The study found that the media can be
sympathetic to certain groups of homeless,
yet vicious to another.
Image: iStockphoto
Australians, and in particular government departments, need to re-assess the way they see the homelessness issue and the questions they ask about it, according to a QUT researcher.
Emily Schindeler has recently completed her PhD which looked at the issue of homelessness and how it has been addressed in a historical perspective, and made recommendations for change.
"I spent over two decades working in the areas of housing and homelessness and after all that time, I only saw that things were getting worse," she said.
"I realised that if we have all these people trying so many things to address the problem and it is not working, perhaps we are asking the wrong questions and getting the wrong answers."
She said that, while she preferred not to work using numbers as they could be misleading, the number of homeless people in Queensland continued to grow at a staggering rate.
"We know from services that the numbers of people presenting for help with housing is growing - and not everyone presents for help, so in reality it is even worse," she said.
"It is a huge issue, and one I really think we need to understand.
"In the past, the focus has been on why the problem is 'homeless people' rather than homelessness and some of the structural issues around changes in the employment market place, social changes and housing costs."
During her study, Ms Schindeler looked at parliamentary debates, government reports and inquiries, and media portrayal of the issue.
"The media can be sympathetic to one group of people and quite vicious to another," she said.
"We tend to categorise people and have sympathy for some groups and not so much sympathy for others - whether it is because of their circumstances, age or a range of other factors.
"We should be thinking about people's circumstances and responding to that, rather than to an arbitrary categorisation of why they are where they are."
She said that despite all the reports giving reasons for people being homeless, this largely distracts from the single fact that people living in poverty cannot afford housing or basic living expenses.
"I do think sometimes it requires a conversation to start a different way of thinking about the broader issue of poverty, but I think society is capable of that change," she said.
Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.
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