There are many misconceptions associated with the causes of homelessness. A lack of understanding of the subject means that many people believe that a person becomes homeless due to personal failure and find it particularly difficult to comprehend how a person can become homeless in a thriving economy.
The truth is that many of the reasons for a person becoming homeless are complex and often beyond their control, culminating in homelessness after many years of the problem building up. According to the charity Shelter, the main causes of homelessness in England fall under the two main categories of personal reasons and structural reasons.
The personal and social factors that can lead to homelessness include individual factors such as problems with the misuse of alcohol or drugs, excessive debt, poor mental or physical health, the breakdown of a relationship and a history of involvement which began at an early age. Many people who find themselves homeless also come from an institutional background such as the armed forces or prison. Another contributing factor to homelessness is family background, including suffering physical or sexual abuse as a child, witnessing parents’ drug or alcohol problems and ahistory of homelessness in a family.
The structural factors that contribute to situations of homelessness are usually beyond a person’s controls and involve social or economic problems. Poverty and unemployment are a leading cause of homelessness along with social issues such as housing policies, housing benefit structure and administration and a lack of affordable housing. Other contributing factors which are beyond the control of the individual include situations such as the closure of psychiatric hospitals which people has previously relied upon.
The most common causes of homelessness that homeless people give when questioned on the streets are the breakdown of personal relationships (accounting for over 40% of cases), followed by family members asking them to leave the home (over one quarter of cases) and drug or alcohol misuse (over one quarter of cases). When applying to the council for homelessness support, the three main reasons that people give for being in their situation are the unwillingness of family and friends to accommodate them, the loss of an assured short hold tenancy and the breakdown of a relationship.
