A
few State governments in our nation have confronted the issue of homelessness
with approaches that may not deliver the wholesome benefits often characterized
by spurious ad hoc rehabilitation programs of a few weeks with the ultimate
goal of repatriation, which my lawyer friend describes as obnoxious when these
homeless individuals are Nigerians. Another popular issue in some State
government rehabilitation program is the academic differentiation
between the homeless mentally ill and the homeless persons with an unnecessary
focus on the former. For me, it is a
smart way of avoiding responsibility since given the evidence linking
homelessness to poverty and social disadvantage, it is hardly surprising that
homeless people report higher rate of mental illness relative to the general
population. Alcoholism and drug dependency are present in as many as two-thirds
of men and a third of homeless women. Co morbidity of mental illness and
substance use disorder is the rule rather than the exception as are the
co-occurrence of respiratory diseases, infections, trauma, and the physical
consequences of poor diet, poor hygiene, and the complications of substance
abuse. Compared with the domiciled population; homeless people are less likely
to have completed basic education, less likely to have held employment, and more
likely to have experienced parental neglect and abuse in their childhood. The
homeless mentally ill and the homeless person are two sides of the same coin
since they both have the same factor that links them- homelessness. This term; often used to describe populations as
diverse as those sleeping in the shelter of a cardboard box, to those sleeping
on a friend’s floor. A good number sleep in their shops, under the bridge, and
in the motor parks while some make do with broken down vehicles, market stalls
and when they breakdown mentally, wander and live anywhere on the streets. While rates vary depending on the particular
measure of mental illness adopted by each study, up to 60% of those using
emergency shelters and sleeping rough have serious mental illness.
Vagrancy
has a very potent social definition because it invariably illustrates the
ultimate value of a people concerning the dignity of human life. Historically, vagrancy
was viewed as a crime, punishable and generally classified with begging,
prostitution and work-shyness and confined to concentration camps. However, this primitive view of vagrancy has
since been abolished with the enthronement of compassionate social welfare
programs in developed countries. I suspect that those state governors rehabilitating
the homeless persons and repatriating them within the same federal republic are
leveraging on this obsolete view. The homeless population in Nigeria is the
creation of the ruling class through successive governments that indulge in the
mundane rather than sparing a little for housing the underprivileged. The rural
urban drift may be a factor; but failure of successive governments to put in
place affordable entry-level accommodation in our urban centers is responsible
for the population explosion of the homeless. Unfortunately, recent efforts have
been rather parochial, usually crafted for scoring cheap political points rather
than confronting the menace of homelessness. The urban renewal programs are
fantastic but with equally traumatic blow on the psyche of the vulnerable poor
who become homeless as a result. It is this group of persons, emerging from
years of neglect from successive governments that build houses on illegal plots,
which invariably qualify for demolition. The implication of such programs
without a backup of alternative accommodation plans may lead to increase in the
population of the mentally ill. When a
person is displaced from his home without an alternative, he becomes a
vagabond. This displacement has very strong negative mental health implication
capable of threatening our collective peaceful coexistence. The
simple psychodynamics of the terrorism plaguing the northern part of our
country is basically a product of long years of feudalistic excesses of the
northern political leaders who abused a population of young, vulnerable lads
and their poor parents while they sent their children to Oxford, Cambridge and
Harvard to acquire western education to take over leadership roles as they
vacate them. Naturally, the neglected lads of yesteryears have grown poor,
homeless and angry as they confront the deceit of their leaders, which explains
the adoption of terrorism as a means of protest. Our leaders need to understand
that policies that increase the number of homeless individuals potentially
create an increase in the number of mentally impaired, violent prone and
energetic youths. We have them in our neighborhoods irrespective of where we
stay; usually young, vibrant, unemployed and very mobile. They are our
responsibility and we should not be deceived about our bulletproof cars and our
security guards. Neighborhoods should organize rehabilitation programs that may
involve creating employment, some housing facilities and a robust mental health
rehabilitation programs for these less privileged.
Dr. Adeoye Oyewole
adeoyewole2000@yahoo.com
+234 803 490 5808 (WhatsApp Only)
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