The LA Homeless Services Authority has put out a call for the word ‘homeless’ to be dropped, claiming that the term is ‘outdated and dehumanising’, and leads to ‘othering’.
The Authority, which has the word Homeless in its name, wants to see it replaced with terms such as ‘people who live outside’ in order to “emphasize personhood over housing status.”
Our unhoused neighbors are human, and the language we use should reflect that.
Let’s abandon outdated, “othering”, and dehumanizing terminology- and instead, adopt people-centered language that emphasize personhood over housing status. pic.twitter.com/w3u2pfFbjf— LA Homeless Services Authority (@LAHomeless) August 22, 2022
What other terms are off limits now?
Which column does “bum” go in @LAHomeless? https://t.co/9HjjoSQmqV
— John Phillips (@Johnnydontlike) August 22, 2022
Of course, none of this will actually do anything to improve the homelessness people living outside epidemic that is ravaging practically every city in the country and getting worse.
Figures from January 2020 show that more than 580,000 people were homeless in the U.S. on a given night, with an estimated 226,000 of them sleeping outside, in cars, or in abandoned buildings. The real number is likely to be exponentially higher.
in 2019, Los Angeles’ head of homelessness resigned after presiding over a 33% increase in homelessness over the course of just five years.
Read More: LA Homeless Authority Doesn’t Want Anyone Saying The Word ‘Homeless’
