Learn about how low wage, unemployment and poverty cause homelessness.
Homelessness happens in the different ways. It could be complete lack of accommodation which results in victims living in the streets. It could also be in form of victims sharing others’ apartments, or living in their cars. Below are how low wage, unemployment and poverty cause homelessness.
How Low Wage Cause the Loss of Accommodation
Low wage is a fertile land for poverty and lack. Some people receiving low wages are one ‘paycheck’ away from getting homeless. When a low wage is combined with high cost of living, people involved often lose their homes, especially with the occurrence of a drastic event.
Individuals paying more than 50% or 30% of their income on housing are at serious risk of becoming rough sleepers.
How Unemployment Cause People to be Living without a Home
As a cause of homelessness, unemployment happens in different ways. In some cases, it’s a sudden loss of a job; in some, it’s migrants moving to new places and failing to get jobs or settle in. Further, it could a large-scale perennial unemployment situation.
Once a person is unemployed for a time, they can easily end up being without a home. And getting a job is not all that easy as research shows that most unhoused people want to work but face obstacles, such as not having a permanent address.
Layoffs and job cuts leave individuals and families in desperate circumstances. Unemployment benefits and savings run out, forcing people who never thought it could happen to them, to live outside.
Read: Homelessness is dangerous to victims of it
After getting evicted together with his son Billy, Shandor said: “Not only did I lose a good friend, I was just thinking, ‘What happens now, where am I going to sleep? Where am I going to shower? Where am I going to cook? Where’s my son going to go… I couldn’t see beyond the end of the day.”
Eviction from a privately rented home is one of the leading causes of homelessness. Unemployment, low wage with disproportionately high cost of living, and unfair evictions, makes some people struggle to keep a roof over their head.
How Poverty Cause Homelessness
As regards poverty, while homelessness has many different causes such as substance abuse and addiction, mental illness, domestic violence et cetera, poverty is the primary cause of homelessness. It’s like a propeller. A person can have chronic mental illness and still be housed if they’re well-to-do. However, the lack of money combined with one of the foregoing factors can quickly cause one to be without a home.
