“Just get a job.”
“I feel like it’s their own fault.”
“If I give them money, they’ll just waste it on drugs.”
These are all things I have heard in conversations about homeless people. Whether in a big city or small town, sentiments remain the same. Homeless people are just not deserving of our empathy. For some reason, the empathy and values we are taught at a young age are forsaken in favor of casting judgment and assumptions onto complete strangers rather than simply empathizing with people in an unfortunate circumstance. This attitude comes from the judgment American culture has built into its public spaces.
Hostile architecture restricts where people can rest or simply sit down, treating homelessness as some unsightly disease to be shooed out of the public eye. Your exhaustion not only matters less than someone else’s discomfort at its sight — it— it is government-funded.
The same judgment follows onto public transport. Someone sleeping on a train with their belongings is suddenly deemed a threat for the crime of not being able to afford a home. In the South, where public transport is less common than driving, stereotypes and judgment are even more common.
As a Texan, the number of times I have heard someone complain about homeless people simply existing on the DART or their buses to Austin is disappointing, but sadly unsurprising. Public transport can be dangerous, but the mere presence of homeless people is not an indicator of danger, especially not when people are just sleeping or sitting with their belongings. Responding to threatening behavior is reasonable; judging others for not having somewhere to go in a society focused on dehumanizing homeless people is prejudice.
The inability to empathize with homeless people is an attitude we should not accept so casually. Empathy does not require an identical life experience. You have been hungry. You have needed sleep. You have wanted privacy, safety and somewhere to rest. Why are those needs suddenly incomprehensible when someone is unable to meet them?
Instead, we scrutinize the unhoused based on broad generalizations. Surely there must be some misdeed we haven’t noticed, rather than examining the system that put them here.
We construct our view of an entire person’s life from a brief, five-second snapshot on a sidewalk. You cannot and do not know how many applications were submitted — every person called for support, how many shelters they contacted for help or a single thing about their life, struggles and setbacks.
Even the idea that homeless people should “just get a job” is a bold assertion that comes with a list of unanswered questions and assumptions. Where do they shower, wash their clothes or charge their phone? Without organized documents or an address, navigating employment and banking becomes harder.
Then comes the accusation that they must be squandering their money or are spending it on drugs or alcohol. No, not all homeless people are “addicts,” but if they are, that fact deserves understanding more than broad assumptions.
People can be genetically predisposed to addiction and even though that susceptibility does not define someone, it still plays a role in recovery and the initial circumstances that led them to addiction in the first place. Demanding that someone overcome a chemical dependence while sleeping outside mistakes deprivation for treatment.
The government should reflect all these understandings about the circumstances behind homelessness.
Instead, New York’s MTA is spending $1.1 billion pursuing new fare gates to prevent fare evasion. Fare compliance is not hostile architecture, but it begs the question: Where is the comparable urgency toward accessible housing? A government capable of funding fare compliance and benches that combat lying down can choose to fund subsidized and public housing.
Governments can provide permanent housing without stipulations, invest in subsidized housing or just allocate more towards basic public infrastructure and services like public restrooms and low-barrier emergency shelters. Take, for example, Finland’s “Housing First” approach, providing unconditional, permanent housing as a fundamental human right — giving the homeless the stability and foundation to get jobs or recover from addiction.
A car accident, sudden house fire or hospital visit is the only thing standing between you and the person across the sidewalk. No one is asking you to give your life savings to every homeless person on the street. But at the very least, you should understand that they are humans that deserve your respect and empathy.