The "Problem of the Homeless" – Or, How We Learned to Hate the Poor (and Ignore the Obvious Solution)

By Leung Mi 2021 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=113937230

Framing Homelessness as a Housing Problem, Not a People Problem

Let’s start with a crucial correction. It’s not “the problem of the homeless.” It’s homelessness. The problem isn’t people; it’s the condition of being without a home. It’s a semantic point, perhaps, but a vital one. Because when we talk about “the problem of the homeless,” it subtly shifts the blame, the focus, the… disgust, onto the individuals themselves, rather than on the societal failure that creates and perpetuates homelessness. So, let’s get it straight: the problem is homelessness. And the solution? Well, the word itself practically screams it at you: homes. It’s almost insultingly obvious, isn’t it? How to solve the problem of homelessness? Provide… homes! We’ve already talked, at length, about the broader housing crisis, the affordability crunch squeezing millions. But homelessness is a specific, particularly brutal manifestation of that crisis, and one that has been festering in America for decades, if not centuries. And in the wealthiest society that has ever existed, the spectacle of widespread homelessness is not just an irony, it’s a moral indictment. America, more than any nation in history, possesses the resources, the wealth, the sheer capacity to easily, demonstrably, end homelessness. We could build tenement housing, we could subsidize rents, we could unleash construction subsidies, we could build it ourselves, we could incentivize private industry – the toolbox of solutions is overflowing. And yet… we mostly stand by and… do what, exactly?

Action in Reverse - The Active Criminalization of Homelessness

“Do nothing”? That’s not entirely true. We do do something. We just don’t do anything remotely resembling a solution. Instead of building homes, instead of providing support, instead of addressing the root causes of homelessness, we… criminalize it. Yes, in the richest nation on earth, our primary “strategy” for dealing with homelessness is to make it illegal to be homeless. Think about that for a moment. We punish people for lacking the very thing we refuse to provide: shelter. The list of discriminatory criminalizations is chilling: restricting permitted areas for sitting or sleeping, effectively outlawing simply existing in public space. Panhandling bans, silencing the voices of desperation and cutting off a vital (if meager) lifeline. Forced removals from an area, shuffling human beings around like unwanted furniture, pushing them from one sidewalk to another, one park to another, never actually addressing the underlying need. Destruction of property, tossing out blankets, tents, and meager possessions, stripping away the last vestiges of dignity and survival. Vague loitering and vagrancy laws, essentially making it illegal to be poor and visible in public. Limiting bathroom access, denying basic human dignity. Prohibiting dumpster diving, criminalizing the search for food in trash. Punishing “asocial or antisocial behavior,” a catch-all for… existing while homeless and perhaps not conforming to middle-class norms of public comportment. And as the ACLU has documented, these criminalizations are not only inhumane, they’re likely unconstitutional, violating First Amendment rights to free speech (panhandling) and Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure (property destruction, forced removals). The ACLU report on Los Angeles highlights the particularly cruel absurdity of forced relocation, pushing homeless individuals to remote desert areas, far from food, water, and crucial services, effectively exiling them to even more precarious and dangerous conditions. This is not just inaction; it’s active, deliberate, and shockingly cruel victimization. And it’s all done, supposedly, in the name of “cleaning up” our cities, of making public spaces more “comfortable” for those of us who do have homes. It’s a twisted logic of cruelty and exclusion, and it’s astoundingly expensive and utterly ineffective at actually solving homelessness.

The Pathology of Indifference - Our Societal Malice Towards the Poor

But beyond the policy failures, beyond the misguided “criminalization” strategies, lies something even more disturbing: a deep-seated societal pathology, a pervasive malice towards the poor and homeless that infects our public discourse and shapes our political choices. Millions of urbanites walk past homeless individuals every single day, avert their eyes, quicken their pace, and… do nothing. Or worse, they actively support policies that victimize and destroy homeless people. They cheer on “sweeps,” they demand “tougher” vagrancy laws, they vote for politicians who promise to “clean up” the streets (code for: make homeless people disappear, preferably somewhere far, far away). And all of us, in varying degrees of direct participation and passive complicity, sit by and watch as it happens. This isn’t just about a lack of affordable housing; it’s about a profound failure of empathy, a hardening of hearts, a collective shrug of the shoulders in the face of human suffering. Our “solutions,” such as they are, are often transparently designed not to help homeless people, but to make us feel more comfortable. To sanitize our public spaces, to make our commutes less visually “unpleasant,” to reassure ourselves that we’re somehow “solving” the problem by simply… making it less visible to ourselves. We displace them, we harass them, we criminalize them, not because it helps them, but because it makes us feel… slightly less guilty, slightly less confronted by the stark reality of poverty and inequality in our midst. It’s a deeply selfish, profoundly immoral calculus, and it’s at the heart of our national failure to address homelessness.

Ending the Malice First - A Prerequisite for Real Solutions

So, what’s the path forward? How do we break this cycle of cruelty and inaction? Before we even start talking about specific policy solutions – housing vouchers, construction subsidies, transitional housing programs – we may need to undertake a more fundamental and far more challenging task: ending our own malice. We need to confront our own indifference, our own prejudice, our own willingness to dehumanize and victimize the poor and homeless in our society. Because even the most well-intentioned housing programs, the most generous funding initiatives, will likely fall short if they are implemented in a society that fundamentally views homeless people as… the problem. We need to cultivate genuine empathy, genuine compassion, genuine human connection with those experiencing homelessness. We need to see them not as “the homeless,” not as an abstract social problem to be “solved” and swept away, but as individual human beings, each with their own stories, their own struggles, their own inherent dignity. And we need to recognize that our “solutions” must be genuinely for their benefit, not just for our own comfort. We need to ask ourselves: are we implementing these policies to actually help homeless people get housed and get back on their feet? Or are we implementing them to make ourselves feel better, to make our streets look “cleaner,” to assuage our own guilt while perpetuating a system that actively marginalizes and punishes the most vulnerable among us? Until we confront our own societal malice, until we cultivate genuine compassion, our “solutions” to homelessness will remain, at best, band-aids on a gaping wound, and at worst, just another form of cruelty disguised as “practicality.”

Homes, Humanity, and a Moral Reckoning - The Path to Ending Homelessness

The solution to homelessness, let’s be clear, is not complicated: homes. Decent, safe, affordable homes. We have the resources, we have the capacity, we have the moral obligation. The real obstacle is not logistical or financial; it’s moral. It’s our own societal malice, our ingrained indifference, our willingness to turn a blind eye to human suffering in our midst. It’s time for a moral reckoning. It’s time to confront our own complicity in perpetuating this national shame. Let’s commit to ending homelessness, not just managing it, not just criminalizing it, not just shuffling it out of sight and out of mind. Let’s demand housing-first solutions, let’s challenge criminalization, let’s cultivate empathy, and let’s build a society where everyone has a home, not just some. It’s not just a policy issue; it’s a moral imperative. Let’s choose humanity over malice and build a just and compassionate society, one home at a time. The solution to homelessness is not complicated: homes. The obstacle is not financial or logistical; it’s moral. It’s our societal malice, our indifference, our willingness to turn a blind eye to human suffering. Let's confront that malice, cultivate compassion, and demand a truly humane response to homelessness. Let's build homes, not walls, and let's finally, finally, end this national shame.