10 Myths About Homelessness

1. Homelessness is only about middle-aged men.

• The face of homelessness is changing. In fact, the fastest growing segments of the homeless population are women and families with children.

2. Homeless people need to “just get a job.”

• Getting a job is incredibly difficult for a homeless person. Most lack clean clothes, showers, transportation, a permanent address and phone number.
• Others have a criminal past, learning disabilities and lack of education that holds them down. Even if they find work, their low income often cannot sustain them.

3. Homeless people are dangerous.

• Homelessness is often associated with drugs, alcohol, violence and crime. But very few crimes are committed by homeless people against those of us who try to help them. At Salt Lake City Mission, the attitude we see most often from homeless men and women is gratitude.

4. Homeless people are lazy.

• Surviving on the street takes more work than we realize. Homeless men and women are often sleep-deprived, cold, wet, and sick. Their minds, hearts and bodies are exhausted.
• With no transportation and little money, they can spend all day getting to food and maybe an appointment before they need to search for a safe place to sleep. It is not a life of ease.

5. People are homeless by choice.

• No one starts life with a goal of becoming homeless. People lose jobs and then housing. Women run away to the street to escape domestic violence. Many people have experienced significant trauma and simply cannot cope with life. Others struggle with mental illness, depression or post-traumatic stress. Yes, poor choices can contribute to homelessness. But outside circumstances strongly influence those choices.

6. If homeless people wanted to, they could pull themselves out of it.

• After losing a job or a home, getting those things back can feel nearly impossible. Imagine trying to get a job when you have no address to put on a resume, no phone number, no shower and no clean-pressed clothes. Often, things like legal issues, criminal history, mental illness, physical and emotional health hinder progress even more.

7. Providing food and shelter only enables people to remain homeless

• Food and shelter are essentials for life. By offering these and other outreach services, like restrooms and mail service, we build relationships with people in need. Then we’re able to offer them something more through our recovery programs, like counseling, addiction recovery, emotional healing, spiritual guidance, education, life skills and job training.

8. If we provide sufficient affordable housing, homelessness will end.

• Putting a roof over the head of a deeply hurting person will not heal emotional wounds, break addiction, create relational stability or establish healthy life skills.
• Housing can help people who are homeless due to poverty. But it can be a shallow and temporary solution for the many people who are homeless because they are unable to function in a “normal” life.

9. Homelessness will never happen to me.

• Talk to the hundreds of homeless men and women we serve each day and they’ll tell you that they never intended or expected to become homeless. They’ve had solid jobs, houses and families. But at some point, life fell apart.

10. Homelessness will never end.

• Many U.S. cities have established ambitious goals with 10-year plans to end homelessness. While these plans to provide housing and better centralized services to homeless people are important in reducing the scope and duration of homelessness, they will not completely eliminate it everywhere for all time.

But homelessness does end—one life at a time. With your help, we continue to restore the lives of hurting men, women and children every day.