Who is Homeless?

Homelessness is ubiquitous in modern society. As I am sitting here writing this I know there are people sleeping in a neighboring park. When I take my bike out tomorrow I will see panhandlers occupying the same corners as earlier today. With many of the recent increases in unemployment, homelessness is coming to the front of many people’s minds.

I do not have data on what is the average public perception of people experiencing homelessness, however anecdotally public perception is that when a homeless person walks up and asks for money they want to use it on drugs — and not the kind that are going to stop their mental episodes. They are looking for their next hit or their next high. If they aren’t going to use the money on drugs the public sure as hell knows they aren’t going to use it on food. They are only experiencing homelessness because they want drugs or they are mentally unstable.

They are treated as third class citizens. They even feel it themselves. I myself am guilty of walking past, avoiding eye contact, and acting as if they aren’t even human. Ignoring them when as if I can’t even hear what they are saying. I am guilty of walking past people experiencing homelessness as if they’re trash on the side of the road.

With all of the talk of how many individuals and families that are about to be evicted I want to challenge myself to not view the homeless as the public perceives, but to view them as people who have fallen on difficult times. People are not homeless because they want drugs and/or are mentally unstable. They are experiencing homelessness due of macroeconomic causes.

I challenge myself to not view people as homeless individuals, but people who are currently experiencing homelessness. On a given night less than 17% of people experiencing homeless are chronically homeless.

It is unfair to think of someone that is sleeping on the street as someone who does not want to work, because so many of those who are experiencing homelessness are trying to work but their network of friends, families, churches, and public social services are unable to to help them, or failed in their time of need. (18% of people who are experiencing homeless are employed)

The last publicly available count of the people experiencing homelessness was in January 2019; 567,715 were homeless. The numbers are probably, if they haven’t already, going to rise. I will do my best to rise to the two challenges to view those experiencing homelessness not as the public perceives them, but as they actually are — people. People who have fallen on difficult times.