'Unhoused,' not 'homeless' — advocates craft a new language of victimhood - "For several years, activists and self-styled “advocates” have been attempting to change the way we speak about social problems like homelessness, drug addiction, crime and unsocial behaviour. The intention is clear: to remove stigma and any overt suggestion of personal responsibility. The new names are meant to reorient our thinking so that we understand that the real causes of misfortune to be societal or systemic. If a word has shameful connotations, that seems to be enough to warrant change. The goal here is to refrain from describing anyone who could plausibly be identified as a victim as having any personal responsibility for their own fate. At the top of the list are the homeless. They are instead “unhoused” or “unsheltered.” They have homes, advocates say, in the communities where they live. But the housing market has let them down. Or, as some put it, these are people “experiencing” homelessness. The passive voice conveniently rids the whole issue of what some person might have done to end up that way. This thing called homelessness is just happening. Never mind that “homeless” itself was meant to take the shame out of terms that were very much intended to deliver it — words like “hobo” or “bum.”Then there is the case of drug addicts. Here, too, we’re meant to switch our speech to refer to those who have “substance use” issues. And when they find themselves on the brink of death from an overdose, advocates now want us to call these events “accidental poisonings.” The addict in your downtown needing to be resuscitated by a NARCAN kit? They aren’t engaged in a dangerous and illegal behaviour. Instead, they’re just like someone who had the bad luck to get salmonella from poorly cooked turkey. We are meant to think buying fentanyl-laced crack is almost the same as getting lumped with bad bean sprouts from No Frills... Perhaps by doing it, we might be contributing to marginalization, itself another increasingly popular term. Here we are talking about those who find themselves inhabiting the impoverished and crime-ridden areas of cities and the justice system. And here, too, we’re told to frame the issue as if something is always being done to people while ignoring what those individuals might have done to push themselves to the margins. People are marginalized by others, and by society. They suffer marginalization. It’s something that happens to someone. The most ludicrous example of this is the phrase “racialized,” as if someone’s skin colour or ethnic background is something that is not just a normal part of identity. Race, of course, isn’t a social problem, but some advocates insist on giving it the suffix of “-ized” to denote victimhood. The irony of this phrase is that it’s most heavily pushed by those who are the most keen on doing the “racializing” — those activists, the most enthusiastic racializers, insist that we can’t have race-neutral hiring or non-discrimination policies but continuously and endlessly invoke race as a category. All of this is more than just wordplay. It is a way to over-simplify complex problems. It’s about de-stigmatizing behaviours that society might very well wish to continue to stigmatize. Stigma and shame are, after all, one of the main ways social groups indicate disapproval. The problems of poverty, crime, addiction and homelessness are complex and multilayered. They are caused by a myriad of complex factors, some social and some personal. Identifying the precise causes and cures in each case requires sophisticated thinking. Yet the word changes being pushed by an activist crew are anything but. The new phrases cut off certain explanations from the very outset, insisting on a stigma-free diagnosis in which victims are blameless, and feeling good about identity matters more than accurately diagnosing the causes of someone’s problems and society’s ills."
Thread by @eigenrobot on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "on a first pass, one can imagine (at least) four separate modes for morally evaluating the homeless as a class
the first mode is secular. homeless people are people, in a material sense, with no notable moral valence independent of their other characteristics. that said, their other characteristics tend to be repellent or annoying, so they're an irritant like criminals or teenagers
the second is characteristically christian and associated with dignity culture. homeless people bear the imago dei. they are not intrinsic moral superiors but their plight is a shame to us because it denudes them of the dignity that should be theirs by right of their humanity.
