Unhoused people told us they already feel like they’re seen as problems to be solved, not people to be helped.

In reporting on the issue, we wanted to help ProPublica’s readers recognize the humanity of the people we had met and talked to.

By @nicolesantacruz.bsky.social

Comments

Thank you for reporting on this issue. These are human beings.
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Cruel
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📌
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I know "unhoused" is the correct new thing to say on the euphemism treadmill, but to me it's a more dehumanising term than homeless was. Unhoused makes people sound like widgets, like things out-of-place in a bureaucratic or mechanical system. It makes them sound like problems, in other words...
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The language thing around this really feels like a performative distraction. I refuse to believe somebody sleeping on the sidewalk cares if they're called homeless or unhoused or "experiencing homelessness".
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Not a lot of them are capable or motivated to mage the changes in society needed to deal with the problem .. those of us who are need to address the problem correctly and changing perception is part of that

A Home is an abstract concept, a physical actual house is what the people need
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Having said that, the reporting was powerful and important, I'm not questioning that. And maybe the language thing is a US vs British English issue, partly.
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No. It began from the factual observation that "home" is an abstract concept .. the late great George Carlin brought it up

these people are in need of physical tangible houses

We can easily do it but it would seem Capitalism needs the houseless to scare workers into showing up to work 'or else'
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Prisoners are treated better.
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What a holes
Taking from the homeless!

Shame!
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What if we decided that there would no more NFL games until homelessness was brought under control? How long would that take?
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Great piece. During sweeps important papers, birth certificate, IDs, social security cards are taken and destroyed. Medications are taken making an ugly cycle of using limited funds to replace these items.
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Billionaires putting people on the street and blaming immigrants.
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That was an excellent article. There's not enough space here for me to respond.
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Something something 4th Amendment.

Oh, right. the 21st Century Taney Court ...
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Theft, pure and simple. Stealing from the poorest of the poor has to be one of the lowest of lows committed by humans.
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Theft and vandalism
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📌
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@rachbarnhart.com
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Propublica, I really respect your reporting.I viewed you as an outlier to the other media.
But when you report on a subject, I am very familiar with Story after story showing how cruelly the homeless are treated.It makes me question your sincerity, accuracy. Homelessness is a nuanced, complex issue.
Comment image
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This photo shows volunteers from H.O.M.E. A program that helps the homeless. I'm sure many cities have such programs. When I heard a homeless person say I've been on the street 8 to 13 years. I knew there was more to the issue. I wish you would give your readers who may be unfamiliar,
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A true view of the whole complex issue is by speaking with programs such as these and the neighbors affected by homelessness.
These programs offer housing. They offer work clothes; they offer Uber vouchers; help Filing section 8 applications, mental health therapy, and drug rehabilitation.
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I have personally witnessed people join these programs and get clean and get off the streets and 6 months later. I see them hanging back out. I don't want to believe that your reporting is purposely emotionally manipulative but being reported from a naive outsider's perspective.
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It's all a bandaid approach and very few in total get out and stay out of the unhoused cycle.

Finland and Denmark are the only two countries where homelessness is on the decline;their approach is effective
https://invisiblepeople.tv/finland-found-a-simple-solution-for-homelessness/
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I wish the U.S. would adopt these models.The richest country in the world should not suffer the social ills that it does, but our representatives are reactive and not proactive. I reached out to my district representative, as the article suggests, who directed me to the dept. of transportation (?).
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This👍

People love to overcomplexify these issues

its not complex . Give em houses

A lot of cities have around 0.5% unhoused .. a 0.5% tax on rent & mortgages would pay for everyone to be in houses

.. of course we already all pay WAY more than that in tax already .. so why does it persist? 🤔
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My son is homeless in O.C. CA. I'm sick of the cops throwing his belongings away. I help my son through cashapp and the cops are wasting my money and money he earns. He doesn't ask anyone for anything. Plus they're giving homeless tickets and putting them in jail for being homeless.
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What happened to protect and serve? It's now screw over homeless people?
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Protect and serve only ever applied to the ruling class.
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The oligarchy has been training society to hate unhoused people for decades so that we continue to believe the lie that it can't happen to any of us as long as we "just comply" with their made up rules.
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😢😢😢😢😢
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Man's inhumanity to man is ages old, but a lack of kindness on any level is still disgusting. When you see someone in need, be aware that even a smile can make or break their day.
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Homelessness in the US reached an all-time high in 2024. With increasing inflation, lack of (real) income growth, and little new affordable housing; I expect 2025 to be even higher.
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trouble with the "homeless problem" is that there's more money in having it than fixing it
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That's an absolute lie. Everyone working in social services is barely keeping food on their own tables; some street-level outreach workers qualify for public assistance themselves.
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One person I've seen said they lost their Suboxone prescription in a sweep and couldn't afford to get another one so they had to buy off of their dealer. This inhumane treatment forces people back into the cycles that make it nigh impossible to get clean and then get reliable housing!
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Its expensive to be poor
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Fact.
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The irony of Trump’s campaign quote “We are making many suffer for the whims of a deeply unwell few, and they are unwell indeed”
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Its theft.
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Although this is US, Vancouver also takes people's entire belongings incl medications and throws them into a garbage truck while their owners, in some cases, look on. People are homeless, then, w/o ANYTHING. And now if they're addicted or mentally ill, they'll put them in jails as "rehab." Vicious.
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It is heartless. 😓
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So heartless.
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FYI: Ronald Reagan and the republicans CREATED the homeless situation by closing state mental hospitals in lieu of reform, and eliminating federal housing.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commentary/story/2023-04-24/opinion-impact-of-deinstitutionalization-on-homelessness-reagan-mental-health-hospitals-san-diego/
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Hundreds of thousands of mentally ill, dumped in the streets with nothing, and the GOP washed their hands of it.

Their economic policies destroyed the middle class

https://shelterforce.org/2004/05/01/reagans-legacy-homelessness-in-america/
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don’t call them unhoused, they’re homeless. don’t strip the humanity out of their circumstances
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Having to replace vital belongings over and over and over does NOT help the homeless problem. It's cruel and it needs to stop.
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I wish more folks who focus on #housing and #homeless services were on BlueSky. It is a little lonely here. I appreciate the @guardian focus on damage sweeps do.
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Too many cities regard the homeless population as something to hide from tourists.
Rather than finding solutions, they just move them around, like a pedophile priest.
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Article Minneapolis paper a few years back about the homeless, bold lettering
“ What to do with the Unwanted “
year before that in St. Paul
A city crew used a construction tractor with a claw to destroy a homeless camp , they picked up a tent with a woman still in it,
Severely injuring her !
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A homeless guy I know had all his belongings taken by the city ,
I gave him a warm insulated blanket bundle to help start over.
I haven’t slept in my own bed since 2001. Staying in supportive housing now three years sheet metal bed frame with a 4”foam
Mattress, can’t complain.
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The cruelty is the point... they want to make people fear the government response more than they fear being homeless.
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Beyond heartbreaking. The degree of homelessness in this country is a national disgrace. 🤦🏼‍♀️
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"unhoused"? What mealy-mouthed euphemism is that?
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