In this episode of The Inclusionist, Venetia explores the complex and rising issue of homelessness in the United States. She dispels common myths about folks who are unhoused, challenges common stereotypes, and provides valuable insights into the lives of those experiencing life on the street. Discover the systemic factors that contribute to this crisis and, most importantly, learn five actionable ways you can make a difference. Tune in on the journey to create a more inclusive and compassionate world.
In this episode of The Inclusionist, Venetia explores the complex and rising issue of homelessness in the United States. She dispels common myths about folks who are unhoused, challenges common stereotypes, and provides valuable insights into the lives of those experiencing life on the street. Discover the systemic factors that contribute to this crisis and, most importantly, learn five actionable ways you can make a difference. Tune in on the journey to create a more inclusive and compassionate world.
What's up, everyone? Thanks for tuning in to another episode of The Inclusionist. I'm doing my best to enjoy these last few days of summer. And while the seasons change and the cold months are upon us, I've been thinking a lot about the increasing houseless, or some of us know them as homeless population, particularly here in the U.
S. I happen to live in a city where there seems to be a growing number of homeless encampments. There are around 600, 000 homeless folks in this country. And today, I want to talk a bit about that. I want to go over some points I've learned about the houseless community. I want to dispel some myths together and present some facts.
Because personally, I find myself confronting my own stereotypes at times. When I come into contact with them on the street. And that is becoming more and more frequent, and I feel I'm not alone in this. So, let's get into it. Now let's start with a simple exercise. Let's try a simple exercise together. I want you to close your eyes and imagine a homeless person.
When I say homeless person, What do you imagine? Who do you imagine? What is that person wearing? How do they smell? How does their presence make you feel? Are you angry about them, for them, or with them? Are you... Vindictive? Do you feel endangered by their presence? Are you grossed out? Now, open your eyes, take a deep breath, and whatever you think you know, unless you have been houseless, yourself, or are.
Let it go, blank slate, and let's start together with a simple truth. And I think this is a truth we can all agree with if you consider yourself to be a humane person. So, most people do, I think. And that simple truth is that every human being who is well or sick, incapable of working, either of physical, emotional, or mental illness, or suffering from addiction, deserves healthy food, Good shelter unless you believe in the criminalization of sickness, the criminalization of addiction, the criminalization of mental illness, which in my opinion would characterize you as inhuman.
And if you don't believe this simple truth then, I really hope you continue to listen to this episode and hopefully learn something. Now there seem to be a lot of misguided, common misguided myths about the houseless community, about the homeless population, and I want to go over a few of them and take the episode from there.
So the first one I want to talk about is that homeless people choose to be homeless. I'm sure some of you have heard some folks call out numbers on how much panhandlers make in major cities, how homeless folks are choosing to live this bohemian street fantasy. And I wonder if we could dig a bit deeper into this myth.
Where does it come from? I think we as housed humans have trouble psychologically wrapping our minds around why in a world seemingly full of homes and resources, folks would end up without Such a basic need unless they choose to give it up willingly and the majority of folks on the street are Homeless for no other reason than because they cannot afford a house It is not fun to be on the street and in this It's Everything Criminalized 2023.
It's definitely not a bohemian fantasy. Even the past novelties that you might imagine are no longer existent. Although folks do have community. Or can find community out on the streets, there are a lot of barriers for people who have to survive living on the streets now than ever before. Now, with overpolicing, now there's anti homeless architecture, not to mention exposure to much harsher climates.
due to climate change. And that's just the surface. There's a lot we will get into later in this episode. But yeah, being on the street is not fun. It is not a bohemian dream. There are very few people who are on the street and want to be on the street. I want to mention a historical note. In 1988, Ronald Reagan was the first person to bring this idea of homeless people being on the street because they're choosing to be on the street to the national stage.
And throughout his time in office, he said many times that homelessness was a choice. He, in a 1988 New York Times article, there's a quote from him stating, They make it their own choice. for staying out there. There are shelters in virtually every city and shelters here, and those people still prefer out there on the grates or the lawn to going into one of those shelters.
And yeah, problematic. Now, let's talk about the shelter for a moment. First of all, the shelter is not permanent housing. It It gets people off the street, certain people off the street, temporarily, but it is not housing. It is not homing, I should say. It's providing shelter, temporary shelter, but it is not homing.
And when homeless people don't accept the traditional options that are presented to them, there's this belief that. They choose, they're choosing to stay on the street, they're choosing to stay homeless. And I want to talk about the shelter situation. There are many reasons why someone would prefer the streets over the shelter.
Some homeless people have had bad experiences in the shelter system and are afraid or prefer not to return. Others have been wrongfully denied. Shelter, and there are other barriers to accepting help outside the shelter or even from family members. Some of them may include pets not being allowed in the shelter.