a third mode is to see the homeless as specially sacred, a class beyond ourselves. we are not obliged to clothe them in dignity; our duty is to facilitate and extend their holy degeneration. filth and madness and drugs are sacramental
the last mode that i am imagining and perhaps what OP is pointing at is an inversion of the holy conception of the homeless as an intrinsically and specially vile class; the homeless not as angels but as vermin. the civic model of homelessness in, for example, san francisco has for some time embraced the model of holy degeneration. akin to cows of india, they are more than human. they are not to be impeded, and they are to be maintained in filth at public expense as an act of piety
you will not be surprised to learn that my own preferred model of the moral status of homeless people is a superposition of the first two modes. we ought to care for them. but also many are _awful_, not just poor. and we have to reckon with that, practically. the homeless-as-vermin model is repugnant to me, and i think it becomes more likely *when shooting up and jacking off in the street is treated as a positive sacred act for the homeless*
it's easier to flip the sign of sacredness than it is to remove it
but i also reject the notion that refusing to embrace the model of sanctified degeneracy is necessarily an embrace of dehumanization. the junkie-as-angel model is _fucked up_ and itself dehumanizing both for the homeless and for the worshipper of the homeless this explains a lot about what's going on, for those of you paying attention"
Jeremy Kauffman 🦔🌲🌕 on X - "The SF Chronicle covered what happens when you just give the homeless housing:
- They live in squalor
- They fight and kill each other
- They die of drug overdoses
- They get evicted for failure to follow basic rules
- They threaten and abuse staff"
Elon Musk on X - "In most cases, the word “homeless” is a lie. It’s usually a propaganda word for violent drug addicts with severe mental illness."
John LeFevre on X - "VaLecia Adams Kellum is the CEO of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which receives $875 million annually from taxpayers to combat homelessness, which has doubled in the last 10 years. Her total compensation is $338,000 a year. Below her, more than 170 LAHSA employees make more than $100k in TC."
Daniel Friedman on X - "You should be outraged that a “Top 50” list of dangerous homeless people exists. Every person on that list has been arrested dozens of times. Every one of them has attacked strangers. And the city leaves them on the street for you to deal with instead of locking them up."
Jordan Neely Was on New York’s ‘Top 50’ List of Homeless People at Risk - The New York Times - "For years before Jordan Neely, a mentally ill homeless man, was killed in the subway, the city had its eye on him. He was on a list informally known as the Top 50, a roster of people in a city of eight million who stand out for the severity of their troubles and their resistance to accepting help... Despite that, and an open arrest warrant, Mr. Neely was out on his own on May 1, when he began ranting at passengers."
The human rights of the homeless and criminals cannot be violated!
Man screaming everyday Bay st and Wellington : r/toRANTo - "Person in literal ivory tower complains of the throes of the destitute below go buy him lunch if you want to help. "
"Yes i’m sure a lunch will help a severely mentally ill person screaming on the top of his lungs who is possibly on drugs. If you know anything about serious mental illness and addiction, you know that majority of these people are too far gone to be saved EVEN with professional help. It’s the hard truth whether you want to believe it or not."
Man screaming everyday Bay st and Wellington : r/toRANTo - "If you ever come across a homeless person who's annoyed by another homeless person your brain would probably shutdown from the cognitive dissonance. Which homeless person has more rights than the other? Since homeless are allowed to do anything they want right, they're homeless which in Toronto means they have more rights than everybody else, so what about two homeless 😵💫"
Man screaming everyday Bay st and Wellington : r/toRANTo - "Only in north america is this behavior tolerated, mind boggling"
"Yeah they're immune to laws. Theres a dude that's repeatedly assaulted people in Yorkville, and the cops do shit all. He's always spotted walking around being a nuisance."
I let a homeless friend move in and she is screwing me over : r/OntarioLandlord - "I let a friend move in. She was supposed to stay here 2 weeks but it is now 2 years. We share the home but I have been very uncomfortable as she has said she is in love with my husband. He doesn't entertain it as far as I know but I just feel like this is a toxic situation. She only comes to the common areas when my husband is home which is better for me but she leaves a mess in the kitchen and doesn't clean up after herself or her child. I work from home so it is not like I could avoid her. She took over my basement and said she would pay me for storage and she has not. I let it go because at the time we were still on friendly terms and I wanted her to save money so she could find her own place but after I got diagnosed with stage 1 cancer she said she was in love with my hubby. She does other toxic things but that's probably more relationship issues so I won't discuss here but I would like to know how to evict her. Her son is 6 and I told her they could no longer share a room and she quite confidently said that because there is a housing crisis in Ontario she will get to stay here and will make it so she becomes woman of the house. I have put in a form to speak with a lawyer but I need help as this situation is making me anxious. I'm at this point where I don't even know if I want to get treatment but I figure I would have to try something before I give up entirely."
