Countries without homelessness: Myth or Reality?
Finding people living in the streets is common for every tourist who is trying to get the best part of his/her travel experience, while closing eyes to that poor reality. We often hear about touristic countries like the United States, Mexico or India, as places where people complain about how many citizens they saw living in the streets during the summer holidays.
Who has never heard a friend saying something like this?
‘Oh the summer was great but too bad we kept seeing those poor men at the hotel’s front door…You do not really want to see these kind of things when you are on vacation…’
I bet we all have. Nonetheless, the opposite also happens.
‘Great trip! I loved the country and the people. Plus, I was amazed that they do not have homeless people there. I saw none!’
At least it has happened to me. More than two or three times friends have referred to me that countries like Switzerland, Sweden or Japan are very organised and “clean” (and by “clean” they mean that you do not see trash in the streets, people are polite and care about the environment and also that the country’s economy is developed in such a way that the rate of unemployment is very low, thereby there are no people living in the streets).
However, if you make a quick research online you will realise that there are no countries on that stage…So why is that people only have good things to say about countries like Denmark or Japan?
Well, first of all it is no surprise that most countries should see what Japan is doing in various areas and one of them is ending homelessness. In 2014, this country reached the lowest rate of homelessness.
“All people shall have the right to maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living”:
If you read the Article 25 of the Japanese Constitution you will see that when it comes to having the right to a minimum standard of living they stand for the previous ideology…And this can tell a lot about a country.
On the other hand if you look at the following comparison:
…You will realise that something does not make sense, does it?
But the answer is simple: it is all about the numbers. If Japan has more than 120 million people and “only” around 25,000 homeless people and the United States have more than 320 million people (because it’s also a much bigger country) and just in 2014 around 2,483,539 children experienced homelessness…Which country is better?
Apart from Japan there are other countries far more discreet but equally developed in the combat of homelessness. One of them is Denmark.
This northern country’s population is about 5,6 million people, of whom less than 1% is homeless.
Easy to explain: in Denmark there is a policy called “housing first”, which was established to keep people, specially the young ones, off the streets. So if you visit this country you will be able to confirm that they actually have homeless hostels and even homeless cemeteries, all funded by the government in order to avoid this issue to become bigger.
As well as other European countries, Denmark suffered from the economic crisis thus the homelessness rate increased due to lack of employment. However, since we are talking about a country economically developed enough to overpass the crisis problems, Denmark’s homelessness is also related to rising rates of suicide.
I guess there are no perfect countries and, unfortunately, it is no reality that there are countries without homeless people, but since we are in this world to learn from each other at least some countries should follow good examples to combat homelessness.
But, do not forget: in case the governments do not take any actions to solve this problem, we too can do something about it.
