Misinformation and disinformation are seemingly more prevalent (and maybe more obvious) during election season. Unfortunately it can be challenging to know where to turn for information.
The same thing can be true for all sorts of subjects.
Our opinions about unsheltered people are going to change based on where we get our information.
Where do our opinions about unsheltered people come from? Unfortunately, the unsheltered people who get the most attention are the ones with the most severe addictions, the most severe mental illnesses, and the ones who are engaging in criminal behavior. The people getting the most attention are the ones that are showing up on our social media feeds and on the nightly news. Those stories are the ones that tend to shape our opinions.
Or, for many of us, our opinions are based solely on our own negative experiences or interactions.
“Leaving a restaurant, a guy asked for my spare change. I offered him my leftovers and he yelled at me. If they were actually hungry, they would be grateful for whatever was offered to them.”
“A guy was holding a sign that said ‘Work Wanted’ and so I asked him if he wanted to come do some yard work. He said no. They don’t really want to work. They just want handouts.”
“We were getting ready for a baseball game at my son’s school and we found needles in the dugout. Homeless people are all addicts and they don’t care about anyone else.”
What shapes your opinions about this topic? How do your opinions and experiences shape how you talk about solutions?
The number of people who are visibly homeless (the ones sleeping on sidewalks, or in other very public places) are only a small percentage of the people who are actually unsheltered. In fact, the majority of people who are unsheltered are mostly invisible to the public.
On the Invisible People website, one author shares this thought:
”Here in America, homelessness is a school teacher fleeing from domestic violence at home. Homelessness is a war veteran who just lost a coveted retail job. Homelessness is an eighteen year old aging out of the foster care system.”
That is exactly what we have found in our experience at C@P.
Even so, the people that do end up on the news or on our social media feeds—the ones that are struggling with addiction or illness—they are no less deserving of mercy and friendship.