Shocking lack of empathy. Doesn't OP know that everyone is a few bad months away from homelessness?
[Explainer] The reason why there isn't a visible homeless population in major population centres in China : r/AskChina - "My parents are travelling around China right now, and one piece of feedback is that China doesn't have a visible homeless population in major population centres compared to countries like Canada. A lot of Westerners are also surprised by this. So here is why: In Canada, for example, roughly 60 -70% of the homeless population are mentally ill or are drug addicts (from my own observation). In China, those two types of people are sent to mandatory asylums or rehabs (something that Canada doesn't). This removes the most significant contributor to homelessness. Second, for those who are homeless because of financial reasons, finding a cheap room to live in is easy in China; those rooms are colloquially known as 挂壁房, which looks like this. The availability of affordable lodgings removes the second biggest contributor to homelessness. Of course, there will be ppl who can't find cheap lodgings. For those individuals, the government will step in and send them to the local aid centre 救助站, which will send them back to their registered hukou location, where either the local community organization or their family will take care of them. Lastly, there are ppl who voluntarily choose to live on the streets. Those ppl are not allowed to loiter in shopping centres, public transport, and tourist places. You can still find them in remote areas of the city, such as back alleys, or underneath an overpass. I hope this explains why there isn't a visible homeless population in major population centres in China"
"I'm from a European country that offers free shelter options for homeless people, the problem is they're usually drug addicts, and they can't use drugs at the free shelters, so they choose to live on the street. Talk to these people and they will tell you they are on the street by choice. And come the coldest night of the year, you won't see any of them on the streets, because on those night they choose the shelter options and go without their drugs for the night."
If you suggest some people want to be homeless, you are obviously heartless
The devastating effect Victoria's hotel-shelters have had on surrounding businesses - "Since the nearby Comfort Inn became a temporary hotel for the homeless, cafe owner Jolanda Machholz now makes sure to arrive an extra half-hour early to work. She first scans the sidewalk for human feces, syringes, and bike parts. Then she circles her patio looking for people sleeping and shooting up. Then, she checks the outdoor drains, which have had their covers stolen four times, assumedly for scrap metal. Finally — and tentatively — she tugs on the lock on the front door; it was smashed in a month ago... BC Housing’s hotel-shelter initiative has definitely been noticed by Victoria's first responders, with police regularly performing drug and weapons busts at the sites, or dealing with violent stand-offs. The most recent spate of incidents include a 12-hour-period over November 5 and 6 where Victoria Police attended to three calls made in the hotels, all serious in nature. The first was the fire at Capital City Center Hotel for a fire that resulted in an estimated $250,000 in damage, and left 87 guests displaced. Our Place Society who runs this site, told CTV the fire was set by a guest, not a hotel resident. Victoria Police then attended to two more calls—both resulting in standoffs at the Howard-Johnson."
Clearly, if you just house the homeless, all the problems go away
The Cost to Criminalize Homelessness - "A report by Rethink Homelessness in 2014 looked at Central Florida counties Seminole, Orange and Osceola. They analyzed the costs of “arrest, incarceration, medical and psychiatric emergency room use and inpatient hospitalizations” for a cohort of about 30 chronically homeless individuals in each county — a total of 107 throughout. They found in Osceola county alone, over ten years, 37 chronically homeless people were arrested 1,250 times, or about four times per person per year. The booking cost of each arrest was $104, costing taxpayers $130,000; the arrests led to 61,896 days of incarceration at a daily cost of $80, costing the community $4,951,680; this totaled to $6,417,905 over ten years, or $641,791 per year for those 37 people. Cycling these people of all three counties through this system was costing the counties $31,065 per person per year — almost the exact cost of paying each person $15 an hour for a full time job. The cost of supportive housing, giving these people a place to live and the help they need, whether medical or with finding a job, would have been far less though at an average of $10,051 per person per year, “a community cost reduction of 68%,” the report continued."
