Why Do People Fear And Hate The Homeless?

Updated on February 10, 2016

Why Are Homeless People Despised?

Why do you think people seem to very much dislike, even sometimes hate, homeless people?

Why don't people have more sympathy?

With many Americans but a few paychecks away from homelessness it seems that most Americans would have a certain enhanced sympathy toward homeless people. However, it seems quite the opposite.

Even as people see those around them, people they were once friends with, lose their homes, the fears and hatred remain and get directed at former friends and relatives. Some people fear and hate those without homes so much that even if they know them, they still despise them. Some even apply those hatreds and fears to their own elderly parents, the very people who once cared for them, when they fall on hard times. They'd sooner believe that someone they knew and loved has become a bad or lazy person than that poverty can happen to good people!

Homeless people are despised or disdained, labeled as lazy and worthless. I don't think this is because Americans are insensitive or unable to feel empathy. I have a few theories as to why they are so despised.

Do homeless people get government checks?

The Idea That They Get Big Government Checks

From comments I have heard and read around the Internet, many people believe that every homeless person is getting a big, fat government check each month. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Many don't get anything from the government. Most of those who do receive aid only receive food assistance which is, at most $200 worth per month for an individual and it can only be spent on food. Most shelters are funded by donations, not taxes.

The amount of tax dollars that do go to programs directed at homelessness is about $4 billion, mostly directed towards preventing families with children on the verge of homelessness from becoming homeless with little going towards programs to help already homeless people. Already homeless people seldom get aid beyond food assistance.

Some elderly people living on the street don't even collect the Social Security income they've paid into all their lives. Many disabled people lose their homes and because the application process for Disability is lengthy and often requires the ability to be contacted by phone and mail and the ability to go to appointments, sometimes a hundred or more miles away they often never collect the Disability they paid into all their working lives. If one is disabled, it generally takes several years to begin collecting that benefit. Most Americans don't have enough money saved up to live on without working for two to five years so many with disabilities become homeless.

The majority of mentally ill homeless people are not getting any tax money, either. Most of the folks too mentally ill to hold down a job are too mentally ill to navigate the aid applications.

That guy you see picking through the garbage isn't getting thousands of your hard earned tax dollars; he's really living off that garbage.

Only a handful of money stands between many people and a life on the street.

People Fear Becoming Homeless Themselves

The Average American is only one illness or several paychecks from it

If people are beset by woes brought on by the economy and they actually believe that lack of jobs and affordable housing cause homelessness then they'll have to fear it. If people believe that illness, age, or disability cause people to lose their homes then they'll have to fear losing theirs. By sticking to the belief that only people who are bad can find themselves living on the street, they can insulate themselves from any fear of it.

In fifteen years of working with homeless people I learned that the majority of newly un-housed folks are shocked speechless that it happens to them. Most of them hang onto their own fear and hatred of homeless people for quite a while, even though they are far more likely to come to harm at the hands of a criminal with a home than at the hands of a homeless person.

To feel safe from it themselves, many people with homes feel they must create a quality that defines homeless people. They invent a quality they don't feel they possess so they can feel that as long as they don't possess that quality they can hold it up as a magic shield against their fear of losing their home.

Desperation and need are very scary to a lot of people.

Beggars, Panhandlers, and Bums

For many people, the first thing that comes to mind when they think of people living on the street is panhandling. The only faces of homelessness most average citizens see are those of the ragged folks who beg for change on downtown streets.

Only a very small percentage of homeless people beg. For instance, on any given day in downtown Chicago you can find about fifteen to thirty people begging for change on the sidewalks. However, Chicago has somewhere between 6,000 and 12,000 homeless residents, the vast majority of whom never beg. The beggars and panhandlers people have come to see as the face of homelessness make up probably less than one percent of all homeless people.

The people who beg are often those with mental illnesses or addiction issues, people who may not even be aware that other choices exist. I think many people are deeply disturbed by panhandlers because it's hard to pretend they don't exist.

And not only do very few homeless people beg, some panhandlers actually have homes!

Even Mom Must Be Bad Now

Not too long ago, I helped an elderly woman re-connect with her family via the Internet. They had so many irrational fears about their own mother that they trusted me, a total stranger, more than the woman who gave them birth.

