Q&A - Homelessness a Choice? Things Get a Bit Awkward.

[TehShadower]

BUT IT IS TRUE, some people DO choose to be homeless and are perfectly happy!

Just because some people dont have the same lifestyle ideas as you doesnt mean they arnt happy with their lives, obviously they arnt the majority but there are people like that out there, i have a full time job and girlfriend but im leaving home in a few months to travel indefinatly.

[sighbaru]

Tony Abbott needs to consult Farther dropadax in the confession box.

[KAZSAMDAV]

no jobs usually means no house - ie on the street - no one chooses to be homeless = we have a grabby materialistic society which thinks people who are homeless are inferior - abbott australians are selfish and have no understanding of the pain the vulnerable experience - disgusting - makes me so angry

[KAZSAMDAV]

no jobs usually means no house - ie on the street -

[joshbarber32]

wow, shit got awkward fast

[josemanuelraul]

homelessness is a choice, no one wants to live in a claustrophobic, warm, comfortable environment. Aussies are born convicts and tough, they like to bunker down surrounding by nature, sleeping under the trees of hyde park and hunting for wild animals like pigeons.

[lyndon3000]

Successive governments, both labor and liberal, have done very little towards providing affordable public housing for Australians who are less fortunate. With the price of rental properties soaring, many individuals and families are only 1 pay away from living in cars or on the streets.

[germanicelt]

Don't any of your Labor party people dare make out that you are for homeless people when you have increased immigration in an economic downturn, and encouraged more boat people, which all means less for the poor Aussies.

[babablackcat1]

@germanicelt ok im an independant, i say this so u know i have no politcal bias in saying, ur an idiot.. the boat people havent cause any affect because they are only 4% of the illegal migration most are student visas that have expired under the previous howard government and they have taken large numbers of jobs

[germanicelt]

@babablackcat1.....Bullshit you have no political bias. Only an idiot Labor supporter would respond to my comment criticizing Labor, with such misunderstanding of what I actually said. I never mentioned anything about boat people, I said "immigration" which means legal. They increased it by 50%. But since you brought up boat people, how can you say they've had no effect when you say they are 4% of illegals? How much money has that cost instead of going to homeless Aussies?

[saintfletcher]

Homelessness is not a choice. If anyone choses to be homeless has mental problems. Abbott is an evil bastard saying that homeless is a choice. That is sooo offensive, I'd like him to say that in the streets of Kings Cross, Wooloomoolloo telling then they chose to be homeless. I dare him to do that! How offensive. Rent is outrageous in Sydney. The numbers of homeless in this area is reaching critical numbers. No one is listening.

[saintfletcher]

@saintfletcher John Rosken should resign, people die from being homeless, it is not a choice, and for those deaths, he should resign along with Peter Garrett. Tanya Plibersek is a little more aware as I've seen her speaking to homeless people in Sydney, the others wouldn't have a clue the extent of the problem, the situation of the problem, the dangers to innocent people, and why they are in the situation.

[speebyda]

@saintfletcher there was a study done in 1998 titled "Down and Out in Sydney", Google it, that states 75% of homeless people have a mental disorder. There was a more recent study, the title now escapes, me done in 2009 that has increased the percentage to 80%. i know of this because i was there and am now in TAFE to work in the industry to help those that need it, because it is right to do so. To CHOOSE the privation, the risk and the the stigma of living rough? Abbot said 25%-30% choose that.