So if a homeless person has a special needs dog or an assistance dog, animals are not allowed. Partners cannot stay together because genders are separated in the shelter. So... A lot of the time, families are separated. Hours of operation. If you get a night shift somewhere as a homeless person, you can't go to the shelter because hours of operation don't accommodate someone working a night shift, an overnight shift.
A shelter may not acknowledge the transgender identity of an individual. A shelter may require sobriety for a person. A family or a friend may offer shelter in their home, but that relationship is super toxic and abusive, so that offer is going to come with unrealistic and dangerous stipulations. A person may have built a bit of a support network or a community on the streets, and they may not want to leave behind that community or that system of support, because that may be...
The only system of support they've ever had in their lives. The second myth I hear about homeless folks is they are on the street because they made bad choices, financial or otherwise. Now in all the research I did for this episode, which It was extensive. It was a lot. It is shocking. The most shocking discovery for me has been that it is actually incredibly easy to become homeless and without shelter, and it can have Nothing to do with bad, quote unquote, choices.
I read somewhere the other day that more than half of U. S. households have to devote 50 percent of their income to paying for housing, which is a crazy level of rent burden in an incredibly volatile market for the average American. There is... No protection when it comes to financial severance if you were to lose your job for any reason.
Many jobs are union deterred. Anyone could be out of work any time. If your credit score suffers for any reason, your ability to get a home in many areas is impaired. Most areas is nearly impossible. Your car breaks down. You live with an abusive partner or roommate when someone goes crazy. Your spouse passes away.
It is incredibly difficult to rent an apartment these days, much less own a home. I don't even have to give stats on this because I feel the majority of folks who will listen to this episode probably are living through or have lived through exactly what I'm talking about or some had some effects from this.
The average annual salary nationwide is around 59, 000. The average salary nationwide for households is around 70, 700. And the national median for a one bedroom home is 1, 500. Anything after that... After that, one bedroom. So that's for like one person. If you were a family, that's looking at 2k max. I mean, 2k minimum.
That's about 24, 000 a year starting. Just to have shelter. Not, not also to keep the lights on. Not, not also to have a pillow and a bed. Forget Amazon. Disney, forget Disney Plus. Not also to have running water, heat, Wi Fi, just shelter. Just, here is the key and the landlord said you can live here. Temporarily.
It is actually a giving miracle that many more of us are not homeless under the circumstances. Two thirds of us in the U. S. can't afford a 400 emergency. Many, most of us are closer to being homeless than we are to being millionaires. Forget billionaires. That's not even. 80 percent of us live paycheck to paycheck.
There are folks with bachelor's and master's degrees on the street. I, I kid you not, I've spoken to some of them. They are out there with full on multiple degrees. And that is a reality. That's not my opinion. Number three is that there are mainly criminals on the street. Homeless people are mainly criminals.
Now, people living outside are by far more vulnerable to abuse and full on just violence and aggression than the general public. People experiencing... Homelessness, report that passerby and other people just in the street verbally abuse them, kick them, assault them. Homeless people have police called on them all the time for existing, just for simply existing.
There have also been reports of fatal violence on unaccommodated people. And without. Investments in community based and evidence based solutions. Most communities are often using police to respond to people living outside on the street and criminalizing homelessness and issuing citations and arrests for, for just existing, for public nuisance crimes, for survival crimes that people wouldn't have to endure if they had shelter.
Homeless homelessness,
As a part of a larger construct, criminalizes homeless people for their inability to source shelter, which is a basic human need, and it places the blame on the individual rather than the system that fails them. Another myth I want to talk about is that Most homeless people are on drugs. Most research shows that around a third of people who are homeless have problems with either alcohol or drug use.
And a lot of them seem to be... Self medicating. People may use substances to receive relief from their stresses and their problems, which you can imagine if you are homeless or houseless, you have many stresses and problems. And folks depend on substances due to lack of social support. People may have little to no contact with family or friends.
And, yeah, so... There are drugs and alcohol on the streets, not the majority of homeless people are using them, but some are, and once we stop criminalizing substance abuse and start offering better and more comprehensive treatment services next to sustainable housing, we will see less substance abuse on the streets.
But substance abuse is a very real human issue, not a homeless issue, and we really need to shift the narrative, the stereotype, to more address that, rather than pinning or associating the issue with folks on the street. And the final myth I kind of want to go over is the, that they're all crazy one. That homeless people are just mentally unstable on the street.
And yep, there are mentally unstable homeless people. There are also mentally stable homeless people. And the latter makes up the majority, actually around 20 percent of homeless folks have some form of mental illness, and that's pretty compatible with. The number of people who have mental health issues in our general population.