Now that wouldn't be too surprising if she had been an addict or had abused them when they were children but she hadn't. She had actually put her two children through college and just finished paying it off a few years ago. They admitted she had been a very good mom and had always treated them well. The reasoning for not taking her in that her daughter gave me was that she didn't want her to be a bad influence on her children, the woman's grandchildren.

We had a bit of a back and forth email interaction, the daughter and I, and I tried to pin down what the fear was. The daughter had made all sorts of assumptions about her mom. Mom hadn't turned into a knife-wielding madwoman addicted to crack, she just couldn't afford her apartment anymore after her hours were cut back and she couldn't find another job. Thankfully, this story had a happy ending and the daughter decided to let her mother come stay with her in her nice home in the suburbs.

Please, Keep It Clean

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Background Checks Required to be Homeless?

Do we now require background checks before we can be allowed the basic human need for shelter? What level of lowness and cruelty have we reached in America?

Really now, Americans! Background Checks to be Homeless?

I hate for my hubs to always be inspired by my angry reactions; truly I do. I would rather get an urge to write about wonderful, awesome, and intriguing things. But this one really takes the cake, and I would like to throw it out here, to see what other people think about it...

I was just surfing around, researching and looking for information for my upcoming hub on Homelessness, when I ran into a blog from a church, somewhere here in the good old USA - I am not sure where this church is exactly - I don't care, and I don't even want to know, really. Somewhere in freezing Washington State, I gathered... I am quite sure I would never want to visit this community, nor ever meet any of its residents.

Here is the web address of the article which got me going:http://www.myballard.com/2009/02/26/emotions-run-high-at-homeless-shelter-meeting/

(Hope they don't mind my using their page as the object of a public discussion on social issues, and I am calling Fair Use laws into play here, as my right, and as protection...)

This church recently held an "emergency meeting" to determine whether they would give 20 homeless people shelter at one of their unused church facilities. So far, we are all good here - very commendable, and yes, certainly expected, that Christians should want to alleviate the suffering of less fortunate people. Very good. And those who proposed the plan to shelter these poor people from the cold are certainly AOK in my book. This is what Christians should be doing, and what anyone with the means to help should be doing.

It sounded like the SHARE/WHEEL group (a non-profit group composed of churches that helps poor and homeless people with shelter and food, and organizes and supervises "tent cities" for the multitudes of new homeless people, victims of the economic collapse) had a pretty good plan for taking the homeless guys in, and where they would put them.

Apparently, these homeless people had already been surviving as a small community at another church elsewhere for a while, and had formulated a set of rules about the behavior of the members of the group. For example they have a "no drugs, no alcohol, no violence" rule, and all "doors must be closed from 7pm-7am", which is even a little more stringent than usual for homeless shelters.

The advocates of taking in the homeless people apologized for not giving the members of the church more notice about the meeting, but that considering the homeless condition of the people they were trying to help, they hoped they would be forgiven for the short notice.

Two churches, the Calvary Lutheran Church and Our Redeemer churches, had recently merged, and the plan was to lodge the homeless group in a vacant church building belonging to the church.

But when the members were presented with the proposal, their answer was: "And what kind of mandatory screening have you done on these people? "

The response was that they were carefully interviewed, but received no warrant or background check.

One member demanded, “I want accountability before you move into my neighborhood.”

The pastor of the church where the homeless people are currently being housed replied, “We would not require that of our neighbors or each other,” he said. “It’s not an appropriate response.”

They had wanted to move the people in almost immediately, to give them a place to be. But ended up getting nothing but a three week delay while they could decide whether they would accept the people or not, and a whole bunch of negativity, cruel and callous remarks and accusations, ranging all the way from "the homeless are all sex offenders", to "this pastor is raking in all kinds of our tax money from the non-profit organization he represents, which is just a cover-up for a tax shelter for crooks, for his own benefit, and is trying to force these people on us, to ruin our community".

There is a comment section on the article, which is especially enlightening, because it showcases both some helpful attitudes, but also some very intolerant and non-compassionate views, which should make any American feel red in the face and ashamed down to the bottom of our toes.