This is a shit study pretending that the cost of housing pre-selected individuals is the same as that of housing the homeless population in general (where the cost of the latter is artificially inflated by using the most expensive of the lot). They got 2 providers, Ability Housing of Northeast Florida of Jacksonville, FL and the Orange County Shelter Plus Care (S+C) Program to report the cost of housing people, but the former says "our communities are in high demand and often have waiting lists or no availability" (so they get to pick and choose who gets in, and they also prioritise the disabled) and the latter is for "homeless households with disabilities". On the other side, they inflated the cost of homelessness by looking at the very worst of the lot: "The individuals were identified by the local homeless outreach teams as those most frequently engaged by the teams". Also notably, the cost of arrest and incarceration was $1.2 million per year for these people, but the medical costs were $2.2 million per year. Maybe putting them in supervised housing will prevent them from ODing and reduce medical bills
What is your view on the homelessness crisis in Toronto? : r/askTO - "The local shwarma place used to give homeless falafel shwarma occasionally. Homeless lady comes in and they obviously know her and she runs out with someone's chicken shwarma. They did later tell me that they occasionally gave her free food. I am very empathetic to the homeless but I do freely admit it's far easier when you don't have to deal with them all day, every day."
Meme - Dr. Dad, PhD @GarrettPetersen: "The longer libs run an institution, the more like a homeless shelter it becomes. Mass transit station? Homeless shelter. Public park? Homeless shelter. Public street? Homeless shelter. Library? Homeless shelter."
Gothamist @Gothamist: "Zohran Mamdani wants to use empty subway retail to help homeless New Yorkers"
Effect of emergency winter homeless shelters on property crime - "The presence of a shelter appears to cause property crime to increase by 56% within 100 m of that shelter, with thefts from vehicles, other thefts, and vandalism driving the increase. However, when a homeless shelter opened, rates of breaking and entering commercial establishments were 34% lower within 100 m of that shelter. The observed effects are concentrated close to shelters, within 400 m, and dissipate beyond 400 m. Consistent with a causal effect, we find a decreasing effect of shelters with increasing distance from the shelter."
Someone demanded studies on the effects of homeless people on crime, then got upset when I presented this
'Where will they go?' Kitchener encampment residents react to region's plan to move them from current site - "Residents of the encampment at the corner of Victoria Street and Weber Street were surprised to see several dumpsters arrive on the site on April 16, accompanied by a notice of a proposed bylaw to clear the tents and make room to build a new transit hub... The first time the region tried to evict the residents was in late 2022, about a year after they had first set up the tents. But in January 2023, a Kitchener judge ruled the region could not evict people from the site until they had shelter spaces for everyone to move into. The region tried to argue the encampment went against a bylaw on public conduct on regionally owned properties. Justice M.J. Valente cited the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and said the region's plans to move people off the site at the time went against the person's rights to life, liberty and security of the person. That's because, Valente said in his ruling, the region lacked enough shelter space for everyone who was homeless... Residents told the centre the presence of dumpsters in their living space made them feel like "human trash" and they are "already planning on setting up tents in the backyards of houses and businesses," the report says."
Ironically, the people who push public transit and want to force everyone to use it are the same people who want homeless people to be able to camp anywhere without risk of removal because it's a human right and public space belongs to homeless people
Matt Walsh on X - "We used to have asylums for dangerous lunatics who aren’t capable of being productive members of society. Then the liberals started complaining so we shut down the asylums and now all the lunatics are camped out in the street, shitting on the sidewalk and stabbing pedestrians randomly. Open the asylums again. The homelessness crisis will be solved in less than a week."
