I didn’t grow up around homelessness. I knew homeless people existed, but my interactions or encounters with them were pretty minimal – certainly not frequent enough to warrant deeper reflection on the subject. The facility to remain ignorant changed when I left rural Central FL and spent years living in Boston and New York City. In large cities, homelessness is really in your face. Honestly, it kind of freaked me out the first time I stepped out onto Harvard Square. It was the shock of understanding “Holy shit, there are a lot of real homeless people.” I remember standing still as people walked around thinking, “Wow, people are really going about their normal life as if these other people weren’t suffering right in front of them.” It was bizarre. Over the course of college, did I also go about my life as if everything were normal? Yes, I did. I still do for the most part. I say for the most part because I think about it now, which is a step up from not thinking about it, but probably multiple steps down from actual change.
What is Homelessness?
Before I continue, please read the quote below which I think is a fine definition of homelessness.
In plain English, it says that there are lots of reasons why a person might be homeless, and not everyone is homeless the same way. There are plenty of related questions I might explore in the future, such as:
- To what extent is the cause of someone’s homelessness ‘their fault’?
- Does it matter if it is their fault (acknowledging that the current state of the world is the one in which they are indeed homeless)?
- What should we do as fellow people / humans / Americans?
- Are we obligated to help?
- Is the responsibility of change on the individual or is it on society / the government?
Back to Our Main Point...
Anyway, the main question I’m exploring right now is more of a step one. How should I think about homelessness? What do I mean? I mean that no one ever told me point blank, “This is what homelessness is. This is why it happens. This is how you should think about it.” Even a starting point would be helpful, since it sets the stage for discussion. Actually, I did get a starting point in my own life, and it was in the opposite direction. “They’re lazy. They’re good for nothing people that can’t handle their lives. Addicts, etc.” That’s why we can think though, to come to our own conclusions. I suppose I’m writing this more for people who agree it’s an issue (crazy how I have to make that distinction).
So, what is the world actually like? We operate on the false assumption that us all being on the same page with “homelessness is an issue” means we’re now in a good place to find a solution, but what does it even mean that we all agree? Personally, I could ask everyone I know how they feel about homelessness, and probably 100% of them would have the ‘right’ stance, and maybe 1 or 2 individuals would give me faith that progress can be made. It’s one of those things where we each have a story or experience of when we did one nice thing for a homeless person, or we keep our mouths shut. Don’t get me wrong, it makes sense. I’m not saying you should be doing something specifically different (if I did, I’d be a hypocrite). There are lots of issues in the world, and time is already limited before factoring in social issues – I get it. Also, I mean, polite agreement usually stops any further lines of questioning / dialogue.
This isn’t unique to homelessness. I believe we treat a lot of social issues similarly, in the sense that we deem them so obvious we skip the part where we actually go beneath the superficial and think. Maybe I’m missing something, but, yeah, I don’t think agreeing to an issue really satisfies step one. If that were the case, I don’t think I would feel borderline guilty / responsible / negligent on some human-to-human level when I walk past a homeless person. And that’s on a good day. Let’s be honest, we also feel uncomfortable, and to be frank, disgusted sometimes. I’m not saying that’s okay (it’s not), I’m just saying it happens. I’m also saying, no one has ever said something to me along the lines of the above, so how is it really an us thing? Have we really talked about it?
This post is reaching the point of being too long, so let me wrap up. Why should you care? If future change is widespread, I think it’s going to come from average people, almost by definition. It’s a numbers thing. There are too many homeless people for small scale initiatives like shelters to solve (unless AI solves this for us, in which case I thank it in advance). Also, there are a few conversations / interactions I’ve had with homeless people that I’ll try to share in the future, since I found them insightful. At the moment though, I’m comfortable stating: Homelessness is an issue, and at the very least, whether you help or not, that should make you uncomfortable in some way.
Copyright © 2020 Erick Meza
I’d enjoy reading about your interactions. I know in our more rural areas we lack access to mental health services and that contributes greatly to our problems with homelessness. I probably don’t consider this topic enough, but it is an important one (even in Central Florida). Over the past year, I have worked with several homeless students. My interactions with those students changed my mind about some things and also made me realize just how hard it it to “pull yourself up by the bootstraps.” Thanks, Erick