4 ms·
> But activists are more than willing to conflate the two cases. I work in philanthropy and this is absolutely the case. To most donors and laypeople, a perso
by nostromo 7y ago
> But activists are more than willing to conflate the two cases.
I work in philanthropy and this is absolutely the case.
To most donors and laypeople, a person is homeless if they sleep outdoors, in a car, or in a shelter.
But to people who work in this space, a person staying with friends or extended family members can also be considered homeless. This greatly increases the amount of people considered homeless in their reporting.
- rootusrootus 7y agoThat is definitely the case in my community. We are not a big city, and we have essentially zero visible homelessness. But the stats for my kids' elementary school says we actually have a fair number of homeless kids. Turns out that's because they are living somewhere that does not qualify as their own home. They still have a place to eat & sleep.
- sgift 7y agoIt sounds like the reason here is that unlike your home staying somewhere else has a pretty high chance of not being permanent. It's probably a good idea to not state "we have zero homelessness" and a month later people run around "How can there be all these people on the streets?! You said we have no homelessness!"
- tathougies 7y ago> But to people who work in this space, a person staying with friends or extended family members can also be considered homeless. This greatly increases the amount of people considered homeless in their reporting. Well of course, they've made their career in this. If people are no longer homeless under the common definition of the term, these people would be without a job, so they have to do marketing work to change the goal posts to justify their existence.