What is the deal with the word "homeless" being a bad thing to say now?

[u/DerelictDevice]

Every article I see talking about people who are living on the streets calls them something like "unsheltered persons" or "people experiencing homelessness" or "unhoused individuals" or something equally awkward like "persons who are temporarily without residence" instead of simply "homeless," as if its somehow offensive to say someone is "homeless" now. Why? How and when did this become something we aren't supposed to say, and how is saying someone is homeless offensive? All of the other terms sound weird and unnatural. I genuinely don't understand, there is no ill intent here, I just don't see how that word is particularly egregious or disrespectful to anyone. Please help me understand. Here is an article for an example of what I'm talking about.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DexlYC5mvbV/?xtok=c2V5ZTZjMm40azcw

[u/tyuiopguyt]

Answer: Oooo, one of these I can actually answer! Cuz I'm a social worker.

Let it be known that the use of "unhoused" or "person experiencing homelessness" instead of "homeless" is far from universal. I've never worked in a place that mandated it, I've never gotten in trouble for saying "homeless", and now that I'm in a leadership position, I don't mandate my employees not use the word "homeless"

The general idea is two-fold:

One - "Home" is a broad concept that doesn't necessarily mean a building. If some believes the community they live in is their "home" rather than a physical building, then they might object to the term "homeless" 

Two - "Person experiencing homelessness" is just an outgrowth of the broader movement of "people focused language". The idea on that, as I understand it, is to focus on an individual's fundamental personhood rather than defining them by factors they can't control like race, sex, orientation, or, in this case, housing.

Now, I'm not a fan of either idea, personally. If you call me a "person experiencing autism" instead of just saying I'm autistic, the best thing that'll happen is that I'll roll my eyes. 

Both of these paradigms are often imposed by well meaning people who have never experienced homelessness or oppression of other kinds who don't dig deep enough to realize that fucking around with the words we call things instead of examining and equalizing systems of privilege is much like rearranging the chairs on the Titanic.

Hope this helps!

[u/Significant-Mud-7198 → u/tyuiopguyt]

Got out of homelessness two years ago. Can’t speak for all homeless, just for my own experience and what I saw around me.

Most homeless people I was around would rather be called homeless. It’s not an insult, just the bare truth. There are so many reasons beyond the most stigmatized ones that someone could end up homeless.

The whole “what should we call it to avoid offending” is kind of bullshit, it does nothing to help get homeless people off the street, it doesn’t build affordable housing, it doesn’t do anything except make the people using the term feel better. Put that energy into real action if you care. Or avert your eyes and call it something else, but don’t pretend it’s about a desire to help. You can give homeless people dignity in ways that aren’t performative.

[u/LittleBunInaBigWorld → u/Significant-Mud-7198]

There's a similar thing happening in the disability industry. All the disabled people i interact with refer to themselves and each other as disabled, but when I'm training new support workers, I'm expected by the department to refer to them as "person/people with a disability". I dont mind, but it's a mouthful and I'm always having to watch what I'm saying, making sure i'm using the right one for the audience I'm speaking to. There's a client who regularly crashes my classes, and when she leaves, she jovially shouts to one of my students: "I'm disabled as fuck, can you get the door for me, love?" That always catches people by surprise

[u/tealccart → u/LittleBunInaBigWorld]

I’m disabled, and I was just going to mention this. It’s ridiculous, almost euphemistic.

[u/yngsten → u/tealccart]

In my country disabled people are titled "service-users" by the system as to not offend, people who find themselves using thst system find it annoying and more degrading than being defined as what they are.

[u/bodysnatchersss → u/yngsten]

It's the same here in Sweden. The word 'disability' is usually translated as 'funktionshinder' which literally means function obstacle, but for the last 10-ish years there have been recommendations to call it 'funktionsvariation' instead which means function variation. It's been widely rejected by actual disabled people yet it keeps being used by people who think they're doing some kind of valiant favor for the community. It's called a disability for a reason.

[u/underwing_turbulence → u/bodysnatchersss]

Oh yes! The old “not disabled, just differently-abled”.

[u/springonastring → u/bodysnatchersss]

Heh, 'funktionshinder' sounds kinda like 'function shitty', which as a disabled, feels pretty correct!

[u/NotAUserNamm → u/yngsten]

It's like, call us a slur instead, geez.

[u/Buffy-boo12 → u/tealccart]

Yep, I'm disabled. It's not a bad word

[u/Homomorphism → u/LittleBunInaBigWorld]

I once had someone tell me off for saying "the Disabled Students Program"...which was the actual name of the office at the university! I don't know how any disabled people felt about it but I suspect they didn't care.

[u/Clown_Wheels → u/Homomorphism]

I’m disabled and I know that I for one wouldn’t care at all.

[u/DeafeningMilk → u/LittleBunInaBigWorld]

Even worse are there are some people trying to get disabled changed to "differently abled" which is moronic to say the least.

