They Don’t See Us: The Invisible Hidden in Plain Sight
How often have you seen our unhoused neighbors lining up the streets of our cities? What are the thoughts that fill your mind in those moments? How confident are you that you know what our unhoused neighbors were feeling? Do you think to yourself how they may have ended up there? Being unhoused is a significant social issue in our society, and attitudes toward it vary across the board. People’s opinions on the causes and importance of this problem are unequivocal, but discussions on this issue rarely attract the attention that it deserves. And, if the issue does garner public discourse, it is usually to blame the individuals and their life “choices”. This problem exists in our society, and we must solve it because it threatens people's well-being and safety. So, let us delve into the issue of homelessness, its causes, and possible solutions to this problem, and explore what the concept of sociological imagination has to do with it.
Living unhoused can mean people living without adequate, affordable shelter. Sometimes a person can be unhoused even if they have temporary shelter. However, if we consider this issue more globally, it is one of the most significant problems of humanity, consisting of the inability to provide housing for swaths of people on the planet and caused by various reasons of global, regional, and local inequities. Being unhoused means being cut off from one's family, social groups, and community organizations, and losing one's sense of belonging to society. Despite this phenomenon's long history, its research history is short and began in the 1980s. Perhaps this is the reason why this issue is so relevant in the modern world.
Although being unhoused is often considered an individual problem, it is vital to understand that it is a widespread social phenomenon. After all, we often discover that the roots of many social problems are connected to broader social and historical circumstances. According to Mills & Gitlin (2000), sociological imagination is the understanding of the larger historical and societal context of existing problems enabling us to observe how people frequently develop mistaken awareness of their social standing due to the chaos of their daily experience. Using this approach, we can avoid many stereotypes and thought errors and finally discover that being unhoused is not a problem of a few dozen people sleeping on your street but hundreds of thousands of destroyed lives.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness (2022), there were 580,466 homeless individuals in the US in January 2020, both on the streets and in shelters. Homelessness poses a colossal threat both to those who do not have a home and to the whole of society. Loss of housing adversely affects people's physical and mental health and leads to the growth of alcoholism and drug addiction. Other problems include inadequate medical care, dangerous sexual behavior, violence, exposure to unsafe shelters, increased crime and gendered violence, and the marginalization of people affected by living unhoused. The longer people remain unhoused, the greater their trauma and the lower their chances of re-socialization. The economic inequality and the acuteness of the perception of poverty are increasing, as well as the share of the economically inactive working-age population. In addition, people suffering from homelessness significantly contribute to the spread of infectious diseases. This problem devastates the country’s human capital and ignoring it only worsens its scope and consequences.
It is widely believed that the only reason for being unhoused is people's unwillingness to work or addiction, which is why they lose everything. Shinn and Khadduri (2020) explored this complex issue in their book “In the midst of plenty: Homelessness and what to do about it” and discovered that this perception is far from reality, and in fact, most Americans have a significant chance of becoming homeless. Researchers have observed a significant increase in the problem with the onset of crisis times, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis. First, homelessness signals a growing increase in economic inequality and uneven distribution of economic benefits in society. Stagnant wages, rising unemployment, inflation, lack of affordable housing, and racial and gender-based discrimination are the most significant prerequisites for losing a home.
No matter how difficult it is to admit, the problem of homelessness is not sufficiently addressed in our society and requires urgent action. The organization of shelters is not a universal solution, because they only temporarily eliminate hunger and improve the level of care for the unhoused. In addition, these places are not safe from discrimination and violence. Such a complex social issue requires comprehensive solutions in many areas, including economic reforms, social assistance, media work, etc. Further, addressing the root causes of homelessness by providing people with wages that cover more than living paycheck to paycheck, universal healthcare, access to subsidies, and safe, affordable housing choices can prevent people from becoming unhoused in the first place. Most people are one crisis away from becoming unhoused themselves. Socialization will eliminate vulnerability and promote the well-being of homeless people and the community. Care and protection are vital for our neighbors, so let us give to them while advocating for their rightful, dignified place in society.
References
Mills, C. W., & Gitlin, T. (2000). The sociological imagination. Oxford University Press.
National Alliance to End Homelessness. (2022, September 27). State of Homelessness: 2022 edition. Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/
Shinn, M., & Khadduri, J. (2020). In the midst of plenty: Homelessness and what to do about it. John Wiley & Sons.