Stereotypes about homelessness don’t measure up to reality. It’s more complex than it seems

Sara Busick
Mon, December 27, 2021

I was taking an Uber to the CATCH office one day, when the usual small talk about who I am and what I do for a living ensued. “I work for CATCH. We work with people experiencing homelessness and help them find solutions to their housing crises as quickly as possible.”

“BAH!” the Uber driver replied. “From what I can tell most of them want to be homeless.”

Sara Busick

Forgetting how polarizing homelessness can be, I replied, “Well, the folks out here have experienced incredible amounts of trauma, and that is the main reason they are in the situation they’re in.”

The Uber driver scoffed, “Trauma? We all have trauma, don’t you have trauma? I have trauma, and I turned out fine. It’s people who don’t want to work for a living.”

At this point we pulled up to CATCH, and I exited the car. I was frustrated with this man and how he talked about the people I serve.

But then my social worker training kicked in. The driver’s life experiences had led him to believe that people experiencing homelessness are there because of a failing of their own moral character, and not as a victim of incredible and insurmountable circumstances.

People do not like to be around situations that make them uncomfortable. We tend to try to avoid or rationalize them to restore our own comfort. And let me tell you, the reality of homelessness is extremely uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable to think about experiencing homelessness yourself, and it is uncomfortable to think about the fact that we live in a system, as a nation, where homelessness is seen as something acceptable as long as you’ve done something to “deserve it.”

Homelessness is more complex than anyone might realize. People experiencing homelessness in Ada County are incredibly vulnerable. They are generally disabled in some way, physically, mentally, or both. Sixty percent of the people I work with have an income and are victims of circumstance to a booming housing market. One in four of them is over the age of 62. And roughly 1/3 of the families we serve are women who are fleeing domestic violence.

Those are uncomfortable statistics and to stomach it, we dehumanize it. We attach that moral failing of character as the why behind someone’s homelessness. We tell ourselves that these are “bad people” who “chose this life,” that fixing the issue is “on them,” and that it’s simply “their fault.”

In reality, it’s more complex than that. There are many things outside of their realm of control: generational poverty; growing up in broken systems; survival; systemic racism; inadequate resources; and so much more. What we are seeing is the fallout of unstable systems play out right here in our community. And that can be scary.

I know this to be true through the work that I do. It is an uphill battle. Working in homeless services, I’ve met some of the kindest, funniest, and wisest people I’ve ever known, with amazing stories of resilience. And it is for them that I continue to fight for solutions.

Join me in ending homlessness in the Treasure Valley. Educate yourself and others on the reality of homlessness. Connect service providers, like those of us at CATCH, with property developers and owners to provide housing. Volunteer for organizations that are often understaffed and overworked. And more than anything, when you encounter someone experiencing homelessness, choose to look them in the eye and honor them with the same dignity you would any other human.

Sara Busick serves as CATCH’s Program Director for Our Path Home Connect. The program works with 50+ partnership agencies to connect people experiencing a housing crisis to resources aimed at resolving their situation as quickly as possible.