Criminalizing Homelessness Won't Make It Go Away | NYT Opinion
79,508
Published 2024-04-16
But what if you stopped and listened to what they have to say?
As you’ll see in the Opinion video above, you might find their stories of landing on the streets strikingly relatable. Such accounts reveal a hard truth about our country: Amid an affordable housing crisis, where 70 percent of all extremely low-income families today pay more than half their income on rent, becoming homeless is easier than we’d like to think.
That’s what Mark Horvath discovered firsthand in 1995, when he lost his job and wound up homeless for eight years. He started interviewing people on the street in 2008, and began sharing those stories on his YouTube channel, Invisible People. He wanted to try to help viewers who might ignore their homeless neighbors see them not with scorn, or indifference, but empathy.
These stories are even more important today, as a record number of people experience homelessness and face increasing threats from the law. On April 22, the Supreme Court is set to hear the case of Johnson v. Grants Pass, the most significant case in decades about homeless people’s rights. The case will determine whether cities can arrest or fine the homeless — even if there’s no other shelter. As the homeless plaintiffs wrote, this would be “punishing the city’s involuntarily homeless residents for their existence.”
Every homeless person’s path is complicated, and in this video, we haven’t remotely captured anyone’s whole story. Yes, some are addicts, some are mentally ill, some have made unwise choices, and some are simply unlucky. Some are many of those things. But all of them argue that in the hardest moment of their lives, they have been largely abandoned, and even punished, by the rest of us. So we hope you’ll do more than dismiss, or judge, the people in this video, and instead listen to them.
Subscribe: bit.ly/U8Ys7n
More from The New York Times Video: nytimes.com/video
----------
Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.
All Comments (21)
-
I was a homeless teen 40 years ago and I WAS an alcoholic and addict. I got sober and got a job, and by the grace of God have been living indoors since. We are all one bad experience, illness or disease away from homelessness.
-
One really crucial detail that's not mentioned here (not criticizing—it's impossible to pack all the nuance of this issue into a short video) is how being unhoused can push people towards substance abuse. When you're cold, afraid, and feeling helpless a drug can be the only dependable source of comfort immediately available to you. Making that choice doesn't make a person evil or irredeemable; it makes them human.
-
Thank you for humanizing this population
-
I'm one injury or lost job away from joining them.
-
Just to put the lack of affordable housing in perspective, in the last ten years or so, every job I've worked at had about half the workforce semi-homeless, and always several that were outright homeless. The human services people define semi-homeless as couch surfing, or subletting. That's working people, not drug addicts.
-
This hurts my heart so much. I was in a kids home(UK) but left because of all the abuse. I lived on the streets in Sheffield( at 14yrs old), the people that actually helped me the most were other compassionate homeless people that wanted to protect me. Homeless people get demonised so much, it’s not fair. ✌️❤️
-
It’s illegal to be homeless, disabled , or mentally ill in this country having been all 3 myself.
-
People have every reason to judge but until you have walked a mile in a homeless persons shoes you have no idea how hard that life is and no one chooses it ! I’ve been there and I’m thankful every time I can pay my rent and bills because I know what it is to lose everything and have nothing and no one to fall back on until I get on my feet.
-
The land of "milk and honey" with the highest wealth in the world. Yet more and more people are becoming homeless. Even if they work there's no guarantee they will earn enough. Thank you for being the empathetic advocate for these people. Some of us take things for granted and refuse to see others as they are: Human.
-
Thank you NYC Times. This man is LEGEND
-
"If anybody's listening, we just want a place to go." DUDE! We need to help these people!
-
So much sheer luck is involved in having a good life. A few bits of bad luck, and I could be sleeping on the streets like these folks. It happens quickly.
-
Seeing how broken this population is angers me so much and breaks my heart. NO human should ever feel like they don't matter. Where is our humanity???
-
This is heartwrenching, and even a bit frightening. Makes you feel like homelessness could happen to any one of us.
-
The sad thing is anyone can end up homeless in America. 💔
-
Anyone who rents in 2024 can relate to an unhoused person. This is why we are all insecure with housing : it’s completely unaffordable, even for a place too small and run down to meet your needs. It’s a systemic failure.
-
I work 7 days a week and I sleep in the car because I don’t make enough money to get 1 bedroom apartment. Rent is so expensive. 😢😢😢
-
Wolves and lambs it's not working. It is not acceptable for a rich country to have homeless people.
-
existence should not be illegal
-
This is right on. Someone or their landlord can get evicted very fast. Little sympathy is found. Accused of addiction, crime, or mismanagement of their money, so then deserving of being out on the street. I hear all the time "that will teach them" in church even!
