Current Events > Why the right is winning its war on unhoused people

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/unhoused-right-rhetoric-homelessness/

The right has weaponized the homeless.

their policies are the cause of why we have so many homeless people to begin with.

Then they cut all social safety nets meant to help them get on their feet to keep them down.

Then they go the extra mile to keep them down in red states, so they aaallllll end moving to blue states, because theyre more generous with them there, the the red goes like see? Its liberal states who have this issue!

the_pika posted...

so they aaallllll end moving to blue states, because theyre more generous with them there,

This really isn't true. The vast, vast majority of California's homeless are Californians.

Intro2Logic posted...

This really isn't true. The vast, vast majority of California's homeless are Californians.

He didn't say otherwise

There just isn't evidence for a significant number of homeless people crossing state lines in search of nebulous "benefits."

In New York a lot of people come from all around.

And there's mountains of proof of police trafficking people across state lines

DarkChozoGhost posted...

In New York a lot of people come from all around.

And there's mountains of proof of police trafficking people across state lines

MAGAs traffic immigrants to NY and CA all the time, they even brag about it (abbot, desantis), is it too far fetched that they do it to homeless too?

Is the switch to "unhoused" to try to avoid the stigma associated with "homeless"?

Because the left is assisting the right in the war on homeless people

the_pika posted...

MAGAs traffic immigrants to NY and CA all the time, they even brag about it (abbot, desantis), is it too far fetched that they do it to homeless too?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/20/california-affordable-housing-crisis-homelessness-study-myths-older-black-residents

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) research released on Tuesday also revealed that 90% of the states homeless population lost their housing in California, with 75% of them now living in the same county where they were last housed. The study further found that nearly nine out of 10 people reported that the cost of housing was the main barrier to leaving homelessness.

AloneIBreak posted...

Is the switch to "unhoused" to try to avoid the stigma associated with "homeless"?

It changes the context. The former implies it's temporary. The latter implies permanence.

Once you contextualize that a person is unhoused and this is a temporary situation, it makes the solution easier to realize.

Irony posted...

Because the left is assisting the right in the war on homeless people

How's that.

emblem-man posted...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/20/california-affordable-housing-crisis-homelessness-study-myths-older-black-residents

Again, nobody said or implied that the unhoused in CA are primarily made up of transplants. But other states do traffic people there. It reduces it in other states and increases it in the big states (CA and NY). I mean, look at that statistic. 10%. 10% of CA's population is more than the total population of a dozen states.

Also, this is counting all unhoused. That includes couch surfers, people that stay with parents two days a week and their uncle three days. If you look at just people living on the street, the percentage of transplants is at least 20% higher. But again, that doesn't matter. Nobody is making the case that California would have low homelessness with only locals. That doesn't diminish how awful trafficking people there is.

DarkChozoGhost posted...

If you look at just people living on the street, the percentage of transplants is at least 20% higher.

Do you have evidence for this?

Intro2Logic posted...

There just isn't evidence for a significant number of homeless people crossing state lines in search of nebulous "benefits."

As for actual like government benefits I couldn't say, but like.. weather, community, etc, yeah. That they go to cities is kinda obvious, there are a lot more people and infrastructure in general. I'd guess it's "easier" to be homeless in a metropolis than it is in some 10k population town. Comparatively easier, I mean.

We tore down all the projects, and Section-8 is a half-assed replacement.

AloneIBreak posted...

Is the switch to "unhoused" to try to avoid the stigma associated with "homeless"?

It's a little bit that, but it's also more accurate. Someone living in their car or camping out in a public area has a home, they just don't have housing. Saying "unhoused" gets more directly at the problem we're wanting to address.

Isn't anyone not at home unhoused?

I'm in sympathy with homeless people, but I think that the terminology "unhoused" is going a bit too far. It's like calling a janitor a custodial agent.

It makes sense if you're talking about the context of someone who was recently kicked out. "He was unhoused by his landlord." But, yeah. Otherwise, it just seems like an overly politically correct term.

<_<

FortuneCookie posted...

It makes sense if you're talking about the context of someone who was recently killed kicked out. "He was unhoused by his landlord." But, yeah. Otherwise, it just seems like an overly politically correct term.

If only Carlin were still alive...

My solution would be to invent a sort of house we could give the unhoused to carry on their backs like a turtle. They'd never be without a home again.

FortuneCookie posted...

I'm in sympathy with homeless people, but I think that the terminology "unhoused" is going a bit too far. It's like calling a janitor a custodial agent.

It makes sense if you're talking about the context of someone who was recently kicked out. "He was unhoused by his landlord." But, yeah. Otherwise, it just seems like an overly politically correct term.

There's the other part of the problem though, in one of the earliest and most successful of the Right's efforts to cast poverty as a moral failing is with the term homeless. That word conjures up an image of the vagrant who hasn't showered or shaved in months and is roaming the streets yelling at traffic and causing problems. And yea, that guy is homeless, but he's not the avatar of homelessness.

