homeless person” who is not only lack of shelters but also has nothing to do with a lack of shelter. This situation is not rare in Vietnam. But here in Australia, a developed country, it impresses me much. According to the 2001 Population Census data posted on Homeless Statistics, there are 99,900 houseless people in Australia of whom 54% are adults at over 24 years of age, and 10% are under the age of 12 years. Less than half of them are female. (Unluckily these statistics are so old. I'm going to search for updated ones).
Unlike Vietnam, women get lots of priviledge in Australia in comparison to men. That is why this image kept my steps when I was in Hyde Park on the International Women’s Day, March 3, 2008. While other women were happily gathering in the park to celebrate the Women’s Day with colorful baloons, fresh flowers and beautiful dresses, there was an old women sleeping under blazing sunshine. Lots of doves were surrounding her.
She looked quite old with her white hair and wrinkles on her face. Even her eyebrows faded. She was lying on some papers. She might not be an homeless women I hope, but how could you think in such context?
Analysing the reason for houselessness, Homeless Statistics shows that 20% of the reasons is domestic and family violence. I couldn’t think of this reason as a major one before I got this. The other reasons are relationship and family breakdown and financial difficulty. In a previous lesson of mine, a statistic revealed 50% of Vietnamese male in Sydney were unemployed. But I think this number does not reflect the real situation, because many people may declair their unemployment to get social welfare whereas they still have jobs. However, look at this old man in Botanic Garden. Unemployed people, houseless people and homeless people often take this public seats as their bed days and nights:
In an ABC radio program, , a homeless person said: “Living on the streets with only the barest essentials, begging for money, trying to find shelter for the night or simply trying to find your next meal are the main struggles of the day.” Another one explained why he became homeless: “The artwork in front of you, it's also a poem as well, is inspired by my son who I lost 6 years ago, and it was a drug and alcohol related thing. And the thing for me was that I needed to get that stuff out of me. Because one of the reasons I ended up on the street is when I lost him and my family afterwards because basically of the stress of that kind of thing. I didn't want to be around, I didn't want to have a life.”Some people earn money by playing music in railway tunnels, some dress themselves uniquely and impressively like this to beg for money. They let tourists take photos with them and get some coins:
The City of Sydney has a dedicated Homelessness Unit. They provide lots of services. Each year, this unit help many thousands of homeless people, providing them with information, advice, accommodation and practical support.Recently, Sydney Morning Herald reported that Mission Australia and a real estate website cooperated to raise money for housing homeless people. For every click on the website, the real estate website realestate.com.au will donate one dollar to the Mission Australia charity, up to a total of $100,000. I don't know how this money would be used. We hope that with such services, homeless people will have better living condition and get jobs.
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