Baby Shark reports
Different media are putting subtly distinct spins on the story about Complexe Desjardins playing Baby Shark to deter the homeless from using its stairwells for shelter. Some are matter‑of‑fact like Radio-Canada but Global heads it as keeping unhoused people out of stairwells and CityNews as preventing the unhoused from loitering. (Is “unhoused” now a polite term for “homeless”?)
I think we can keep two ideas in our heads at the same time. One is that people simply need to shelter from the cold at times, although if you’re not shopping, you’re loitering and therefore undesirable. But the other is that nobody working for the mall should have to clean up the kind of mess that may be left by people using dangerous drugs, with all the consequences thereof. And I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Complexe Desjardins not to want people to camp in its emergency exit stairs. However, if there’s nowhere else for them to go, what next?
azrhey 11:19 on 2024-11-29 Permalink
From what I understand, unhoused is a subset of homeless. If you are are homeless you don’t have a physical home to call yours, but you could be staying with a friend, in a shelter, in a refuge, couch surfing…
If you are unhoused, you are staying outside and have nowhere to go.
OTOH, when I lived in the UK, support orgs would also insist on unhoused, because the concept of home can be more vague, as some people who had been living in a tent under a bridge for years would call that home, but it was not a house. So, your mileage may vary. But I am seeing more and more unhoused and personally I am ok with that.
CE 11:30 on 2024-11-29 Permalink
I also see “person experiencing homelessness” sometimes, especially on English CBC.
MarcG 11:33 on 2024-11-29 Permalink
My 100% unresearched impression of homeless vs unhoused is related the delegation of responsibility: ‘homeless’ implies that the person has failed to provide for themselves whereas ‘unhoused’ indicates that it’s the collective who has failed to house one of its members.
Chris 16:32 on 2024-11-30 Permalink
Kate, ‘unhoused’ is the new PC term for homeless. “person experiencing homelessness” is even more PC. And as George Carlin observed these PC terms usually are longer and more sterile than what they try to replace. But changing the name of the condition does not change the condition.
MarcG 08:35 on 2024-12-01 Permalink
Great piece in Esquire a few days ago by a writer who has found himself homeless, unhoused, and experiencing homelessness.