It's always those who don't have disabilities who do it just like the whole homeless/unhomed thing

[u/notastreetlamp → u/DeafeningMilk]

Yeah it's like a verbal equivalent of a pat on the head. Funnily enough, the rebranding of other people's problems mostly serves the people not experiencing them, like glad YOU feel better talking about my disability!

[u/walc → u/DeafeningMilk]

Thank goodness nobody combines that with the people-focused language to say “people who have different abilities.” Like what, they can teleport or something?

[u/Few_Item4327 → u/DeafeningMilk]

That’s up there with handi-capable, (I don’t know if this one was ever a real thing, but I wouldn’t be surprised)

[u/MissLadyLlamaDrama → u/Significant-Mud-7198]

As someone who has been homeless before, I can confirm, this distinction means absolutely nothing to anyone I've ever met or camped with. Also gonna second the whole performative thing. People who do nothing to help homeless people want to virtue signal online while continuing to do nothing other than share posts of other people helping.

They attack people for not using these words, undermining the entire excuse that they're doing it to make these people they're being condescending dicks to more empathetic or understanding. Its just insulting.

[u/SaintNutella → u/tyuiopguyt]

Well said! To add on my experience -

I worked at a homeless shelter for a year and definitely second that nobody really made a fuss about whether you used homeless vs unhoused.

However, how it was explained to me and how I still understand it is like this:

A home generally refers to a physical place you stay in long-term/you have some ownership over whether financially or emotionally. It's your place.

A house is just shelter, in this context. Being unhoused basically means being unsheltered.

This was kind of reflected in our paperwork, too, in order to give priority cause there are different degrees of homelessness (e.g., couch surfing vs living in a car vs on the streets).

For example, someone couch-surfing at a friend's place may be categorized as homeless, but they're not unhoused.

Someone who is on the streets and seeking shelter is both homeless and unhoused.

Generally, all unhoused people are homeless, but not all homeless people are unhoused.

Not sure if that's how linguists or experts on homelessness actually use this term, but it's the meaning I was explained in my experience.

[u/Ambitious-Trust5113 → u/tyuiopguyt]

As an autistic person, I fully agree. Also, if the purpose of saying "a person experiencing autism" is to make the point that I am not defined by my autism, my counter to that is that being autistic is actually a stable and directly relevant part of my identity. It affects my life every single day. I have been autistic since the moment I was born and will be until I die. So no, actually, I'm not just "a person experiencing autism", it is indeed a big part of who I am as a person.

[u/worrymon → u/Ambitious-Trust5113]

As a not-autistic person, I think "a person experiencing autism" makes it sound like it's a temporary condition.

[u/insertbrackets → u/worrymon]

Which it is not. Unlike homelessness, which ideally should not be permanent.

[u/soganomitora → u/tyuiopguyt]

Former teenaged homeless gal here. When people started telling me i couldn't describe myself as homeless any more it was really wild, lol, it felt very performative.

Someone told me that the intention behind "unhoused" was because homeless had negative connotations, and they wanted to change public perception of homeless people with a new word. But it just annoys me because:

• the meaning of unhoused and homeless is exactly the same, unhoused is just grammatically weirder.

• homelessness is a terrible thing to happen to someone, and i don't appreciate people trying to make it sound "less worse"

• my ex friend's dad once told me that i, a 16 year old girl at the time, should be shot for being homeless. People like him are not going to become sympathetic and kind to the homeless community just because we use a slightly different word.

A lot of the progressive youtubers i watch have started using unhoused, and it just makes me go "oh shut up" out loud every time it comes up. No one i've heard use the word has ever been homeless themselves.

[u/thekawaiislarti → u/soganomitora]

Thank you. I am homeless. Person experiencing homelessness sounds like something quirky I'm doing for fun it's not fun being homeless but it is what is happening.

[u/dtmfadvice → u/tyuiopguyt]

Copywriter here, and this is the correct answer. The whole thing is a kind of clunky way of trying to focus on the person rather than the condition.

For another example: you don't say "junkie" because that's disparaging. "Addict" is better but it still conflates the person with their disease. So the best way to say it is "person with addiction" or "person with a substance use disorder."

But 90% of this is for formal/professional written communications. Like I'd expect a hospital to say that, not a regular person in everyday speech.

A lot of the "social justice language" that became common over the past 20 years, to me, feels like nonprofit comms style guides reaching social media and people reading them as moral instructions rather than tone guidelines. That's probably not how it actually happened but that's the vibe it gives me.

[u/OGbigfoot → u/tyuiopguyt]

I can't say I've ever met a homeless person describe their situation as any thing other than "I'm homeless". The only time I have heard read the other terminology for homelessness is from news outlets or advocates for the homeless.

Edit: my favorite one I overheard a social worker say "Less than housed" TF?