Homelessness in Samoa: Five Facts You Need to Know

A leading cause of homelessness in Samoa is due to it’s vulnerability to natural disasters and deadly
cyclones. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/02/14/tong-f14.html. The natural disasters wipe out a
lot of families’ homes, businesses, and churches, etc. which in turn leaves them homeless. The rural
communities face the bulk of homelessness because of lack to access to clean water, land to grow crops,
job opportunities, etc. Samoa’s population is 18.8% below the national poverty line and most of those
people live in rural communities where there is a lack of job opportunities in the villages because they rely
heavily on their land for survival.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Samoa-island-nation-Pacific-Ocean/Government-and-
society#ref224593

Five Facts You Need to Know About Homelessness in Samoa:

1. Homelessness in Samoa is partially due to people not having access to agriculture because of land
being destroyed by natural disasters. The World Bank’s Board is joining The Samoa Agriculture and
Fisheries Productivity and Marketing Project to help aid those in Samoa who suffer the aftermath
of natural disasters. The goal is to improve the construction of infrastructure and rehabilitate
communities to become more stable during natural disasters while also increasing the productivity
of food, improved nutrition, and more consistent incomes for Samoans.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2019/07/02/big-boost-for-samoan-agriculture-
and-fisheries

2. Samoa is in close contact with countries that have a high income in labor markets through
permanent and temporary migration. Migration offers higher paying job opportunities which raise
the amount of income in Samoan households and reduces the chances of homelessness.
https://www.mwcsd.gov.ws/images/2017/Documents/DFSD/Samoa-gender-policy.pdf

3. Violence plays a role in Samoanian families which results in Samoa having one of the highest rates
in family and sexual assaults in the world. It’s become the first country in the Pacific Region in 2018
to perform a national public inquiry into family violence which unveils that there is an “epidemic” of
violence and sexual abuse. According to the report, nine out of 10 respondents reporting some
form of violence transpiring frequently at home. Nearly 60% of women experiencing sexual abuse
from a partner, 20% of women reporting being raped, and nearly 10% of the women experiencing
incest. The high rate of family and sexual abuse is a determining factor for young girls in Samoa to
run away from home and then left homeless.
https://ombudsman.gov.ws/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/National-Inquiry-Report-into-Family-
Violence_-State-of-Human-Rights-Report-2018-English.pdf

4. Many of the people in Samoa rely on agriculture as their source of income, but the catastrophe of
natural disasters destroys lands which in turn takes away their way of survival. The current
unemployment rate in Samoa is 8.36%. The more land that is wiped out and less manufacturing the
people of Samoa can create, the higher the unemployment rate rises. Thus, causing people to lose
 jobs and not have any source of income to survive, resulting in homelessness in Samoa.

5. One cause of homelessness is mental illness. According to mental health data results reported in
2017, 16.4% of homeless people in Samoa suffer from mental illness.
https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/cbhsq-reports/AmericanSamoa-2017.pdf.
Projects for Assistance in Transition for Homelessness (PATH) is an outreach program accessible
in Samoa, that offers helps in many ways such as diagnostic treatment, rehabilitation, and referrals
for primary health care providers for those experiencing mental illness.
https://www.samhsa.gov/homelessness-programs-resources/grant-programs-services/path

Although Samoa faces adversities such as poverty which leads to homelessness, no reliable statistics
show exactly how many people are homeless in Samoa because people tend to have continuous
access to the sea for fish and land to grow crops which is how they can make an income. To create a
more secure economy and land for people in Samoa, a nongovernmental project Civil Society Support
Program (CSSP) is currently working to reduce homelessness. It was implemented by recognizing
through effective and sustainable civil society programs, they can improve the quality of life for people
in Samoa. The program’s goal is to provide support within civil society groups that will improve their
communities that will provide more promising opportunities.
http://samoa.sungo.ws/images/pdf/NGO_brochure092018.pdf

- Montana Moore

Photo: Media Defense