Results of questionnaire about homeless elderly people

HOMELESS ELDERLY PEOPLE

The Romanians Team’s Results

We applied the questionnaire about homeless and elderly people designed by the Estonian students to 25 students of ours, aging from 15 to 18 years, 10 girls and 15 boys and we obtained the following results:

It seems that homeless people are very frequent in our community, since 11 students answered that they see homeless people on the streets very often and 10 said that they see them every day on their way to/ from school. Only one student said that she sees homeless people very rarely, but we must add that she lives in a small village nearby our city, where the situation is probably different.

Concerning students’ opinion about homeless people the answers were varied. Even though, it is worth mentioning that resulting from our questionnaire, a significant one third of the students asked said that they have a bad opinion about homeless people. They also explained why, because, they think that most of them become homeless due to excess of alcohol and drug consume. This way, they are to be blamed because of their present situation. Surprisingly, five students had no opinion at all about the issue, while three students said that they should be helped and given a chance. Similarly, other three students said that if they made an effort they could succeed. Two students said that they regret the situation of the homeless, one student said that his feelings are mixed: blame and pity, and only one student said that he has a very bad opinion about the homeless.

Most students consider that the main reason why people become homeless is the lack of money. Twelve students named financial problems as the main cause, whereas five students considered that family problems are the principal cause. Four students give importance to the lack of jobs, two to drugs, alcohol and debts and among other answers we obtained a surprising one: some people get to become homeless because of the cruelty of other people.

The major reasons and causes of homelessness are, according to our students: lack of money (eight students), lack of family support (four students), a personal tragedy (three students), drugs and alcohol (three students) and the lack of other choices (three students). Some individuals consider other reasons important, like lack of jobs, health problems and the result of carelessness of other people.

A great majority of students agrees that there is a combination of factors in someone’s life which contributes to their homelessness (23 students out of 25), but also more students think that poor and homeless people do not work. Only one third of the questioned students disagreed with this statement.  Again, more students think that people who become homeless are lazy. At the same time, a great percentage of students agreed that people become homeless because there is not enough decent and affordable housing, while they blame alcohol and drugs as being one of the main reasons of homelessness. The only statement from this part of the questionnaire the students mostly disagreed with was that people can become homeless through health problems or injuries.

Our students think that homeless people can ask help through their period of homelessness from different organizations, night shelters, government and the security forces. Quite many students consider that in reality these people can’t appeal to anybody, whereas a minor number of students suggested work as an alternative resource for help.

Romanian students couldn’t establish the length of the average homelessness period but most of them said that the typical situation is when people are homeless all through their life. A significant number said that the length of the period depends on the situation, but anyway, in general this period is rather long.

Most students are aware of the fact that our community provides services for individuals and families but some students don’t have clear knowledge of this. According to their answers in our community there are night shelters, day centres and food run/ street services. There is no special hostel run for homeless people in our city.

Most students consider that people face barriers in accessing services offered to them, namely sometimes they lack the information about the availability of services because they could be illiterate, or because they are too many while the places are restricted.

As a general conclusion, we consider that students have a quite limited image of the homeless people, and while they identify quite well the causes of their present situation, they don’t have a very tolerant opinion about them. That could be caused by the general impression promoted by the society, according to which homeless people are to be blamed for their condition. We appreciated the sincerity of the answers, this made our work easier. We think that it’s important to inform our students about the possibilities of helping vulnerable categories of people, because only by interacting with them will they be able to understand the real reasons. Having a few minutes focusing on this issue, while completing the questionnaire, is a very small first step.

                                                                                  Calina Lang,

                                                                                  Bianka Bobicsak,

                                                                                  Ecaterina Bücs