The official definition
There is no common definition of homelessness, but
the European Anti Poverty Network distinguishes between absolute and relative poverty. Homeless people belong to the first category.
Absolute poverty is when people are lacking the basic necessities for survival, such as food, access to clean water, proper housing, sufficient clothing or medicines and when struggling to stay alive. In the European Union most poverty is however of the relative kind.
A life in poverty as a homeless person is very much a day-to-day struggle to live and survive, which in so many ways affect a person’s health and psychological well-being and it often affects personal relationships.
What is poverty?
EAPN states that living in poverty can mean:
- becoming isolated from family and friends;
- lacking hope and feeling powerless and excluded with little control over the decisions that affect your day to day life;
- lacking information about the supports and services available to you;
- having problems in getting your basic needs met and accessing decent housing, health services and schools and life long learning opportunities;
- living in an unsafe neighbourhood with high levels of crime and violence and poor environmental conditions or in a remote and isolated rural area;
- going without very basic necessities because you may not be able to afford essential utilities like water, heat and electricity or to buy healthy food or new clothing or to use public transport;
- being unable to afford to buy medicines or visit the dentist;
- living from day to day with no savings or reserves for times of crisis such as losing a job or falling ill and thus falling into debt;
- being exploited and forced into illegal situations;
- experiencing racism and discrimination;
- being unable to participate in normal social and recreational life such as going to the pub or cinema or sports events or visiting friends or buying birthday presents for family members.
When viewing poverty in the EU from this perspective, it influences people’s lives in many ways and thereby also limits people’s access to fundamental rights.
Read more about the European Anti Poverty Network at:
www.eapn.eu