Homelessness Cannot Happen to Just Anyone

As homeless advocates, we have to be driven by facts. It is a fact that an estimated 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness every year. It is a fact that military veterans account for an estimated 26 percent of the homeless population while comprising only 11 percent of the general population. People who experience homelessness are more likely to be minorities, more likely to have disabilities and less likely to complete high school. So why then do we perpetuate the myth that homelessness can happen to anyone anytime? If we are all at risk of homelessness, why do the people who actually become homeless have such drastically different demographic characteristics than the general population?

Households that spend 50 percent or more of their incomes on rent or mortgage payments are considered at risk of homelessness. There are an estimated 12 million households, or four percent of the population, that fall into this dangerous category. So how can we argue that homelessness could happen to anyone when 94 percent of us are, by definition, not at immediate risk?

Homelessness cannot happen to me. Not right now. That is exactly why I believe homelessness is so important. Homelessness is an injustice because it cannot happen to everyone, not because it can happen to anyone.

My point is not to argue that homelessness is unimportant. Indeed, 3.5 million people homeless and 12 million at risk are alarming statistics, not to mention that our methods for counting the homeless likely undercount the actual number of people who experience homelessness. However, the argument that homelessness can happen to anyone anytime undermines the inherent injustice of homelessness by feigning social equality where none exists. I do not need to wrongly believe that homelessness is imminent for me in order to care about the issue. It is the fact that I don't have an equal chance of becoming homeless that makes homelessness an issue of injustice.

Photo credit: St Stev