In a world where there’s pride, ego and standards, there are people who have no homes, but live in the streets, visibly dirty or at least looking raggedy, and sometimes smelly. How does being homeless feel? Let’s explore an insight of the lives of homeless individuals.
Housing gives a lot of advantages that people who are housed may take for granted. Once a person loses their home, they lose a lot of benefits associates with it. Let’s start with security and respect. In the US for example, it is on record that homeless people are about 17 times more exposed to violent crimes compared to the general public. Not having housing also means your hygiene goes south, due to the lack of essential services and motivation. Utilities also become unavailable or scarce. Further, homeless people are off-grid and so don’t have a state-recognized home addresses.
What the foregoing means is that you easily lose your job and hardly get any. When you have no job and your hygiene is out of place… it means you’re getting alienated from the society of healthy average people. With the agonizing hunger, the climatic adversity and the social stigma and maltreatment, pride, ego and standards soon evaporate. This is why some homeless people beg, look into wastes for useful items… At this point, they recognize they occupy the lowest ebb of society and are more or less beneath their fellow average humans.
Then there is the aspect of depression and anxiety. Most homeless people feel dejected, depressed, gloomy, panicky, insecure and hollow. These difficulties in most cases cause substance abuse and mental health issues. No wonder a significant number of homeless people in America are either substance abusers, mentally ill or both. Homeless children in Egypt also heavily abuse substances, without caring about the risks.
Read: Dangers of Homeless People
Defecation, bathing and sex happens outside as well. There’s also crime and prostitution going on among homeless people. There’s less law and order, depending on the behaviour of the people. When a homeless person experiences a crime, they usually don’t get the attention of the police. In fact, they are frequently considered perpetrators.
Homeless people in California say they get frequently approached by the police.
In the UK, a homeless man says they don’t report violent crimes to the police, because they do nothing about it.
A homeless woman interviewed by Invisible People told a story of a mentally unstable man who would go and masturbate over sleeping women, and ejaculate on them.
In New York, a homeless man who had mental issues was killed by strangling, the police let the killer go, which provoked a protest.
In the US and UK, men feel fear of violent crimes every night and so are sensitive to every movement through the night. Women dare not go to isolated places. If they do, they get raped. Hence, they go in the midst of people or anywhere that feels safe. Reports show that some homeless people sneak or secretly break into wholesome people’s homes to sleep.
Chronic or visibly homeless people are treated lesser than humans. They’re kicked, spat at, cursed, threatened, beaten up, and killed, according to reports. There’s struggle in the life of the average person. In homelessness, it becomes worse, as the vulnerable state of people without housing attracts attacks and exploitation. How would you feel if you’re caught up in this absolute mess? Some people have dubbed it “the doom loop”. God forbid that you should be caught up in a homeless situation.
Conclusively, homelessness mostly happens in urban areas. Contrary to claims that the epidemic is the making of the victims, the problem has many things to do with the economy of a place. Some people become homeless due to mental health challenges or substance abuse. These could also be caused or contributed to by a difficult economy. Homeless people are victims of circumstances and so need human help.
