When you see homeless people, they almost always look dejected, meh and pity-arousing. Their situation is beyond humble. Notwithstanding, some people just can’t find themselves being kind, but unkind or viciously mean to hobos.
It would be expected that, with homeless people being in a pathetic situation, people will be kind to them. But it’s not always so. Reports show that homeless people experience some of the most gruesome and vicious crimes in society. And in the US for example, Studies show people experiencing homelessness suffer antisocial behaviours 17 times more than the average citizen.
Actually, homeless people get assaulted while sleeping, urinated on, pelted, spat at or cursed where they’re sitting, ignored, as if worthless, when asking verbally for help, stigmatized, sexually abused and killed. The women also get frequently sexually abused.
One homeless Dave gives account of his vicious experience. He has Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and mental health problems with a massively reduced lung capacity. “I got kicked in the face while sleeping in a shop doorway in the town centre. I couldn’t believe the state of my face when I finally got ’round to looking at myself in a mirror,” he said. “There was blood everywhere, it wasn’t very nice but I had to pick myself and get on.”
A man interviewed by Invisible People in the UK mentioned that a male rough sleeper was killed by two young men for refusing to give up his pack of tobacco to them. The narrator says the young men demanded the item in the day and, because he refused to let it go, returned at night, and murdered him.
In the second quarter of 2023 in New York, a mentally ill homeless man by the name Jordan Neely was strangled to death by a 24-year old man over misconduct. The police arrested the culprit, interrogated him and eventually let him go without charge. This then provoked a protest for justice which was also curbed.
Abbie Mowbray, a 27-year homeless woman who lived by the River Avon in Bristol, tells Mirror she’s been assaulted 30 times, from which she’s had a broken rib and a black eye. She added, “If I’m begging, blokes will come up and say, ‘Suck my d*** for £20’.”
Morror then reported that, “one in four women rough sleepers have been sexually assaulted.”
A story that’s particularly shocking is that of a 23-year-old who was gang raped, by six men, in December, 2017. Speaking anonymously about the event, she says: “My skirt was ripped and I had two black eyes. It went on for 20 minutes in an alleyway.” She’d been assaulted three times, and had successfully fought off attackers. But, she was unable to repeat the same with these six men. Nonetheless, she reported the case to the police afterwards and the men were apprehended and convicted.
The unkindness homeless people experience is caused by various factors but are not justified.
First, homeless people are unattractive on the basis of clothing, general hygiene, health and positivity. Secondly, a good deal of people living in the streets are desperate. And desperate people do desperate things. It’s on record that homeless persons have broken into people’s homes, have stolen things from people as they struggle to survive…
Read: Should We Be Kind or Unkind to Homeless People
Then, there’s the aspect of mental illness and substance abuse both of which may be consequences of the adversity of living outside, with some rough sleepers. Lastly, some people believe the homeless are the cause of their predicament, which is not entirely true. Others think they can easily get jobs and get out of homelessness, but it’s not exactly that straightforward or easy.
With the foregoing generalizations or stereotypes, some people are intentionally unsympathetic and unsupportive to people without homes. Others think houseless people are dangerous and should be avoided like a plague. Still, others are irritated by their presence to the extent of assaulting them, as they consider them as a blemish to the environment.
Whether it’s sexual abuse or violent crimes, people without housing attract antisocial behaviours. Apart from the fact that the unhoused have no home to find protection in, their homeless state, which is pathetic, cause some people to abuse, exploit and/or assault them.
Homelessness significantly kills a victim’s social value or at least the perception of it and this attracts the crooked at heart. These type of people won’t give the homeless things for free. They’d rather exploit them sexually in exchange for valuables. And yes, some homeless women are into prostitution. And the men do meagre jobs. In both cases, they are usually not well paid, particularly for the visibly or chronically homeless.
Lastly, whether mild, intense or fatal, antisocial behaviours on people without accommodation happen because they’re vulnerable and also because people don’t understand them. Homeless people are victims of circumstances and need human help.
