One who owns a home and a sustainable source of income doesn’t know the importance of them. Homeless people in California know, as they see the other part of life. Homeless people are exposed to increased crimes, 17 times more than the general public. They also get treated worse than trash by some, as some believe they’re homeless on personal decision. Nearly three-quarters reported they had experienced physical violence, and 24% said they had experienced sexual violence.
They also get frequently approached and interrogated by the police, with a good deal of them spending at least one night in jail.
Climatic challenges are not any lesser — the cold and the heat.
Some people may feel like the homeless should just go and get a job, but it’s not that easy. A good deal actually want jobs but are disconnected from them. The lack of a stable housing and mailing address are some of the factors. Further, a majority of evicted homeless people lost belongings to confiscations, including important personal documents and medication.
Homeless people are blamed for their homelessness, even though most of the times, it’s really the system they live in. In the words of Kushel, “[some people] assign the blame to the [homeless] person instead of looking at the system side of it.” These types of perceptions pre-empt sympathy or empathy in some, as some of the attacks some homeless people experience are done out of spite or irritation.
The foregoing plus living in a dejected manner, worse still in front of everyone, takes a toll on victims’ mental health. Commenting on her study’s findings, Kushel said, “…half of people, had severe depression or severe anxiety – not surprising if you were experiencing homelessness.” Some others, it should be mentioned, experience hallucinations.
Read: Are Homeless People Dangerous
Poor mental states or the adversity of homeless and other factors then lead to substance abuse as a coping strategy and it was found that substance abuse is pretty common among California’s unhoused people. “[they] talked to us really plainly about how they couldn’t possibly stop using drugs until they were housed,” Dr. Kushel said. “Many were using drugs to stay awake, because they were scared of violence if they fell asleep, or their stuff being taken away again. And if you can’t fall asleep and you’re hungry, then yeah, meth can help you.”
Read: Substance Abuse and Mental Illness Among US Homeless People
Further, homelessness makes some victims develop mental health symptoms. Two-thirds of all Kushel’s 3200 interviewee reported struggling with mental health issues at the time they were surveyed. It is noteworthy that some homeless people become homeless due to mental illnesses.
Things then get exacerbated when substance addicts need medical attention but can’t get it. Access to care and treatment is a major challenge for them. Only a fraction of homeless substance abusers get drug or alcohol treatment. 20% of Kushel’s respondents wanted treatment but got none. Generally, not having a home serves as a significant barrier to good health and health care. Many homeless Californians can’t even access prescription medications for physical health conditions.
The BHHI’s study suggests that the health of a great deal of them is poor, and that more had at least one chronic health condition.
“[Once] something goes wrong …everything else falls apart,” Kushel said. “Everything in their life gets worse when they lose their housing: their health, their mental health, their substance use.” And, she likened the situation to “a personal doom loop.”
Like all of us, a majority of California’s homeless people want a permanent home again.
While homelessness rages on, life still continues within it for some, as many homeless women of reproductive age were found to be pregnant during their current bout of homelessness.
Rounding off this section, when researchers asked Cali’s homeless what help they sought, their response according to Kushel was, “What? What help?” “That,” Dr. Kushel said, “was heartbreaking.”
In sum, Claudine Sipili, Co-Chair of the BHHI said she hoped people who have never been homeless will see the humanity in The Study data and will feel compelled to improve the broader system serving people who are unhoused.