When it comes to homelessness, my heart is in danger of bleeding dry - The Globe and Mail - "I started noticing changes in my husband. He used to keep old winter jackets in his car to offer to people sleeping rough. He’d buy two hot drinks at Starbucks, giving one to the guy panhandling out front. He convinced his family-run business to cover Kelowna’s Gospel Mission’s hot meals program. In recent years, however, he’s spent most workday mornings cleaning excrement, trash, and drug paraphernalia from his shopfront before opening for business in downtown Kelowna. He’s had thousands of dollars of product stolen. He’s spent more repairing damaged property, much of it done by the same small group, their crimes deemed too small to warrant sentencing. His compassion has waned while his vitriol mounted. I, too, am learning vitriol. Earlier this year, three men on bicycles with trailers (captured on neighbour’s cameras) broke into our home while we were out of town. Over the course of 24 hours, the footage suggests, they ransacked, showered, ate from our pantry, used the beds, left feces in our toilets and soiled clothes on the floor. They stole computers, phones, stereos, jewellery, family heirlooms, and tellingly: almost all our warm winter jackets and boots. They emptied our freezer and liquor cabinet, then stole our cars to transport their haul. To the homeless encampment. At least, that’s where my work IT guy tracked my computer. Our cars, too, were found – by my brother-in-law, not the police – parked at the camp, as were the thieves’ bikes and trailers, easily identifiable from security footage. The RCMP officer assigned to our case called it the worst “home invasion” he’d ever seen, yet no one followed up with neighbours’ videos and had to be cajoled into taking beer cans for fingerprinting. Ninety days after the break-in, he banged on our door at 9 p.m. to say he needed us to sign a paper to extend the request: Months had gone by yet the evidence hadn’t even been analyzed. Another officer warned us not to expect a conviction, even if RCMP identified subjects and pressed charges. We’ve heard this before. One man caught stealing from my husband’s downtown business had been charged with “petty” theft over 200 times. Nor did the RCMP try to track down our stolen items in the encampment – to do so, they explained, would infringe on reasonable expectations of privacy in the camp. Indeed, many people I’ve told about our situation have stories of friends or family members who’ve gone to the encampment themselves to try to find and buy back their stolen goods. One officer told us the best chance of retrieving our stuff will be if one of the perpetrators dies of an overdose: A corpse would allow them to enter the tent to claim stolen items... we need to be open to reassessing what’s working and what’s not. One example making headlines is British Columbia’s well-intentioned but poorly thought-through “safe supply” program. While safe supply has no doubt helped many people with drug addiction to obtain prescribed, non-toxic medications for personal use, it’s had unintended consequences. According to a recent class action lawsuit and the RCMP, lethal doses of “safe” opiate prescriptions are making their way onto the streets with dire consequences for first-time users and vulnerable youth, increasing the risk of overdose and further taxing emergency services, social workers, and hospitals. “That’s what you get for legalizing drugs,” sniffed a manager at my bank when we went to check our account security after the break-in. In fact, decriminalization has seen more success in places like Portugal, largely because it was accompanied by heavy investment in addiction treatment services and assertive measures to engage people living with addictions who are found to be contributing to social problems. Portuguese decriminalization was also commitment to public safety. Critically, Portugal decriminalized drug possession but considered all drug crime illegal and punishable, enacting “dissuasion commissions” to tailor rehabilitation needs, stipulate penalties, and minimize community impact. By contrast, British Columbia’s incomplete approach – decriminalization and safe supply – hasn’t done enough to protect high-risk youth, fund effective and accessible treatment interventions, or prioritize public safety... For Canada to invest in the full tool kit required to combat addiction, it needs the backing of citizens who care about a healthy, equitable society. I fear that’s what’s slipping. The public price has become too high; hearts like mine are at risk of bleeding dry. As more people end up as collateral damage to B.C.’s floundering approach to this complex problem, support inevitably wanes. Worse, the best state efforts to support those dealing with unaffordable housing, addiction, or both, may have unwittingly created a situation where hardened criminals can operate with impunity within the very services and supports that tax dollars sustain. As crimes go unchecked and compassion erodes, criminality is conflated with homelessness, lawlessness with addiction, creating an infectious muck of distrust and anger that helps no one, least of all the very people at highest need. My husband and I are still tabulating our losses, both the financial and intangible. I lost digital photos of loved ones. I lost keepsakes, mostly worthless, that held priceless memories. As a woman, I lost my sense of safety and security in my own home – the very thing that might, in other circumstances, cement my empathy for those trying to survive on Canada’s streets. But the biggest loss? My compassion, now doing battle with a toxic blend of grief, disgust and rage."
Damn fascist who has no empathy!
When it comes to homelessness, my heart is in danger of bleeding dry : r/canada - "I refuse to believe there are only two solutions. The real world does not work in black and white. And, once again, forcefully imprisoning addicts is a violation of their rights and historically has only worked in very few cases."
