A house is something visible. It is a place in which to be. It is where children study, play, and grow. It is where friends and family come to visit. “There is nobody who has peace without a house”. A house is incredibly important to a family. A house is to a family like what soil is to a plant. It is place to be rooted, a foundation on which children can grow, develop, and become all that they want to.
But millions of people all over the world do not have a decent house in which to live. Even in developed counties like the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, or New Zealand there are thousands of families who have no decent place to live. In developing countries, like Indonesia, the number of families who have no decent place to live are much greater.
Homeless people seems to be the endless story, because the reality have been existing for very long time. But it is our duty as human being to help them, solving their problems, and trying to make their life better.
Before thinking about how to solve the problems, first of all we have to know exactly about homeless people and their problems in order to make the best solution.
According to the Stewart B. McKinney Act, 42 U.S.C. 11301, et seq. (1994), a person is considered homeless who “lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence and; …has a primary night time residency that is (A) a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations…(B) an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized, or (C) a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings”. In this essay I will compare the reality of homeless people in Jogjakarta as a focus of this project with homeless people in other culture (I choose U.S with American culture), and I will try to make the best and real solution based on both culture to help homeless people in Jogjakarta.
1. The Characteristic of Homeless People
I will explain the characteristic of homeless people in American Culture first. Based on the survey from U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Economic and Community Development who work together with National Coalition For the Homeless on February 1999, The majority of homeless are male; the largest proportion are single men. Illegal immigrants are swelling the ranks of the homeless. One child in five lives below the poverty line, making children the poorest age group in the U.S, which accounts for the growing percentage of children who are homeless. Many homeless people have completed high school; some have attended college and even graduate school, but they are among working poor. A person who earn minimum wage, therefore he can’t earn enough to pay inner-city rent. The homeless are found not only in cities, but also in small town, rural areas, and affluent suburbs. They usually live in the street or in the shelter provided by religious institutions, NGO, or the government. Millions are among the hidden homeless—people who are one crisis away from loosing their homes. They may be doubled or tripled up in housing or 48 hours from eviction or about to leave a hospital with nowhere to go. Rather different with homeless people in U.S, In Jogjakarta the major of homeless are family with or no children. We can see them living in the street, sleeping in public places, some of them make a shelter under the river’s bridge, and the others living in the shelter provided by the government. Usually they come from the rural area with lower education. Most of the homeless people are unemployment or person who has a job with lower income. Their job generally are pedicab driver, garbage collector, street singer and sometimes a blue collar worker.
2. The Causes Of Homeless People
In the U.S, the main factors which largely responsible for the rise in homelessness over the past 15-20 years according to the survey published by National Coalition for The Homeless on June, 1999 are a growing shortage of affordable rental housing and a simultaneous increase in poverty. Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked. Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, child care, health care, and education. Difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of income, that must be dropped. Being poor means being illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets. Two factors help account for increasing poverty : eroding employment opportunities for large segments of the workforce, and the declining value and availability of public assistance. Moreover, a lack of affordable housing and the limited scale of housing assistance programs have contributed to the current housing crisis and to homelessness.
Particularly within the context of the poverty and the lack of affordable housing, certain additional factors may push people into homelessness. Other major factor which can contribute to homelessness are Lack of Affordable Health Care, for families and individuals struggling to pay the rent, a serious illness or disability can start a downward spiral into homelessness, beginning with a lost job, depletion of savings to pay for care, and eventual eviction. Domestic Violence, battered women who live in poverty are often forced to choose between abusive relationships and homelessness. Mental Illness, approximately 20-25% of the single adult homeless population in U.S suffer from some form of severe and persistent mental illness (Koegel et al, 1996).
In Indonesia especially in Jogjakarta the causes is almost the same, but the situation become more complicated. As we already know that homeless people in Jogja usually does not have a job with good salary, so it is like an impossible thing for them although just to rent a house for a moment. The other factor is the price to built a house is increasing every year because of economic crises in Indonesia that also influence condition in Jogja, this condition become worse since the developer always make houses for the middle and upper class to give them a lot of profit. The price of the house can not be reached by the lower class. Sometimes it also related to the basic mental from the homeless people. Some people feel hopeless with their condition and just resign for their fate.
In other words, I can conclude that the causes for homeless people in Jogjakarta especially supported by the social construction in the society. People in the lower class can not try to change and improve their life because there is no way for them to exist. They are placed in the difficult condition and sometimes they become victims because of the development done by the government that factually have side effect to make wider range for poor and rich people. Unfortunately the hsomeless people sometimes become an objects for some institutions to get something from another institutions like funding, publicity, and other things by making some issues among them. It makes the condition becomes more terrible.
3. Why Should The Situation Change
I think both Indonesian and American cultures have same perspective about homelessness and poverty. Homeless people are also citizen and they have the same rights with other citizens to live as normal person who have houses for their family. Moreover, they are also human being and I think it is our duty to work together hand in hand helping them to improve their life. Homelessness and poverty are also our problems and we need to get some effective solutions for ending the bad reality.
Now the big question for us is what are the effective solutions to help the homeless (especially in Jogjakarta)?
The National Coalition for Homeless in America explains some solutions to help homeless people in U.S. According to them Permanent solutions to homelessness must address its fundamental cause; the inability to pay for housing. Permanent solutions to homelessness must address both the shortage of affordable housing and the inadequacy of income to meet basic needs. Permanent solutions must also address the additional need for treatment for people suffering from disabilities.
