There is a large number of homeless people in the world. According to multiple sources including the World Economic Forum, around 150 million people are currently homeless globally. Each year, thousands of people newly become homeless globally. Homeless people — defined as those individuals who do not have any fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence — lack educational, economic and other opportunities, along with the lack of housing opportunities, needed for their better living and realizing their potential, in many countries around the world. Even if the world is progressing in economic, social and other terms, both the existence and the increase in the number of homeless people, an addressable problem in the world, is a cause of global concern.
Definitely, homeless people, who live in emergency shelters, transitional housing or places that are not meant for habitation, are found in cities, suburbs and rural areas in developed, developing and less developed countries. But homeless people are more in conflicting countries. In Yemen and Syria, the number of homeless people is around 4 million and 6.5 million respectively. Among developed countries, the United States has more than 0.5 million, Germany has more than 0.6 million and the United Kingdom has around 0.3 million homeless people. Many developing and less developed countries including Pakistan, Nigeria, Honduras, Colombia, India and Bangladesh, which are currently not at war, have a large number of homeless people. Nigeria has the highest number of homeless people (24,400,000) in the world.
Global and local efforts have increased for homeless people across the world. Affordable housing and homelessness are addressed in the UN Commission for Social Development. Also, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development puts emphasis on access to safe and affordable housing for all. Region-wise, the European Parliament, which adopted a resolution putting emphasis the access to housing as a fundamental human right for all people, calls for the EU and its member states to end homelessness by 2030. Also, there are programmatic and other measures at the national and local levels in many countries to address homelessness and improve their conditions. But their number is increasing in most countries — except a few countries including Finland — year by year.
But the global and local efforts are inadequate to deal with the extent of homelessness. Despite the SDG agreement of countries on ensuring safe and affordable housing to all, there is less than the intended achievement of it. Scant efforts to provide housing facilities, a lack of coordination among agencies and organizations that interact with homeless people and limited programmatic measures to deal with homeless people are also responsible for the low success in effectively dealing with homelessness in many countries. Notably, an indifference of governments exists in many countries and, consequently, homeless people are abandoned by many governments and over-policed. Along with governments, the efforts of other organizations are less. Also, the causes of homelessness are not desirably addressed in many countries.
There are economic policy driven, social and other causes that lead to homelessness. Poverty — driven by unemployment, inadequate income and other causes — is one of the main causes of homelessness. A lack of affordable housing is also another important cause. Many cities across the world have unaffordable housing and, consequently, many are unable to buy rented home in many cities. Among others, a lack of mental health and addiction treatment services, racial discrimination and a lack of support for immigrants and refugees are crucial. Racial minorities experience homelessness at a higher rate than the racial majority population. Systematic failures, which occur when society fails to identify and support people at risk of becoming unhoused, also lead to the homelessness of many globally.
It is definitely desired that no one lives without a home in developed, developing and less developed countries. For this, poverty needs to be addressed. Also, housing needs to be made affordable in cities across the world. Without affordable housing, many people find themselves with fewer options. Well-formulated economic, housing and other relevant policies and learning successful lessons may help address poverty, increase the housing affordability and reduce homelessness across the world. Providing built houses to a certain number of homeless people free of cost every year may also be helpful in ending homelessness in the world. Definitely, governments and organizations need to do a lot for ending homelessness across the world.
