This scene was created by affordablehousingaction.org and is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication
The homeless are:
-
- unable to afford housing for their family
- afraid of being beaten to death on the street, or in a homeless shelter
- too lazy to work
- drug addicts
- unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives
- suffering from mental health issues
- a threat to ‘normal’ people
- damn cold, like everyone else in winter
- keen on having pets they can’t take care of
- chronic ‘rough sleepers.’
- people who take care of their pets as well or better than most
- entitled to the human right to adequate housing
- trying to go to school while living in a shelter
- holding down a job but living in a shelter
- and so on . . . and on.
It seems there are a great number of people who are addicted to the idea that homeless people can be defined by one or two key characteristics. Solving a nation’s homeless problems (and pretty much every nation on earth has them these days) can be sorted if only we can determine what characterizes the homeless, and simply coming up with the right cure to that particular problem.
Alas, it ain’t that easy, as The Big Issue attempts to explain. Read more: There is no single image of a ‘homeless person’. Let’s bust the myths about homelessness
