Global Homelessness
Let's check states of homelessness in the world.
First the US:
Despite a housing crisis, a great recession, rising income inequality, and elevated poverty, there is some good news among the most vulnerable segment of American society. America’s homeless population – an estimated 633,000 people – has declined in the last decade.
This seems incredible – perhaps literally, so. The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a leader in homelessness service and research, estimates a 17% decrease in total homelessness from 2005 to 2012. As a refresher: this covers a period when unemployment doubled (2007-2010) and foreclosure proceedings quadrupled (2005-2009).
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The decline of homelessness over the past eight years is nothing short of a blue-moon public policy triumph. Why don’t you know about it?
Could it be because we’d prefer not to hear about it? For the fortunate, one’s daily interaction with the homeless is practiced ignorance. Part of any city-dweller’s habit is to swiftly pass those on the street, averting one’s eyes, or perhaps floating a statement about not having any change on you. In a Gallup poll from early August, just 2 percent of respondents said that the category of “Poverty/Hunger/Homelessness” constituted “the most important problem facing this country today.”
Unlike the jobs report, there is no famous, metronomic update on the state of homelessness in America. The “Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress” of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development is a front-page rarity. Since its first iteration in 2007, the report that collects information on homelessness nationwide, has been mentioned in one article of the archives of both the New York Times and Washington Post, combined. Coverage of homeless issues—found extensively in the “street papers” produced in many cities like Chicago’s Streetwise—is just not a topic that catches attention for wider audiences.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/08/the-astonishing-decline-of-homelessness-in-america/279050/Then England:
Statutory Homelessness:
April to June Quarter 2013
England
Household acceptances
• 13,460 applicants were accepted as owed a main homelessness duty between 1 April and 30 June 2013, 5 per cent higher than during the same quarter of 2012.
• On a seasonally-adjusted basis, there were 13,550 acceptances, an increase of 1 per cent from 13,380 in the previous quarter.
Households in temporary accommodation
• 56,210 households were in temporary accommodation on 30 June 2013, 9 per cent higher than at the same date in 2012.
• On a seasonally-adjusted basis, 56,060 households were in temporary accommodation on 30 June, a 1 per cent increase from 55,250 in the previous quarter
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/236899/PROTECT_-_Statutory_Homelessness_2nd_Quarter__Apr_-_Jun__2013_England.pdfFrance:
Homelessness reaching crisis levels in France
For more than 130,000 French citizens, the roads are where they live and sleep.
For decades, the homeless in France were single men, living beyond the borders of society.
But that has now been changed as a result of a four-year long economic crisis.
The housing shortages have led to demonstrations in Paris.
Under French law, tenants cannot be thrown out onto the streets between November and March when winter sweeps through the country.
But come April and they are back on the streets: a problem that’s becoming bigger with each passing year.
Meanwhile, in the posh districts of French cities, tens of thousands of apartments have been lying vacant for almost an entire year.
It is in the rich neighborhoods like this one where the French government says it wants to take over empty apartments and then give them to the homeless to solve the housing crisis. But charities say, it is easier said than done.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/06/25/310832/homelessness-reaching-crisis-levels-in-france/Germany:
Up to 4,000 homeless in Berlin
According to estimates, there are up to 4,000 homeless people in Berlin. Some can be easily spotted. But with many others, there's no way of telling they live on the streets, because they don't fulfill the stereotype of a shabby hobo. Most citizens or tourists don't even notice, or they don't pay attention to them.
That was one reason for Berlin-based Sally Ollech and Katharina Kühn to initiate the project "Querstadtein." Just like in cities like Copenhagen or London, Berlin now offers city tours focusing on the homeless. The idea is to help overcome prejudices and reservations.
http://www.dw.de/berlin-through-the-eyes-of-the-homeless/a-17014920
Germany
An estimated 254,000 people are homeless in Germany
Approximately 25% are women
Approximately 11% are children and young people
Source: European Federation of National organisations working with the Homeless (FIANCE)
http://www.homelessworldcup.org/content/homelessness-statistics
And Others:
Australia
100,000 people sleep on the streets of Australia everyday
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2003.
An estimated 105,000 people are homeless in Australia.
Approximately 44% of homeless people in Australia are female
Approximately 12% of homeless people in Australia are children under the age of 12
Source: http://www.homelessnessaustralia.org.au, 2009
Brazil
In Brazil, there is a deficit of 6.6 Million housing units, equalling 20 million homeless people, who live in favelas, shared clandestine rooms, hovels or under bridges and viaducts, or are squatters, in some of the country's largest cities
Source: Brazil 2000 census
An estimated 2,500 people are homeless in Rio de Janiero
An estimated 10,000 people sleep rough in Sao Paulo
Half of the population of Sao Paulo live in informal shelter
Source: Brazil’s Economic Research Institute Foundation, 2003
Japan
An estimated 25,296 people are homeless in Japan
An estimated 5,000 people are homeless in Tokyo
Source: www.street-papers.org/case-studies-asia, 2006
Greece
Homelessness in Greece has risen from 17,000 in 2009 to 20,000 in 2010
An estimated 9,000 people are homeless in Athens
Source: European Observatory on Homelessness
Hong Kong
52.7% of homeless people are aged 49 or over in Hong Kong
18% of homeless people have not received a formal education in Hong Kong.
Source: Project on Helping Street Sleepers - Paper of LegCo Welfare Panel (2004)http://www.homelessworldcup.org/content/homelessness-statistics
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Luk 10:1 After these things the LORD appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.