Houseless people have long been dehumanized and viewed by society as an “issue.”
They are simply people who are experiencing poverty or mental illnesses, making it difficult for them to get back on their feet.
Viewing houseless people as a “problem” can force them into feeling shame about their situations and lead people to have a lack of empathy for them.
Houseless people make up a large amount of our population and we should be directing our efforts toward helping them rather than writing them off as a “problem.”
There are about 6,000 residents in San Jose experiencing houselessness, according to the City of San Jose 2019 Homeless Census and Survey.
At San Jose State, 11.2% of the student population has experienced houselessness, according to the SJSU Cares Basic Needs Survey from Spring 2021.
Houselessness is closer to us than we think and it could easily be me or you who ends up in that difficult situation.
In fact, many students have been in similar positions of experiencing housing insecurity and yet those who have the power to effect positive change choose to ignore it.
The SJSU Cares Basic Needs Survey data also shows that 41.5% of respondents experienced housing insecurity between 2020-21.
Student Homeless Alliance (SHA) president Anthony Majano spoke on what the organization is doing to combat houselessness and support unhoused students.
“At SJSU we do protests, hold press conferences or have various marches or rallies revolving around the issue of unhoused students,” Majano said in a Zoom call.
But in March 2019, SHA had to put up quite the fight to meet with former SJSU president Mary Papazian.
However, she took small action toward helping the 4,000 students who were experiencing houselessness in the year prior, according to Chapter 10 of Racial and Social Justice at San Jose State University, a booklet published by the Human Rights Institute.
The Human Rights Institute aims to tackle current social issues that are taking place on a local, national and global scale, according to its website.
The agreement between SHA and Papazian included a 12-bed emergency pilot program in the dorms.
SHA had to put on multiple events before being heard and it should not take that much effort before houseless students are recognized and given assistance.
Scott Myers-Lipton, SJSU sociology professor and Human Rights Institute advisory board member, said he believes the stigma surrounding houselessness directs back to social and structural issues in our society.
“We don’t produce enough low-income housing and the housing that we do have is $3100, the highest in the nation,” Myers-Lipton said in a Zoom call.
Nobody wants to vote in favor of low-income housing because people see the houseless population as inferior to them.
That stigma will only continue to grow and negatively affect any progress that can be made toward housing the unhoused.
The solution starts with residents changing their perspectives on houselessness and voting for legislation that supports building low-income housing.
“What support there is for housing drops precipitously when any kind of construction is proposed within a half-mile of home, but particularly for low-income housing (a 14-point drop) and housing for the homeless (a 17-point drop),” according to key findings of the 2022 Silicon Valley Poll done by Joint Venture Silicon Value and the Institute for Regional Studies
That is the reason it is so tough to come back from houselessness.
People just want to turn the other way and judge houseless people for their current positions instead of questioning how our economy got them to that point.
Film freshman Luke Makinson said he feels that the real cause for houselessness often gets overlooked.
“Some of the things I’ve heard from those types of people within the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association . . . are that some say ‘All homeless people want to be homeless,’ ” Makinson said in a Zoom call. “It is a very odd statement and I think it ignores the factors that push people into homelessness which is our system of capitalism.”
That idea that houselessness is a choice generates the stigma that houseless people are lazy and that their position is their own fault.
“It is much [harder] to go from being unhoused to being housed than it is to go from being housed to being unhoused,” Majano said.
Houseless people often have to work extra hard to find jobs and can often be met with rejection.
Employers would rather hire people in stable environments, but the unhoused population deserves a chance at housing security just as much as everyone else.
“I think in terms of things people can do today, I mean just interacting with homeless people like they’re people,” Makinson said.
So before offering judgment next time you pass by a houseless encampment, try to remember that those are people just like you and me.
They’re humans trying to get by in a cruel world that has never-ending hardships and just because theirs might be more challenging right now does not mean they are unworthy or lesser than the rest of us.
