What Does indigence Mean
Indigence (from the Latin indigentia ) is the lack of means to satisfy basic needs (food, clothing, etc.). The person who suffers from homelessness is known as homeless.
Lack of own income is one of the main characteristics of homelessness. The indigent does not have a job or works in precarious conditions, which translates into serious difficulties in meeting their needs.
For example: "This country should not have such a high index of indigence" , "My economic situation is delicate: if I lose my job, I will fall into indigence" .
Those who suffer from indigence are often homeless (generally sleeping on the street or in a shelter) and depend on state aid or solidarity to survive. These people live in a situation of social marginalization due to extreme poverty.
For the State , the households that do not receive enough income to cover a food basket are indigent (the variety and quantity considered basic according to various studies that are based on nutrition indices and the population's eating habits).
Another way of considering indigence is according to the minimum wage : whoever receives an income below that amount is indigent, since it is understood that they do not have sufficient resources to satisfy their basic needs.
Homelessness is a structural problem in many countries. There are families with several generations in poverty , having to face a large number of needs, with inability to access education, health, etc. State authorities have the obligation to work on social development and inclusion programs to break this vicious cycle of indigence and achieve progress for the inhabitants.
One of the first problems found by foundations that intend to fight homelessness is to obtain a precise definition of this phenomenon, since it is the only way to know the points to be solved. In addition, in this unfortunate equation two other social situations are mixed: exclusion and the so-called homelessness .
Overall, it is quite difficult to draw substantial differences between not having sufficient income to cover basic needs and not having the possibility of accessing a roof permanently or stable, since both are desperate realities that require an immediate solution and to always .
However, the problem begins to develop long before its potential appearance: those of us who have never experienced a situation like the ones described in the previous paragraphs tend to think that "this will never happen to us." A dangerous combination of denial and social demands typical of the dizzying career that today's day-to-day represents leads us not to stop to consider the suffering of others or the risks that we ourselves run, and that is why we are never prepared to face and overcome a problem. chapter so hard.
This invisible distance that exists between the lucky and the unfortunate terribly accentuates the exclusion felt by the latter, since when they do not receive a look of contempt they are ignored as if their presence in the streets recalls an old urban legend that everyone would like to forget.
We are terrified of the mere idea of being destitute, of losing our homes, because deep down we know that there is no effective and transparent system to help these people get out of the well; We do not trust temporary campaigns , which we consider pure pre-electoral propaganda, and that is why we contribute our grain of sand by not collaborating with them, thus closing the circle of doom and hopelessness.
One measure that we can all take to reduce the probabilities that homelessness will take over our lives is to carry out a deep and conscious study of our expenses , seeking to eliminate those that are not necessary, replacing certain items of necessity with cheaper alternatives without reaching sacrifice their quality, and make sure we have savings that can keep us afloat for a while in an emergency.