Switching to "unhoused" breaks that preconception and lets people think about it and remember that the cute barista at Starbucks who poured your coffee this morning is also homeless because she's living in her car. The single mom who mostly has her shit together but has to bounce from shelter to shelter because cost of living is too high is also homeless.

The right has effectively dehumanized the term "homeless" so using a different term lets us view those it applies to as people again.

"Homeless" was not a right-wing term, nor is it inherently dehumanizing. It's a matter-of-fact terminology. The same way that a bird without flight is a flightless bird. Or a person without luck is a luckless individual. Friendless, hopeless, shameless, etc.

I'm not a fan of dueling terminology. If it gets to a point where the two parties come up with different names for cats and dogs, I'm gonna throw myself out of a fucking window. (First floor. Not a fatal fall. Relax, mods.) It makes sense with undocumented immigrants. The term illegal immigrant was shortened to "illegal" for reasons of hostility. The full summation of their existence is that of an intruder upon the legal order. It makes sense to offer counter-terminology that is sympathetic to their plight.

Unhoused doesn't conjure up a sense that the person using the term is in greater sympathy with the plight of the homeless person -- only that they wish to be seen using the terminology which makes them appear benevolent. It strikes me as the new, "I have an African-American friend."

The only homeless / formerly homeless person I knew passed away recently. He's hardly a barometer for the general consensus among people who are or have been homeless, but I imagine he would have sneered at a term like "unhoused individuals."

FortuneCookie posted...

I'm in sympathy with homeless people, but I think that the terminology "unhoused" is going a bit too far. It's like calling a janitor a custodial agent.

Going too far in what way?

If right-wingers have given the term a pointedly negative connotation, then it is fair to want to combat that. The blame lies in the people who wish to demonize individuals without houses -- and who are most responsible for putting people in those positions.

If it gets to a point that "homeless" is accepted as a term with a negative connotation, I'll just go the "people first language" route and refer to them as people without homes or people without permanent residency.

emblem-man posted...

Going too far in what way?

Being showy and insincere. It's like hiring someone as an Administer of Sanitation when their job is to take out the trash. It doesn't ring true. It doesn't follow the natural flow of language.

You could counter argue that the natural flow of language, as I've worded it, is meant to enforce social inequality and we must retrain ourselves to think differently. I'm sorry. I'm not a fan of the, "It's not a restroom, it's a latrine," style of reprogramming. I don't think my thought process is broken and in need of mending. I don't need to upload Version 8.0 on how to speak in normal conversation.

, use whatever word you want. But, language is constantly changing, so I disagree with the notion that it doesn't follow the flow of language. Language is inherently flexible and changing.

FortuneCookie posted...

Unhoused doesn't conjure up a sense that the person using the term is in greater sympathy with the plight of the homeless person -- only that they wish to be seen using the terminology which makes them appear benevolent. It strikes me as the new, "I have an African-American friend."

Well you're wrong, so shut the fuck up

Yeah, adopting unhoused seems performative nonsense. It doesn't do anything to further discourse. Maybe if you want to differentiate between the displaced population who are getting priced out of housing and the homeless population made up of people who need mental health help we cannot provide under our shitty healthcare system.

My Republican mayor went undercover with the homeless camps in our city sleeping out in a tent with them for a week ..... and he came out and said they are all on drugs and advocated a ban on homeless camps. (Aurora Colorado just east of Denver).

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/homeless-mike-coffman-aurora-mayor-undercover-streets/

I honestly think he did it just so that he could push for an urban camping ban that he had already decided he wanted without people saying he didn't understand the lives of people living in this camps.

FortuneCookie posted...

"Homeless" was not a right-wing term, nor is it inherently dehumanizing.

[...]

I'm not a fan of dueling terminology. If it gets to a point where the two parties come up with different names for cats and dogs, I'm gonna throw myself out of a fucking window.

[...]

It strikes me as the new, "I have an African-American friend."

The only homeless / formerly homeless person I knew passed away recently. He's hardly a barometer for the general consensus among people who are or have been homeless, but I imagine he would have sneered at a term like "unhoused individuals."

That's... a post.

Seriously? You're a step and a half away from saying, "Well, they've been called negroes for years, why do we need a new, 'politically correct' term for them now?" Especially in light of your deliberate use of African-American as an example.

And to top it off, your final statement fairly reeks of, "Well, I'm not racist because my one friend, who I know isn't representative of the community as a whole, gave me an n-word pass. So, I'm just going to say it anyway."

Just, like, Jesus Christ, dude. Could you have a hotter, steamier take on the evolution of language?

emblem-man posted...

Going too far in what way?

It's creating a solution to a nonproblem.
Nomad, vagabond, call me what you will.

FortuneCookie posted...

