Why Houselessness Needs to be Destigmatized

Going for Broke with Ray Suarez is a podcast by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and The Nation which, in its host’s words, shares “Stories of people living tough times and conversations about solutions that give us hope.” Suarez interviews individuals who have gained valuable insights from their hardships in order to derive possible solutions for the struggles experienced daily by Americans “on the edge.” Two of the podcast's episodes, those from October 18 and November 15, highlight homelessness in America as experienced by women who have previously lost their housing security and employment. Such episodes—and such real-life accounts of homelessness from everyday people—can destigmatize homelessness for those who are quick to presume the dishonesty, laziness, and unworthiness of those they observe on the streets. I will be alluding to and connecting the following accounts with a few articles centered on Portland, Oregon's houselessness crisis in particular as well.

In the episode “Jen Fitzgerald: A Poet Without a Home,” Going for Broke interviews the titular Jen Fitzgerald, a native New Yorker and single mother who experienced homelessness after being priced out of her home city at both the beginning and height of the 2020 pandemic. While the circumstances around Jen’s homelessness may seem exclusive to her personal life —since her housing insecurity and joblessness were spawned by a sudden courting junction and custody battle — Jen’s situation is deeply intertwined with economic changes that occurred in New York that can similarly occur anywhere; these changes resulted in the systematic exclusion of the poor and unstable middle class. Suarez employs Matthew Murphy, the Executive Director of the NYU Furman Center, to assess the changes in New York City that characterized the precariousness of Jen’s housing situation—which illuminates that while New York has been looked to as a city with “...a broad diversity of housing types and housing costs unlike stratified, economically segregated modern suburbs,” America has since become an increasingly low-supply, low-opportunity country.

With this, we can understand that houselessness is often not a case of individuals refusing work, indulging in houselessness for hand-outs, or being at fault for their houselessness to begin with but stems from — and is maintained by — specific systems in place across America. Lori Yearwood, a journalist who lost her home in a fire and experienced two years of houselessness before reclaiming her career, offers her insight to Suarez regarding the reality of homelessness. Armed with her traumatic experience with shelters that make sleeping and comfort impossible, Yearwood asserts:

People who collapse into homelessness are punished because the thought is “You did something wrong and it's your fault [that] you're here and if we make it too comfortable you will end up staying here and misuse the system. It’s very analogous with the thinking of the Victorian ages: when there is something wrong with your moral character because you’re poor. It's not because your circumstances are affecting you, it's because there is something wrong with your character. That way of thinking about the unhoused is…. Translated into their living quarters when they are going to a shelter.

In an article entitled “Portland State Opens Homeless Shelter for its Students,” Amanda Ward echoes Yearwood’s analysis of the typical response to the homeless, i.e. allocating fault and blame to those who have been afflicted, asserting that the narrative spawned by this perspective as false. “Sometimes there are bad things that happen to us but it’s not your fault, it’s not my fault,” Ward said. “I wish I could tell other people that. If you don’t have housing, it doesn’t mean it’s a personal failure. Sometimes it’s just part of the system and it’s a system we are fighting against.” Those who blame the homeless for their state of houselessness also wield an inhumane perspective against the notion of producing higher standards of shelters and providing hotel and motel spaces for the homeless; Dennis Culhane, a professor of social policy at the University of Pennsylvania, analogizes the attitude to 17th century Puritan scolding as many believe: “If we give them all those things, they won’t try to stop being homeless.” Evidently, though, in the case of Jen Fitzgerald—whose story saw her gaining access to a temporary apartment—access to a stable home provides individuals with the opportunity to seek a more permanent living arrangement and to meet bodily functions and needs. Culhane suggests that “Not just hotels, but a managed intervention focused on getting people rehoused in 60-90 days” can not only provide basic accommodation for those seeking to end homelessness swiftly but give the homeless the independence and care necessary to get back on their feet; before one runs with Culhane's proposal, though, Yearwood highlights a necessary first step in the process of rehousing the homeless, stating that “[America] can make better housing but until the trauma is acknowledged, [the homeless] will not come out of homelessness in a way that is healing… The answer is not better shelters… We have to stop and pause and breathe and be with the people and see them as human.”

As Outside In's Youth Services Director, Brian Sexton, states in “Portland Homeless Youth Band Together to Survive Sweeps:”

There is no one reason for homelessness. There's a myriad of reasons, a lot of them systemic. They range from mental health issues to bad luck, but really a lot of the folks we serve are on the LGBTQIA spectrum and face discrimination from their families. General poverty is another reason. Abuse, trauma.

Sexton’s sentiment accompanies Yearwood’s, then, that the acknowledgment of the trauma experienced by the homeless, as well as the trauma that underscores the catalyst for their homelessness, is necessary in order to create methods for getting the houseless off the streets and into safer, more stable environments. A literacy of America’s economy is not required for one’s ability to empathize with those affected by economic crises and consequences; to rectify the relationship between social policy and the people, one must acknowledge the people in crisis as people. In order to address the homelessness crisis in Portland with the integrity it deserves, we must acknowledge how disturbing the circumstances that the system has placed these people in are; trauma is not disturbing—the catalysts are.

You can listen to Going for Broke with Ray Suarez on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other alternative platforms to listen to the stories of Jen Fitzgerald and Lori Yearwood today.

Written by Jay Hernandez