America has a serious problem in the way we treat people experiencing homelessness. The way the media, lawmakers, and police act to displace, vilify, and leave them out of every conversation, is inhumane and echoes the words and actions of regimes that have committed atrocities in the past.
First, we need to talk about the way people experiencing homelessness are portrayed in the media. With the constant flow of “Homeless man commits X crime” headlines and articles, the media takes people who are clearly in distress and having some sort of serious problem going on in their lives as a prop to paint people experiencing homelessness as a danger to the public. These stories rarely ever interview the subject of the article to find out what happened in their lives, but the business owners and people around, and how they were inconvenienced by someone’s suffering.
The housing status of people who own homes or live in apartments or condos is never pointed out when they commit crimes. “Man who rents apartment robs bank” That feels weird. Why does it matter? This leads people to believe that people experiencing homelessness are inherently dangerous, when in fact they are much more likely to be the victims of a crime. We talk about “clearing them away” the way we would garbage or pollution.
In 2019, Boston engaged in Operation Clean Sweep, which displaced and stole the possessions of people who didn’t have anywhere else to go. This sweep included necessary items such as wheelchairs. They took and threw away peoples wheelchairs. This is an inhumane and unacceptable action to anyone with a functioning moral compass.
In 2017, Atlanta, police were handing out tickets to people for giving food to people experiencing homelessness, citing that they would congregate and make a mess. This sounds to me like their reasoning for punishing people for trying to help someone was equivalent to a sign not to feed the pigeons.
When you label and treat human beings as trash or filth, you can justify doing horrible things to them. You can justify stealing their possessions and throwing them into a trash compactor, you can stuff them in overcrowded shelters during a pandemic, you can completely disregard their humanity. This is not the functioning of a healthy society. This is the functioning of a civilization that uses the concept of being kicked out on the street as a carrot and stick mechanism to get people to accept whatever terrible dead end job they might find to pay the bills.
The way we treat and talk about people experiencing homelessness in this country is morally reprehensible. We can and need to do better to make sure everyone in our space is taken care of. It is time to see people experiencing homelessness not as a personal failure, but as a societal failure.
Craig Thomas can be reached at [email protected]
Darcy
Where did love and respect for human kindness go ? All I see from the folks that say they care is judgement. I live in a city named the happiest place on earth! Police, paramedic,and mental health agencies are given grants to help our homeless,but in reality when someone is in crisis and call for help ,they are humiliated and made fun of,t aken to the worst medical hospital, left sitting outside the E.R.in the cold ,when finally seen by the one E.R Doctor on call, and nursing staff that take away your clothing and then tell you there's nothing they can do for you and send you back to the streets with a pair of paper pants some with nothing !!! These people are not DISPOSABLE!! They are our brothers and sisters and children.the impact to families who are not financially able to pay for proper care for our mentally ill andhopeless are also affected. While our governing agencies bank on the poor and that's the failure of our self serving society. Shame on them!
Leticia
So so true. I don't think it will ever happen though. Ppl in society are to judgemental, critical of other people etc. It's very very hard to get ppl to change & look at things in a different light. But goverment needs to change things because this has been decades in the making & all designed for the less fortunate. Republicans do not support anything about helping the needy what so ever. Why because it would be taking away some of there wealth, that is disgusting & inhumane & Democrats are more for the needy but politics is dictated by who is giving money to the party & what they do & don't want & it's all in the greed of money. Not providing money to help ppl in this country. But all the low income ppl are the ppl who make this world up & provide services, do jobs so the wealthy can be weathy & they need to acknowledge this & recognize this. The pandemic truly showed the essential works make this world up ppl need to never forget this. If we all could afford to go on strike against all the unjustice in this world they would have no choice to a knowledge this & make changes.