You could counter argue that the natural flow of language, as I've worded it, is meant to enforce social inequality and we must retrain ourselves to think differently. I'm sorry. I'm not a fan of the, "It's not a restroom, it's a latrine," style of reprogramming. I don't think my thought process is broken and in need of mending. I don't need to upload Version 8.0 on how to speak in normal conversation.

You really wish you could use something other than "African-American," don't you? Wow.

Atralis posted...

My Republican mayor went undercover with the homeless camps in our city sleeping out in a tent with them for a week ..... and he came out and said they are all on drugs and advocated a ban on homeless camps. (Aurora Colorado just east of Denver).

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/homeless-mike-coffman-aurora-mayor-undercover-streets/

I honestly think he did it just so that he could push for an urban camping ban that he had already decided he wanted without people saying he didn't understand the lives of people living in this camps.

Your mayor is a goddamn moron who didn't spend an actual week on the streets if he was within range of a camera that whole time, as the article indicates.

Along with a host of other problems with his observations about what was going on in that camp.

I wish he could spend an actual week homeless. Or a month.

This quote alone shows me he didn't even try to learn anything except what reinforced his preconceived notions.

"It really isn't [about a lack of shelter]," he responded. "It is a lifestyle choice and it is a very dangerous lifestyle choice."

Your mayor is a fucking dangerous lifestyle choice. I hope you kick his ass out of office next election.

DnDer posted...

Your mayor is a goddamn moron who didn't spend an actual week on the streets if he was within range of a camera that whole time, as the article indicates.

Along with a host of other problems with his observations about what was going on in that camp.

I wish he could spend an actual week homeless. Or a month.

This quote alone shows me he didn't even try to learn anything except what reinforced his preconceived notions.

Your mayor is a fucking dangerous lifestyle choice. I hope you kick his ass out of office next election.

The mayor is a retired marine. The way he talks about going to the camps and at the shelters sounds more like a scouting mission than some attempt to feel what its like to be homeless.

" I think there's so many questions -- Where's their income? How do they exist? And what is the profile of people in homeless encampments?"

And then the article has him describing going into the camp and taking notes on how these people are getting their food, what their daily schedule looks like, taking notes on their age and characteristics, along with taking notes on the drug use.

I think he understands the homeless better than before he did this stunt but he doesn't have more empathy for them.

CyricZ posted...

How's that.

The mayor of NYC's answer to this situation is throw everyone in jail. He's a registered Democrat.

Holy_Cloud105 posted...

The mayor of NYC's answer to this situation is throw everyone in jail. He's a registered Democrat.

He's a Republican in Democrat's clothing.

Humble_Novice posted...

He's a Republican in Democrat's clothing.

I know, I live in NYC. But he's still considered "left" because of his official affiliation.

emblem-man posted...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/20/california-affordable-housing-crisis-homelessness-study-myths-older-black-residents

10% is a fuck ton of people.

ClayGuida posted...

10% is a fuck ton of people.

Grapes of Wrath all over again. Rumors start that "californy" is a less-awful place to be homeless, and everyone ends up there somehow.

Add that to the bay being overrun by tech nerds overbidding rent, and it's just a disaster.

DnDer posted...

You really wish you could use something other than "African-American," don't you? Wow.

I didn't realize CE had so many psychics. People here are always trying to tell me what I'm really thinking. Tell me, what popular two-word phrase am I thinking right now?

Intro2Logic posted...

This really isn't true. The vast, vast majority of California's homeless are Californians.

And outside of LA, Ca is mostly red.

FortuneCookie posted...

I didn't realize CE had so many psychics. People here are always trying to tell me what I'm really thinking. Tell me, what popular two-word phrase am I thinking right now?

"I'm trolling"

TyVulpine posted...

And outside of LA, Ca is mostly red.

ah yes, the ruby red Maga town known as San Francisco. Stockton is so red people mistake it for a giant ketchup bottle. Oakland? Ruby red I tell you. South California? Red, red, red!!!

DnDer posted...

You really wish you could use something other than "African-American," don't you? Wow.

Oh he's most certainly a hard "r" kind of dude.

famfam posted...

"I'm trolling"

There ya go. If you make a bigot, try and make me a troll.

When boxing with CE, watch the left hand.

the right doesn't realize and/or doesn't care to realize that someone being homeless doesn't mean they are a hobo. they try to paint all homeless people as hobos

the_pika posted...

ah yes, the ruby red Maga town known as San Francisco. Stockton is so red people mistake it for a giant ketchup bottle. Oakland? Ruby red I tell you. South California? Red, red, red!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_locations_by_voter_registration

ScazarMeltex posted...

Oh he's most certainly a hard "r" kind of dude.

There have been multiple topics where you've quoted me attacking Republican politicians for being racist or otherwise shitty. Now you're saying that I have hard r envy? On what basis?