Uprootedness

Last year I worked with Orange Sky Laundry, a wonderful organisation which provides washing, drying and showering services for Australia's homeless.

As one of the more enjoyable experiences of 2016, the experience also sparked fears about homelessness, how it could affect me, and whether there is an increasing concern globally about the certainty of having a home.

Airing on the ABC (22/08/2017) Insight and Dateline both featured discussions about homelessness, or, what I refer to as, uprootedness.

With 21st century capitalism morphing into a mired version of itself, the international pandemic of asylum seeking and intra- or inter-state migration, the challenges facing Australian citizens seeking to enter the domestic housing market and the encroaching rises in rent, the dream of owning a home has become all the more precious and sought after.

I find myself making the connection between the housing and rental crisis in Australia, and my own fears of homelessness, despite living in a peaceful country as an educated young woman. This fear is perpetuated by the knowledge that in many countries, young girls and women are often shunned from places of refuge due to religious beliefs, political instability and a national culture which perpetuates women's insecurity.

So why am I concerned?

Insight's audience tonight suggested that as Australians, investing in the future during your thirties is a good place to start as a preventative measure against homelessness.

I wonder though, is it possible to break away from the anxiety embedded in the innate desire to seek secure refuge?

Is there ever a time that we should start, or stop worrying about being at risk of homelessness?

And what if you are no longer thirty? Or, on a completely different matter, a victim of domestic violence?

If you have emigrated from a country devastated by the upheaval of civil unrest and are torn from your homeland, finding 'home' becomes an even greater challenge.

Whether trying to pay the rent, or seeking cover from the elements or from psychological distress, there are many causes of uprootedness. It is these experiences which shape the sense of security paramount to our health and wellbeing. Writing from the safe haven of my family home, a place which as an adoptee, means everything to me, I am reminded that as the war on homeless increasingly affects our Australian community, the quest to seek a safe place to live is a global concern.