"So what exactly is your genius third option then? It’s easy to tell people that the world isn’t black and white but then when asked for a solution to throw up your hands and say “ I dunno guys, it’s just the vibe I get- someone somewhere should probably do better” Frankly it’s people like you who put us here in the first place by empowering the policies for ‘safe injection/ housing first/ ect….’ That have destroyed communities- all for the sake of the rights of addicts to continue their own self destruction at everyone else’s expense"
"What about everyone else’s right to walk down the street?"
Left wing mindset - fantasy > reality and the rights of an antisocial minority terrorising the majority are more important than those of the latter. This reminds me of another left winger who kept claiming that things were bad but rejected progress and current solutions, but refused to say what better idea he had. This is like a teacher who hates a student and every answer the student submits, the teacher marks it as wrong, and refuses to say what the right answer is. Of course, if he ever provided the model answer and the student gave it, he wouldn't be able to mark the student wrong.
When it comes to homelessness, my heart is in danger of bleeding dry : r/canada - "I work in a homeless shelter, I had no idea till I started working there how complex the problem is. We have about 5 different guys in house , mentally ill, men with addictions, refugees, men that need assisted living, men that can’t afford a place to be live either because they lost their housing or they are recently out of jail. So building affordable units doesn’t solve the problem for most of these groups."
"Yeah, I also occasionally do maintenance work in a government housing building (men and women) and see a lot. So many people there are just incapable of functioning normally in a job or on their own without assistance due to drug addictions and drug related disabilities, so when people tell me that they just need to be put to work, I know it wouldn't work. Some people need to be placed in care homes for the safety of themselves and others. I've worked in two apartments where the tenant died of overdose so far."
When it comes to homelessness, my heart is in danger of bleeding dry : r/canada - "I’m sick of it. Changing words doesn’t matter to the homeless. Honestly “Unhoused” sounds like something you’d use to describe Amazon shipments not human beings."
"When I hear unhoused, it sounds like a temporary inconvenience and I have to remind myself why I should care. Homeless sounds so tragically sad and I instinctually want better for those people."
When it comes to homelessness, my heart is in danger of bleeding dry : r/canada - "Housing first works in progressive nations who also institutionalize their mentally unwell, and incarcerate repeat offenders etc etc etc. We don’t like the icky parts of housing first, so we just do the comfortable parts and it doesn’t work."
"Institutionalization (for mental health, addictions, or crime) is unfortunately not seen as progressive in Canada (or America). It's seen as conservative and draconian. And since conservatives are the ones pushing institutionalization, that view has only been hardened. Although, seeing how people on the left went from painting conservatives as destroyers if the earth and threat to mankind for wanting to scrap the carbon tax to praising Carney for doing it, I guess all we need is a single strong Liberal to take the stance and progressives will be on board."
Vancouver streets full of so much human waste they need 'poop fairies' - "Vancouver, renowned for its natural beauty and laid back lifestyle, has a human waste problem so bad that businesses have hired “poop fairies” to speed the cleanup on city sidewalks. Dodging human and dog waste has become a real problem for pedestrians navigating the city’s sidewalks, and it’s not just a problem plaguing the Downtown Eastside. The city’s own feces removal response program can’t seem to keep up so business improvement districts have hired the “poop fairies.”"
Hamilton encampment residents seek $445k from city over tent ban they say violated charter rights : r/Hamilton - "I don't know about anyone else but my sympathy is running really low. I can't leave anything outside without a risk of it magically disappearing."
"They stole my child's wheelchair. That was the end of my sympathy. Drove around checking the local encampments and got it back. Really enjoyed watching the handcuffs get put on that piece of shit"
"It's exactly shit like that which infuriates me. We're supposed to have endless sympathy while they offer zero sympathy in return."
"Yep. That and how all the green spaces in the city (the only thing we had going) are turning into biohazard dumps."
"Tolerance of this is really thinning on my part too. Not only do you get to take over parks and other public spaces with tents but now we have to pay to do so?"
"I really don't need to see a grown man with his dick out in the middle of Bayfront park while there are public washrooms(that we pay for and maintain) 100 yards away."
