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World Homeless Day falls on the tenth of October this year, and Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week in the USA happens from November eleventh through eighteenth. Many of us still have paid volunteer time  available to put toward something that will make someone’s life better. I recommend volunteering at the Austin Street Shelter(1), if you live in the Dallas - Fort Worth area, and donating to it, if you live elsewhere, or finding a similar organization near you. Maybe that will make the world a more humane place. I don’t really know, but it would matter to me if I were on the street and you showed up to help me out, no matter your reasons or the statistical probability that doing so will Make A Difference. Does it matter how you feel and what you think about the homeless? Let’s see. It seems to me that Homelessness is a myth.(2)

I mean this not in the stereotypical way–a specious falsehood to be debunked by those accustomed to critical thinking. There is bunkum involved, for sure, in the political deployment of homelessness, but also in the habit of thought in which myths and myth itself are dismissed as fakery rather than imagined and heard as deeply true psychological fiction. Myths are confessions, the surfacing of extensive underlying patterns. These are often full of comedy and rueful discoveries, but are most often tragic as well as we face repetitive dilemmas to which contemporary industrial societies seem addicted. 

Thought of as myth, the bones inside narratives of homelessness begin to protrude beneath the skin of projected strangeness that can hide what goes on the underside of what is visible. Imagined whole, myth is a unique genre of soul-revealing fiction which involves creative selection, omission, and stylization of experience which can be oversimplified and communicated to gain control of others’ thinking, as propaganda, or can increase the freedom of thought necessary for meaningful nuance, a more comprehensive understanding of complex subjects. Frequently, we weave our ideas about homelessness from notions inadequately examined and ill-considered when we could be telling a story for ourselves and others that accounts for the stereotypical while pointing towards truth and a turning toward an Everybody Wins scenario.

Just using the word “homeless” brings to mind traditional stories, often unexamined, passed down through generations, often informally but also as public policy, and which embody belief. “Embody” suggests in this case that belief is the root of behavior, so attention must be paid to how we believe and then act based on the stories felt in our “gut,” the felt sense of how life works that runs around in minds and out of mouths and into ears as discourse that works again to make up other minds.

For example, contrary to widespread misperceptions, "decades of epidemiological research reveals that [only] one-third [of folks without daily shelter], at most, have a serious mental illness."  This is to say that they are much like the rest of the population. Abuse of drugs and alcohol “is rarely the sole cause of homelessness and more often is a response to it because [of] living on the street.” "Homeless persons are far more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators…[and, while] more likely to [experience] criminal justice intervention,...this is primarily because many of their daily survival activities are criminalized…minor offenses such as trespassing, littering, or loitering." In general, “the descent into homelessness is not necessarily the direct result of [having made bad] choices. Far more often a sudden illness or an accident, losing one’s job, or falling into debt leads to eviction—or doubling up with family or friends becomes untenable.”(3)

The visibly unhoused don’t prefer life living rough, spend all their money on drugs or alcohol, live in unsanitary conditions because they don’t care, or “just need to get a job.” They work, still can’t afford shelter, and are not strangers–most often being from the community where they continue to be unhoused.(2) Perhaps most importantly, homelessness is an ongoing issue which lends itself to solutions which are readily available and essentially affordable at scale, lacking only the political will to achieve resolution.

Writing about diversity and inclusion in the Learning Pool North American Staff Newsletter of May 2022, I suggested that:

 Just as learning to deal authentically with any kind of conflict requires admitting that conflict is normal and happens all the time, any time differences surface, so it is helpful to ask questions and look for diversity, equity, and inclusion needs anywhere there are humans and human-made systems today and wherever you are. The question is not "is that still a problem here" but, rather, "which persons are least visible and which voices are least audible in this space?" 

Partly as a result of being unheard and pushed to the margin of visibility, for instance, from January to June 2022 in Northern Ireland, 

8120 households presented as homeless. This was an increase of 9.6% on the previous six months when 7407 households presented. This figure, however, was lower than the equivalent period in 2021 when the number of presenters stood at 8624 (a fall of 5.84%)...The three council areas with the highest number of presenters per 1000 population were: Derry and Strabane (7.1 presenters per 1000); Belfast (6.6); and Mid and East Antrim (4.5)...3913 children were in temporary accommodation in July 2022 – a rise from 3763 in February 2022 (up 4%). In January 2019 2433 children were in temporary accommodation (up 60.8% since then.) (5)

I am very fortunate to enjoy a family system of support sufficiently robust such that my kin are in little danger of being on the street tomorrow. This was not always the case and could change at any time. Most of what is left of the working and “middle” classes are one major emergency away from the street. At least twice, a person who touched my life deeply has died in poverty, invisibly homeless nearby without my knowing until it was too late. 

As any learning designer can attest, one of the essential qualities of mythic (belief-based behavioral) systems, or mythologies, is that story-making is behavior producing. A new story of compassion, recovery, and caring for the most vulnerable is not only a possibility but can result in a worldwide, significant reduction in poverty, lost futures, avoidable illness, and deaths within our lifetime. Our commitment must be to tell and act out that story, even if only in preparation for the next family of our acquaintance ending up in the street. In the meantime, if you or someone you know has a need for emergency accommodation in Northern Ireland, please call NI Housing Executive on 03448 920 908. The options in the United States are spread out and often difficult to navigate. Reach out to me at learn@conflictdonewell.com if you need support to find assistance.

1. https://austinstreet.org/volunteer/ 

2. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/myth

3. https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2019/september/HomelessQandA.html 

4. Learning Pool North America Newsletter May 2022 

5. Homelessness statistics from the Department for Communities published in the latest edition of their homelessness bulletin for January to June 2022 (and also by Niall Bakewell of Homeless Connect on  Sep 15, 2022). https://homelessconnect.org/latest-homelessness-statistics-published-for-ni/

About the author:

Brandon Williamscraig Ph.D. is proud to be a Learning Pool Customer Support Manager in Dallas, Texas. He is twenty four years a spouse, father of two children ten and twelve years of age, taught psychology to graduate students once upon a time, now teaches aikido and Conflict Done Well online and in-person during his off hours, and loves anything having to do with teamwork (working through conflict and building creative communities). Please reach out, if you’d like to talk further. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bdwilliamscraig/

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