There are mentally unstable people on the street, and they need treatment and housing. And in the U. S., we have a history of failure of deinstitutionalization, where psych hospitals were emptied beginning in the 1960s. And this led to too many psychiatric patients being consigned out into shelters and the streets.
And we currently don't have a system in place in the U. S. for folks who are suffering from severe mental health illnesses on the streets to receive care. and housing services. I want to dig a little deeper before I close out this episode. The fact of the matter is that many of us might find it easier to ignore homelessness if we thought or keep thinking it was a problem with no solution.
And there seems to be so many ways than not that one could find themselves homeless. And it's not rooted in the individual. It's Systemically rooted in wealth inequality and poverty, because homelessness is a symptom of other aspects like underemployment, unemployment, less available and accessible public assistance, lack of affordable housing, lack of affordable health care, the, like, homelessness is a symptom of many systemic failures of policy,
And because of this, there is no one size fits all solution. The actual proximity of most of us to the line of homelessness, rather than wealth, is a factor that none of us want to come to terms with. It's anxiety inducing at its least. And that does, I think, contribute to some folks reluctance to assist the house's population.
Because in a world where It often feels like everyone is primarily focused on their own survival. It becomes remarkably effortless to disregard the homeless. Many of us are simply trying to get by, and it's tempting to assume that homelessness couldn't happen to us, even though the issue is right next to us.
And we live in a system that thrives off of The display of homelessness, because it acts as a constant reminder for the rest of us that the moment we don't sell ourselves for labor, that's where you're going to end up. So let's talk about five ways to actually do something. My favorite part. How can we, how can we do our part to make this better?
Number one, I think one of the best things you can do is speak up, attend city council meetings and planning meetings for affordable housing projects, and voice your support. And this isn't true for all localities, but if you can, Work with a local organization to get zoning laws changed so that more multi family, multi story housing units can be built.
So exclusionary zoning ordinances, those ensure protection of single family properties, and those reduce housing availability for renters and prevent multi family dwellings. Go to your city councilman and go to these meetings and start voicing your support. And if you're really motivated to help and you're really angry about people on the street, that's one thing you can do.
That's where you can voice your opinion. Number two, if you want to, if you see a homeless person, and you want to help them, you want to give them something, I would say... Don't make assumptions about homeless people around you and what their needs are. I think there are tons of examples, for instance, of homeless folks having to deny food for dietary or allergy restrictions, and being, and then being frowned upon by the person.
You know, who's, air quotes, trying to feed the homeless. If the unaccommodated person you're trying to engage with seems of decent clarity, ask them what they might need. Don't think you're a hero saving the day by just handing out a meal no one's asking you for, that you have no idea fits into someone's dietary restrictions or their needs.
Humanize folks. Humanize the folks on the street, just be nice. Ask, do not assume, what folks might need to survive out there. That leads me to number three, because there are some things that some homeless folks have told me are very helpful, for the most part. And... A few consistent ones I have found are Walmart gift cards, uh, gym membership, Starbucks gift cards, and here's why.
Now, for a homeless person, Starbucks is not just for coffee, right? It's also for having a place. A nice place to legally sit, the reprieve of the outside, for A. C. or for warmth, with Wi Fi. And with the ability to charge your devices. And gym membership gift cards are great because showers. And the nicer the gym, of course, the better.
Walmart, because oftentimes homeless folks May need provisions and not just food and Walmart has many things, a variety of things that a homeless person can go into one place and just grab multiple items of and that's great. Also, Walmart for bathrooms and AC or he and reprieve from the outside. Number four is offer job training and ID support.
Now, some homeless individuals may need assistance in acquiring job skills, finding employment, or accessing social services. And if you can, consider volunteering with organizations and shelters in your neighborhood that offer job training programs or mentorship opportunities to help individuals regain their own independence.
Most jobs require at least a driver's license or state ID and another form of ID. And there are many homeless folks who either were robbed by police or other people, or may have lost those documents, or if they were running away from an abusive situation, they... can't access those documents or they couldn't access those documents.
So helping folks get a hold of those things will make things easier for them. Many folks on the street just need a hand getting to the next step. Getting ID so they can get a library card. Figuring out how they can get health care. Access to social services. And if you can, this is a great way to help.
The last tip I want to give is if you are someone who calls the police on homeless people just existing on the street, if you are someone Who is verbally or physically harming, or in any way, yeah, harming homeless people. Please stop. If their presence is upsetting to you, get upset at the right folks. Go back to number one.
I would go to the city council, like I said, and then make my way up from there if you've really got all that fight in you so we can make real change happen. If you are more interested in this topic, feel free to look up the research page on my website. I have a bunch of sources cited there as well as a page dedicated to resources I have found.
For helping the houseless community, I hope this episode gave you all a bit more empathy. I hope it gave you more perspective, more understanding. Thanks for listening and catch you next time. Bye!