Here are some examples of those shameful comments:
"it is irresponsible -- even unconscionable -- for any organization to resist conducting proper background checks on homeless people moving en masse into a new (mostly residential) neighborhood."

"Why should this neighborhood be obligated to welcome such an unknown factor into their lives?"

"maybe there's a center downtown that's not immediatley (sic) in a neighborhood where people live."

"SHARE will trample all over you if you let them. For lack of a better word, they extort money from the city and county by threatening to open "Nickelsvilles" unless they get funding. The county regularly gives them funds so they can bus people to shelters from downtown."

Here's a nice Christian attitude:

"They need to wake up and realize that getting background checks is the way of the world"

Reply: "You hit the nail on the head. Many of these folks simply prefer to drop out of society, live by their own rules, which is fine, that's their right and their choice.

However, what they can't expect is that we have to accept their lifestyle. We chose rules (background checks, drug testing, credit checks etc.) so that we would NOT be homeless and so we can live in a nice neighborhood, not a sh*thole.

They can claim such checks infringe on their 'dignity', but all they do is infringe on their pseudo-hippie, I-wanna-be-me, lifestyle.

Tune and drop out by all means, just do it somewhere else. I suggest Berkeley."

Here's a pretty good one, meant to be satirical, no doubt...

"I think that everyone should have a background check. We should wear tags that announce what our background check finds. When meeting new people, we should kneel briefly, avert our eyes and offer our tag in submission for the others perusal. If we are deemed worthy, the other will tap us gently on our shoulder and we can rise and give each other gentle hugs of affirmation."

Here are some more daft-headed responses:

"A church should take care of its immediate congregation and not dozens of people from outside the community. The people in that neighborhood didn’t move there to live next to a homeless shelter and have every right to block this project."

"Aren't they the ones who made bad decisions that got them homeless? Remember they had to run out of options with their friends, co-workers and families before they ended up on the streets..just how capable are they now of being accountable?"

"Time to lawyer up folks. If they want to drive down the value of our homes, time to fight back and drain their bank accounts with legal action."

(I actually like this next one:)

"As for background checks, those of us who would actually feel more secure if this were done might also consider requesting that the AA groups and the 36th District Democratic organization who meet at the Calvary building also submit to the same procedure. Indeed when Our Redeemer finally suceeds in finding another congregation to rent or hopefully buy the Calvary building, I trust those folks will demand that all the members of that organization undergo background checks."

But the following made me want to vomit in my coffee:

"The majority of the homeless people we are talking about have ruined their own lives. Unless the right homeless people to help can be found. Don't help any of them"

"This is a non profit, which is a Tax free shelter for many, and nothing more. Not all Non Profit's are for the Betterment of the world. Is this a tax shelter or a legit organization trying to help Ballard? Who the heck are the people? I smell a rat here, frankly."

"I'm for the utter ejection of all homeless people from Ballard--but I say be upfront about it - Ballard - a Nice Neighborhood for the Right People, All Others Leave By Sundown."

"My wife and I believe that the soup kitchen, along with the food bank, is a problem. Daytime operations make it a magnet for an undesirable element who come in their cars/trucks/RVs as well as metro, to ‘party’ and claim turf. Where one can see a motley crew boozing it up in a parked car or just loitering without purpose, needles, hard drugs, and psychotic alcoholics are not far behind."

"I don't like seeing any riff-raff in Ballard. Anyone who doesn't bathe daily or tip their hat to a lady ought to be arrested on sight.

"I really want to help the homeless, but I only want to help them if they live in someone else's neighborhood. And, of course, they only deserve help if they've arrived at their current situation through a combination of perfect decision-making and horrendous luck. I'm willing to help in any way I can, but I don't want to see them. Or pay for it."

"But - since life isn't working out so well with the rules you've played by so far - then maybe its time to adopt someone else' rules for a bit. When you can afford your own place - then you can go back to your own rules. I mean - if the price for having a shower, a shave, a place to learn how to make resumes and get mail and get clean clothes - costs the price of you having to sit there through a church service - tough." (Jeez, I didn't know that being poor obligated you to accepting someone else's religious practices, did you?)