From the explanation it can concluded that the solutions must :
1. Ensure Affordable Housing. Provide subsidies to make existing housing affordable; create additional affordable housing through rehabilitation and where needed, new construction.
2. Ensure Adequate Income. Ensure that working men and women earn enough to meet basic needs, including housing; ensure that those able to work have access to jobs and job training; ensure that those not able to work are provided assistance adequate to meet basic needs, including housing.
3. Ensure Social Services. Ensure access to social services, including health care, child care, mental health care and substance abuse treatment.
4. Prohibit Discrimination. Prohibit laws that discriminate against homeless people, including laws that specifically target them or activities they must engage in because they are homeless.
Permanent solutions must also prevent people from becoming homeless. New policies that address the underlying structural causes of homelessness—by addressing housing, income, and treatment problems—must coincide with specific prevention policies to stem the rising tide of homelessness.
In U.S, increasingly, homelessness affects not only the very poor, but also working and middle class Americans (U.S Bureau of the Census. Poverty in the United States : 1997). Middle class families are increasingly unable to afford to buy, or even rent, their own homes. Middle class workers are now facing rising unemployment, coupled with declining assistance from “safety net” programs.
I believe that permanent solutions to homelessness reintegrate homeless people into society and foster self-empowerment. Policies that produce affordable housing by employing homeless people are among the necessary policies that strengthen the economy while also helping to end homelessness.
From the survey of U.S Bureau of the Census, pools consistently reveal that the majority of the American Public supports aid to the homeless. According to the pools, the majority of the public understands the underlying causes of homelessness, and 81 % would pay additional taxes to fund increase aid.
In the U.S there so many Non Government Organizations that build shelters or houses for the homeless people. Their action is supporting by the government. The U.S Government provide many laws to help the homeless people get their right, besides that the government also provide funding to built some houses and shelters for the homeless people. There is a synergy between government, religious institutions (like church), and the society to work together help each other making solutions for the homeless.
Maybe it is rather different in Indonesia and also in Jogjakarta. The solutions that applied by the Government to solve the problem of homelessness is not built a house for them but the government evacuates the homeless people in Java to other islands like Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, or Irian Jaya. (the program called transmigrasi). The fact that Indonesian’s government seems to give few attentions to the homeless people make the problem become difficult to be solved. Moreover the developers still ignore the homeless. They still build houses for middle and upper class.
Now, we will focus on homeless people in Jogjakarta. First of all we have to recover their mentality from the hopeless person into optimistic person to facing their future, because it is important for them to have good and strong mentality if they want to change and improve their life.
Considering the condition of the homeless, I think they need some skills to survive. Because most of them come from lower education background, they just have the opportunity to work in informal sectors that generally doesn’t need graduation certification. But they need to have enough skills and experiences. Therefore, we have to give them some courses, and we can cooperate with some institutions who capable for giving that.
Fortunately, in jogjakarta there are also some Non Government Organizations who care about the homelessness. One of the NGO like Habitat For Humanity built simple house to live for the homeless people. They can buy the house in credit without interests. Some students and members of the community work together to build the house in order to reduce the price, so people in lower class can reach it. Habitat For Humanity in Jogjakarta is the affiliate of Habitat For Humanity International whose headquarter is in U.S.
One thing that we also have to do is making our economic foundation become stronger, because homeless people very close to the poverty and it is related to the economic condition of the nation.
And the last, we have to renew our social construction to prevent discrimination for the poor and homeless people. In our national constitution, it is said that every citizens has the same right in working and the right to live as normal people. Based on the statement it is our duty to help each other improving our life.
In conclusion, I want to say that evacuating the homeless people into the new area sometimes is not the best conclusion for them. I think the best conclusion for the homeless people must address both the shortage of affordable housing and the inadequacy of income to meet basic needs. It is also important to reintegrate homeless people into society and empower the homeless people to face their future. Since we have the solutions, there must be no discrimination among people.
From the essay, I think that it is clear for us at this time that homelessness is one of the biggest problems in the world, which also related to poverty. We have to do something for the homeless because it is our duty as human being to help each other in order to make the world become a better place to live.
No Shacks anymore!
Sources
Koegel, Paul et al. “The Causes of Homelessness” in Homelessness in America, 1996, Oryx Press.
Fuller, Millard et al. “More Than Houses”, 1999, Word Publishing, Nashville, Tennese.
Fuller, Millard et al. “The Theology of The Hammer”, 1994, Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Inc. Macon, Georgia.
Smith, Hedrick et al. “Rethinking America”, 1996, Avon Books, New York.
Fuller, Milard et al. “A Simple, Decent Place To Live”, 1995, Habitat For Humanity, International, Inc.
Wright, James D. “Evaluation Review”, 1992, Sage Publications, 2455 Teller Rd, California.
National Coalition for The Homeless. “Homelessness in America : Unabated and Increasing”, 1997, Washington, DC. E-mail : nrc@prainc.com
U.S. Bureau of the Census. “Poverty in the United States: 1997”, http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty.html
Institute of Medicine. “Homelessness, Health, and Human Needs”, 1998, National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
Burt, Martha, and Barbara Cohen. “America’s Homeless: Number, Characteristics, and Programs that serve them”, 1989, The Urban Institute, Washington, DC.
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