Being Unhoused Is Not a Character Flaw
It’s a Reflection of Systemic Inequality, Privilege, and the Glamorized “American Dream”
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There’s a widely misleading and ignorant conversation surrounding the topic of homelessness and those who fall victim to it.
The majority will say it’s a personal failure rather than a societal one. As if being unhoused means you made bad choices, instead of living in a system built to reward the 1% and neglect the remainder of the world.
It seems with the current, unfathomable, disgusting “leader” of the free world, the majority is finally waking up. When poverty was mostly something happening to Black and brown communities, it was “a personal problem.” Now that the safety net is collapsing for everyone, suddenly it’s a “national crisis.”
In other words: White people are affected and suddenly the world is just now falling apart.
It was never put together my love.
It was easy to judge when you’ve never had to wonder where you’ll sleep. It was easy to look down from a place of comfort and think you earned your way there. It was easy to be an asshole.
The fact that people really thought they were better than any other breathing living entity, simply because they had a bed and four walls, is shameful.
We’ve been taught to believe that hard work equals worth. That if you just try hard enough, you’ll “make it.” So when someone doesn’t “make it,” we tell ourselves they must not have tried hard enough. It’s comforting to the average person because it helps eliminate the very realistic yet hidden fear, that it could happen to you. To anybody.
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It always bothered me that people assumed the worst of someone living on the streets. Instead of asking “what happened that led them here?” or having compassion for their experience, people tend to suggest that one did that to themselves. As if someone would choose to be unhoused. To imply that the millions of people that are unhoused is a flaw within character and not within the system that is literally design to have billionaires and people who are impoverished is ridiculous.
Remember: If one student fails, that’s on the student. If the entire class fails, that’s on the teacher.
If we can reframe our thinking, then can we express empathy.
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Think about when you meet people for the first time. How often do you ask someone “what do you do?” in reference to one’s job? It’s as if we are already deciding what level of respect we will give someone based on the answer. A person’s source of income is not their identity, unless they make it so then that’s fine. But human beings are rarely just one thing.
We’re an accumulation of many things.
Let’s try asking people questions such as “what do you value?” “what are your hobbies or passions?” “what makes life worth living to you?”
Or my personal favorite, “what is your favorite thing about yourself?”
These are the kind of questions that truly allow us to connect, feel closeness, feel seen. The questions that give you insight on who a person is. The questions I’d rather get answers to. Your character means much more to me than your career and your career does not define your character (unless you’re ICE or in support of modern day slavery. 🤷🏽♀️)
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Maybe then we’d stop confusing stability with virtue and start seeing people who are unhoused not as failures, but as human beings living through the consequences of a broken system.
May we be so lucky to never experience homelessness and may we express compassion and concern, not critique over those who are.