And here, finally, was one comment I could not agree with more:

"Housing is a basic need, the quality is determined by things like a background check, income and a pattern of good choices, but denying someone basic housing that would keep them from sleeping outside, on the basis of whether or not they can pass a background check is denying someone a basic human right: Shelter."

Nope. You're not allowed to be homeless - you flunked the background check!

Excuse me, ma'am - wait a minute - before you set your belongings here in public sight, may I see the results of your background check? (image property of Life.com)

Sorry, kids, you'll have to leave the shelter, your parents have failed their credit and criminal background checks!

Ma'am, we can not help you with a place to stay. You have flunked both your credit & your background checks! So sorry! Where will you go? We don't know - it's your own fault you are in this mess!

Nope. You can't be homeless here, either - you might be criminals. We don't want you to "contaminate" our perfect community! Get out!

Could we see your criminal background check, please? Don't have it? Well, you can't be homeless here without it - you'll have to be homeless somewhere else. It's not allowed here!

All right, everyone, please have your credit and background checks ready for inspection before speaking to the homeless intake officers, or we can't help you...

I'm sorry, honey, I know you are hungry & this is just water, but they receive subsidy money from the government here, and I can not pass the credit check, so they will not let us have any food.

America, you have lost your way! Stop it!

(There's more coming here - but I have to leave right now - the furnace seems to be messing up and I have to go get my kerosene heater - it's 20 degrees here 

Veterans project is nonprofit organization, public partnership dedicated to enhancing services for economically disadvantaged individuals and families , including the homeless, veterans, and at risk youth. In 2013  veterans project was founded and has taken the leadership role to provide services to help families move from poverty to economic mobility. Our hope is that through our program and services those who are impoverished will find sufficient resources for education, health and wellness, spiritual direction, and ultimately economic mobility and self-sufficiency.Knowledge, Education for Your Success

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Some Reasons People Become Homeless

Learn a few of the reasons people become homeless.

There are many causes of homelessness

Many people feel that all homeless people are entirely to blame for their own miserable situations. Those same people tend to believe that under no circumstance could they find themselves without a home because they feel they are better than "those people" who have lost their homes. In reality, people from all walks of life can wind up on the street and almost no one is immune from the possibility.

I want to present a few reasons actual people become homeless, reasons often beyond their control or ability to deal with. By doing so, I hope to increase empathy towards those less fortunate. This is by no means an exhaustive list; please do not be offended if you know of something not mentioned on this page.

Most people become homeless due to circumstances that have overwhelmed them combined with the lack of a family support structure. Others, particularly teens, often lose their housing due to an actively hostile, perhaps even hazardous, abusive, or non-supportive family environment.

Average people without a good friend and family support structure can be overwhelmed by events such as domestic abuse, divorce, unemployment, or illness and find themselves without housing as well. There are many causes of homelessness and while this page covers a few there are almost as many causes as there are people with nowhere to live. If you've ever wondered, "Why do people become homeless?" you've found the right place to learn some of the possible answers.

image by Przemyslaw Szczepanski, SXC

Lack of a Living Wage

Inadequate wages cause homelessness

Many homeless people work. However, the minimum wage is often not up to the task of supporting a family.

In many areas, working full time for minimum wage does not earn enough to pay rent, utilities and food. While people can combine incomes to rent an apartment they often run into snags such as discovering that the number of working adults required to cover rent and bills combined with their minor children will exceed the number of occupants allowed by their lease. Additionally, many apartment complexes run credit checks which can prevent people with poor credit from renting; things like unpaid medical bills can prevent working people from finding a place to rent.

original photo by Ogre

Parental Ideology

When parents' beliefs clash with teens' beliefs, sexual orientation, or behaviors this may result in teen homelessness

While few will admit it, some parents only love their children conditionally and these parents may discard their children once they reach their teens. These parents hold their beliefs as more important than their own children. Often the beliefs in question are religious.

As many as 40% of homeless teenagers are lgbt (lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered) when it is estimated that less than five percent of teens are gay, bisexual, or transgendered. In my experience with lgbt homeless teens and young adults, they've come from families that refused to accept them or that began to actively abuse them after their orientation became known.

