Ending The Stigma Around Homelessness

By Eli Fox

Only 1 in 10 homeless people commit crimes, and they are just people struggling financially or have drug problems and even mental illnesses. Homelessness is one of the hardest things that can happen to a person, and right now in the US,  according to Bartleby research, it's happening to 18% of us. 1 in 30 children is homeless with about 22,000 in New York alone. Homelessness is defined as the state of not having enough money to sustain yourself and to keep a stable shelter. Homeless people are mostly men and women who struggle with addiction and mental illness. 

When I think about homelessness, I think about a cycle that people get trapped in and struggle to get out of. Only around 25 percent of homeless people escape the trap of homelessness. The homelessness and addiction correlation is that people who are addicted always need their fix, Right? So all the money they make is going into food, water, and drugs, therefore suspending them on the streets. Homelessness and crime shouldn't correlate and there should not be a stigma around homelessness. Two reasons for this are that in order to stop homelessness and to help people that are suffering, we need to stop the stigma first off and then we need to address things like addiction and mental illness. My second reason for this is that stereotypes for homeless people need to not categorize them all as the same when only very few of them are actually bad people.

We as New Yorkers deal with it every day, whether it be walking down the street seeing people sleeping on the sidewalk, or even being asked for money while riding the train. Homelessness is not always what it may seem to the ignorant eye, but it goes deeper than the surface. 

We need to address this problem by making regular people lose their indifference while helping the people in need. Steve Almasy, Laura Studley, and Nouran Salahieh from CNN wrote about a bill that was passed by the Oregon government that would help homeless people sue for being harassed and help the community have more justice and be respected more in the state. The city of Oregon has gone through severe economic hardship, therefore, leaving many in the city unemployed and suffering, creating a large homeless population.

The article also cites experts who share their thoughts on how we can help and move forward rather than just ignore the problem and keep the stigma alive. The article cites expert Farrah Chaichi when she says “Shelter is a vital human need for everyone,” she said in the statement. “The forced removal from and destruction of people’s only shelter has fatal consequences. That’s why we must stand up for these people whose rights are being violated; their lives depend on it.”(Almasy, Studley, Salahieh) Leaders in the field are sharing that we need to take action to protect the homeless. Why do people that have money and are comfortable get to be protected by the law but others like the homeless are not? 

Other states like New York have also been taking baby steps like, by giving the homeless more freedom and informing them of their rights. These are steps leaders everywhere should be paying attention to. 

Moving on, in a new Fox News article written by Ashley Carnahan, poverty and homelessness are discussed as sort of like a cycle and are hard for many to escape. The article focuses on how mainstream homelessness is in Portland and how people are trying to help by doing things like setting up tents and helping those in need. It was informing people who live there of how activists are addressing the issue. It shares a stat with the audience “They (Portland) don't get people into rehab. They rarely get people into shelters. About 3% of the unhoused population are actually in housing or shelters or jail or nursing facilities. And the older population, the homeless population, is growing”(Carnahan) This statistic is relevant because it shows what must be done to eliminate the problem and to resolve the issue by taking people off of the street. The tricky part about this though, is that it's not as simple as most may think it is to deal with homeless people. “38% of homeless people abused alcohol while 26% abused other drugs making them stuck in homelessness, all of their money going into drugs. And to go into mental illness, SMI Advisor says that An estimated 20–25% of the homeless population in the United States suffers from serious mental health issues, compared to only 4–6% of the general population”(McCarty) Both of these sources show how homelessness and crime shouldn't correlate and there should not be a stigma around homelessness because most of the people are struggling with another factor.

People like you should care about this because it is a very relevant way that people in our world suffer. Tyrone Pittman from homelesshub.com writes about how to end homelessness and how we have to start with debunking myths and creating a different view of the people suffering. Instead of having homeless people be outcasted and hated, we have to have compassion and realize that only a few people in the group are the ones being violent and committing crimes.

Pittman shares his unique view on the topic and shares an outsider's thoughts on homelessness. He explains, “Homelessness can be confusing to those who don’t understand it or believe that people made the choice to be homeless. It’s quite the opposite. If you don’t try to understand, are you alone in this war? Economics, layoffs, loss of hope, or taking risks for the American dream are big factors that contribute to being homeless.”(Pittman) Is this really what we want in the world? Do we as Americans deserve to have people suffering in the “land of the free”? I truly believe that if you have no compassion and empathy towards these people, we have no starting point for correction and to help stop this problem. In this very same article, Pittman shares steps into how we can solve this crisis, and stop it from worsening. He says “As a whole, we need to stand up, open our eyes and look outside of the box at the problems people who are homeless face day-to-day and the wall that society has built around them. There needs to be a common ground.  Somewhere they can receive help in education and job training.”(Pittman)This is very important because it can show others who lack knowledge what it really takes to end this epidemic. How we must help the individuals dying, in pain, and wasting away as invisible outcasts in our society. People need to realize that the homeless aren't just homeless, they are people. Just like you and me. People, just like your whole family.