Invisible People

More U.S. Cities Have Made it Illegal to Be Homeless. 53% of cities make it illegal to sit or lie down in public, a 43% increase since 2011. All of these laws are being enacted, although many homeless people have no alternatives. It's estimated that a minimum of 553,742 people are homeless in the United States. At the same time, about 17 million housing units are empty in the United States. This problem will only be growing as more people struggle to pay bills during a global pandemic. Poverty has become a crime while wealth hoarding is being valorized as moral.

In 2024 the US Supreme Court ruled that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outside in public places. This means that the US has now made being homeless a crime in all 50 states. During my time documenting the lives of people who are experiencing homelessness, I found that the myths perpetuated about them to be false. Of the over 100 people I met over 80% had some form of job, most were not addicts, and those who were using substances to cope were using marijuana or alcohol which is legal in the state of Colorado. Those using harder substances such as fentanyl had at one point been prescribed Oxycodone in doses as high as 500mg per day. Most who were using fentanyl had only started the drug due to an on-the-job injury which left them with next to no options when it came to work as one missed paycheck meant the loss of everything.  Others had been bused to Colorado by orders from Republican Governors as a means of shifting the problem onto blue states like Colorado. 

During my time I met so many kind people, good people who were victims of the hostile and predatory late-stage capitalist systems.  Sadly most of the people who I interacted with are no longer with us. Some just disappeared while others were found dead from the cold Colorado winters. Others from an inability to get life-saving medical interventions.

I know the problem of being unhoused is not a cut-and-dry one. I know that the things we could do to change these things are not cheap. And often run into the problem of not being in my backyard. But if we are to call ourselves a great nation then it's time we started caring for those who are at the bottom. We could start with Universal Healthcare, taxing corporations and billionaires,  and funding the VA so that all who serve have the care they need. Harm reduction centers where people can get help for their addictions. Caps on how many properties can be owned by private equity, rental caps to ensure that housing is available, and converting unused office and retail spaces into public housing for little to no cost to the tenants.

Along with funding social programs and the efforts of Local Libraries that have been at the forefront of the fight to help those experiencing homelessness get connected with the right people and organizations.