Perhaps it was a coincidence, but almost all of the gay and bisexual teens and young adults without homes that I've met came from religious fundamentalist homes - fundamentalist Christian, Jewish, and Muslim homes - where their parents' beliefs were anathema to homosexuality or difference of any kind.

I also encountered teens living on the street whose problem stemmed from other religious differences. Some teens and young adults I met suffered homelessness because they were somehow at odds with their parents' beliefs. In one case, the teenager had converted to Christianity from Islam, in another a teen was suspected of engaging in pre-marital sex which was in conflict with her parents' religious beliefs. A number of Pagan teens that I met were expelled from their Christian homes.

Some of these young people were brutally beaten, threatened with death, or thrown from their homes by force. Others were systematically abused - physically and emotionally - until they ran from their abusers, preferring homelessness to continued abuse.

This subject is practically taboo, the relationship between parental beliefs and teen and young adult homelessness. In fact, after including the concept on a couple of pages, I have received threats, death threats, and hate mail. It is true that child abandonment and abuse are counter to what the vast majority of religious people hold dear. But it is also true that a minority of religious people have a different view. While that minority may seem inconsequential it is anything but inconsequential to around 400,000 American teens and young adults each year.

• Left Out in the Cold
  From the page: "Family conflict is the most common cause of all youth homelessness. For gay and transgender youth, the conflict tends to be over their sexual orientation or gender identity, and the results aren't pretty: Half of all teens get a negat

• Christianity and the Parental Rejection of LGBT Youth
  Carl Siciliano talks about the link between religious rejection of lgbt youth and teens and those young adults becoming homeless. A well-worded call for compassion.

photo by Wojciech Wolak

Physical Illness or Injury

Injury or illness can result in job loss and debt or inability to work

Some people are on the streets due to injury or illness. Many of them had jobs and insurance but through the course of their medical problems, both were lost. Many people don't realize that even "good" medical insurance is not a guarantee of medical care. They are then devastated to find out that their insurance will not cover their medical expenses or treatment. They are also shocked when they lose their health insurance due to illness or injury.

Hospitalization quickly consumes savings and too many absences from work due to injury or illness will result in the loss of a job. Once a person has a significant gap in his or her employment history and a bad credit score due to unpaid bills it becomes much more difficult for him or her to get a job even when completely recovered.

People in all stages of recovery from illness or injury lose their homes. Some never get well due to lack of treatment and are too ill to hold down a job. Others get well but get pulled down by their medical debt and illness or injury related job loss. And increasingly, medical bankruptcy can result in homelessness.

While many people in situations like these have strong friend and family support structures, many do not. They are the ones who fall through the cracks and find themselves living on the street due to illness, injury, or the resultant medical bills.

It is my sincere hope that this reason for homelessness may disappear through effective health care reform. The health care bill that passed is not even close to what is needed. Medical bills are currently the leading cause of bankruptcy in America, and by a very large margin. Surprisingly, over half of those claiming medical bankruptcy either have or had medical insurance at the time their debt was incurred.

• Health Care and Homelessness
  The National Coalition for the Homeless examines the contribution of health care issues to the problem of homelessness.

Lives Turned Upside Down: Homeless Children in Their Own Words and Photographs

This book packs one of the biggest punches of any I've read on the topic of homelessness. Learn what children had to say about their homelessness. It cuts straight through any polite fictions or platitudes.

photo by Kat Jackson, SXC

Sexual, Physical, and Emotional Abuse

Abuse can directly or indirectly result in the loss of housing

Many of the homeless women, teens, and young adults I've met became so because they tried to escape an abusive situation. Some may argue that help is available but people in those situations might not have the access to such help or even know that it exists. Once they become lose their homes, those types of help often become completely inaccessible to them.

Women and teens subjected to sexual, emotional, or physical abuse are at particular risk for homelessness. Many of them also do not realize that running away from their abusive situation may just get them out of the frying pan and into the fire, exposing them to other types of abuse by different people while living on the street.

This is a major cause of homelessness, especially among teens and women. Sometimes people find themselves in domestic abuse situations so frightening they can think of nothing but getting away.

Domestic abuse can also cause its victims to be evicted from their apartments in some states wherein landlords are either allowed or required to evict tenants who have called police to respond to domestic abuse situations.

