Homeless or Houseless?
There is a movement in society to change the term homeless to houseless. Reasoning moves along the line of removing the stigma the word homeless may cast on those who are experiencing the dilemma of not having a house to live in.
But not having a place to live isn’t the “below the surface” cause of being on the streets.
The root cause is a “profound, catastrophic loss of family” as Alan Graham of Mobile Loaves and Fishes says.
He is right.
In our experience, people end up on the streets due to having no family support system to fall on. They have no one who cares.
In a campground, we operated we discovered men usually ended up on the streets due to the loss of their spouse and women usually ended up on the streets due to a loss of a child or children. All had lost family and therefore lost the will to carry on and the necessary support to do so.
The move across the country for “housing first” is well-intentioned, but housing alone doesn’t solve homelessness: Community (family) does.
We discovered, by accident, how important community is to people who don’t have it. We had created a tiny house village to be a transition program to move people on from being in crisis on the streets to a better existence by improving their income and having a better place to live.
What we didn’t expect was the bonds of community created in that little village. People had found “family” and they didn’t want to move on to something better. They were satisfied with living in an 8x10 glorified lawn mower shed because they had a new “family.”
Recently we heard from another worker in this homelessness field. She shared their program had created nice housing for the homeless and was shocked to find the homeless moved out because they had a “family” on the streets and would rather continue to live with them than live in a nice house or apartment.
Solving homelessness is finding ways to create communities where people can live and “belong” to a family. Together they support and encourage each other. They help each other solve challenges and find hope. They pick each other up and inspire change.
So, in reality, recognizing people on the streets as homeless is correct. It is far more than not having a house.