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Introduction to Sociology

Spring 2024

Worksheet #2: “The Sociology of Homelessness”

Background:

In his essay, “The Obvious Answer To Homelessness and Why Everyone’s Ignoring It,” Jerusalem Demsas (2022) writes: “When someone becomes homeless, the instinct is to ask what tragedy befell them. What bad choices did they make with drugs or alcohol? What prevented them from getting a higher-paying job? Why did they have more children than they could afford? Why didn’t they make rent? Identifying personal failures or specific tragedies helps those of us who have homes feel less precarious—if homelessness is about personal failure, it’s easier to dismiss as something that couldn’t happen to us, and harsh treatment is easier to rationalize toward those who experience it…It’s not surprising that people wrongly believe the fundamental causes of the homelessness crisis are mental-health problems and drug addiction. Our most memorable encounters with homeless people tend to be with those for whom mental-health issues or drug abuse are evident; you may not notice the family crashing in a motel, but you will remember someone experiencing a mental-health crisis on the subway…But when you zoom out, determining individualized explanations for America’s homelessness crisis gets murky. Sure, individual choices play a role, but why are there so many more homeless people in California than Texas? Why are rates of homelessness so much higher in New York than West Virginia?...Yes, examining who specifically becomes homeless can tell important stories of individual vulnerability created by disability or poverty, domestic violence or divorce. Yet when we have a dire shortage of affordable housing, it’s all but guaranteed that a certain number of people will become homeless.”

Question to Consider:

1. With reference to information in the video, how does the problem of homelessness illustrate the sociological perspective? Consider, for example, how a range of external social conditions “cause” homelessness (i.e., the shortage of affordable housing, declining incomes, joblessness, etc.) illustrate Mills’ principle that individual problems (homelessness) are ultimately less a function of individual psychological factors (mental illness, addiction, etc.) and more a function of external social factors.  

2. In your view, how has the “social construction” of the problem of homelessness shaped the public’s perception that homelessness in the result of individual (as opposed to social) deficiencies? And as such, from a public policy standpoint, how might this explain the overall lack of the public and political will needed to address the “root causes” of homelessness?

3. While building more shelters and temporary housing might be an effective short-term response, based on information in the video, why is it that ultimately the long-term solution to homelessness in America will require major public investments in structural (i.e., social) solutions designed to increase the supply of affordable housing and make it available and accessible to society’s low-income individuals and families?