More Reasons and Causes

• Why Are People Homeless?
  The National Coalition for the Homeless explains nine common contributors to the loss of housing.

photo by Sanja Gjenero, SXC

Developmental Disorders and Mental Illness

Without a sound family support structure, people with developmental disorders or mental illnesses may lose their housing

Lack of family support is a major issue for people with disorders such as autism or other mental or emotional issues which make interpersonal relationships difficult. Once such people become teens or adults their families will often step away assuming that such problems evaporate or are cured with adulthood, sometimes resulting in homelessness.

With proper treatment some children with autism or other developmental disorders can go on to lead independent and productive lives. But proper treatment can be a rarity, especially in the American health care insurance system which categorizes treatment of psychological and psychiatric disorders as elective.

Many in the American culture also do not recognize the reality or seriousness of mental illness. Mental and emotional disorders are seen as character defects which anyone can get over without outside assistance by using their own willpower. The insurance based health care system encourages this view because if not required to pay for treatment for mental, developmental, and emotional illnesses and disorders insurance companies save millions if not billions of dollars. Some American religious subcultures such as Scientologists, some Christian Fundamentalists fringe groups, and splinter groups from Christianity and other religions also encourage this view to keep mental and emotional well-being under their control. Thankfully, these attitudes seem to be slowly disappearing in most mainstream belief systems.

But developmental disorders and mental illnesses are real and they don't go away magically upon adulthood. Treatment is required for people suffering from developmental disorders and mental illnesses, and even then, not all sufferers are capable of becoming completely independent.

I fell into this category, a young adult with Asperger's, PTSD, and other emotional illnesses - untreated and left on my own without a family support structure to assist me or for me to rely on.

Is Homelessness a Choice?

Many people believe homelessness is always the result of poor choices, that people choose to be mentally ill, to be physically ill or disabled, to lose their jobs, or to become addicted to drugs. I believe that it is rarely a choice. What do you think?

Do most people without homes choose to be homeless?

•  No
•  Yes

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Without a Net: Middle Class and Homeless (with Kids) in America

Unless you are truly wealthy, it could happen to you. This book breaks the misconception that people can't slip right from the middle class into homelessness.

photo by Lychee

A Note on Substance Abuse

Not all are substance abusers nor did all of those who are start out that way

The stereotypical view of homeless people is that they are all substance abusers and became homeless due to their addictions. While I grant that surely it must be so in some cases, I say that it is in no way universally true.

The misery of homelessness itself drives many people into addictive behaviors. Ask yourself how many sexual assaults, how many beatings, how many humiliations, or how many nights sleeping cold and in pain - with no hope of escape - it would take before you had a drink to get yourself through the night?

I was fortunate in that I never permanently lost hope of getting into a home with a locking door. I didn't become addicted to anything, in part because I was so obsessed with getting a locking door to hide behind that I even begrudged myself money spent on food much less spent on things like drugs or alcohol.

Others are not always so lucky. They fall into the additional trap of addiction and become chronically homeless.

Have You Ever Been Homeless?

photo by H Dominique Abed, SXC

There are Many Causes

Everyone has a different story

There are probably as many individual reasons people are homeless as there are people without homes. While I have not, by any means, listed all the reasons people become homeless it is my hope that I've illuminated a few that you hadn't considered before.

It is my hope that this lens has helped some to humanize people suffering in deep poverty in their own minds and to not blame them quite so much for their misfortune. It is my hope that you leave with the knowledge that homelessness is not just something that happens to addicts and bad people but that, in the wrong situation, it could happen to anyone.

★ HELP FEED HOMELESS VETS CHILDREN AND CITIZENS ALIKE ★ While veterans represent 8% of the total population in the United States, they are disproportionately represented among our homeless: a startling 12% of the homeless population are veterans, or 16% of homeless adults. Most homeless veterans–over 90%–are male. About half of homeless veterans are disabled. You can help.

 $ 10 FEEDS A PERSON FOR 2 DAYS $25 GETS A PERSON A PERSONELL SURVIVAL PACK

I am my brother's keeper.

Thank you for your compassionate heart and desire to help men, women and children experiencing homelessness

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