LA Homeless Authority Says Don’t Use Word ‘Homeless’ – Opinion

In yet another cringeworthy, woke edict emitted by our “authorities,” The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) has asked people to stop using the term “homeless.”

Seriously.

Imagine the Department of Defense telling us the word “defense” is triggering. Or the Department of Homeland Security ordering us not to use the term “homeland” because its patriotic connotations might offend the sensibilities of liberals, who, as we know, are not particularly patriotic. 

Our neighbors who are not housed are people, so the language that we use must reflect this.
We must abandon dehumanizing, outdated terminology like “othering” and adopt a people-centric language which emphasizes personhood and not housing status. pic.twitter.com/w3u2pfFbjf

— LA Homeless Services Authority (@LAHomeless) August 22, 2022

The word “homeless” is literally The nameThe department is a major concern, so we have to ask: How do we refer to LAHSA now when speaking or writing about it? I’m so confused. It reminds me of the artist formerly known as Prince—his symbol was cool, but what was his actual Name? Perhaps we could call the department, “The LA ‘Word We Should No Longer Use’ Services Authority.”

If we can’t call crazy people yelling at us on the street the “h-word,” what word would the Authority actually like us to use? This is what they explain:

We should speak with empathy for our neighbors who are homeless. Let’s abandon outdated, “othering”, and dehumanizing terminology- and instead, adopt people-centered language that emphasize personhood over housing status.

Ah, yes. Let’s humanize those without shelter. Some have been victims of bad fortune, some of simple bad luck—and yes, some are just plain ol’ drug addicts or criminals—but they’re all human and shouldn’t be treated like animals. Yes. It isn’t humane to leave them in the street, where they will die from overdoses of drugs. 

Will changing what we call them actually do anything to solve the terrible “h-word” problem plaguing (mostly blue state) cities? After all, we’ve already changed the language repeatedly and I don’t see that it’s diminished “h”-lessness. We’ve gone from hobo, to tramp, to vagrant, to bum, to transient, to the now-banned “h-word.” Use any of those terms today and you expose yourself as the right-wing, hate-filled Q-anon supporter that you know yourself to be.

No, the preferred term is now evidently, “people experiencing homelessness.”

It’s sometimes amazing to me how stupid people can be. It’s right up there with LA Health using our taxpayer funds to test pets for COVID. Should we now refer to people based on what they’re currently experiencing? Travelers could be “those experiencing airline flight,” and amorous folks could be “those experiencing sex.”

What about “person addicted to mental illness lighting fires in brush outside my home and then walking naked into traffic in the middle night?” True story thanks to Metro 344 line

— Julie Hamill (@hamill_law) August 22, 2022

It only gets worse. You could also call “h” people, “those who live outside,” according to the LAHSA. Once again this is nonsensical because many “h” people are perhaps experiencing shelters, homemade structures, or campers. They’re not necessarily experiencing “outside.”

Changing language has been one of the main—and most effective—weapons of the left. Their greatest win was to somehow convince the media and a big chunk of the populace that “ending the life of an unborn fetus” should actually be referred to as “women’s health.” It is rare to hear a Democrat politician actually utter the word “abortion,” instead the entire issue is framed around women’s rights issues. Those who broke our laws and crossed our borders, meanwhile, are not “illegal aliens,” they are in fact “undocumented people” or, even better, “Dreamers.” As much as I despise the practice, it’s hard to deny that it’s not diabolically brilliant.

Changing the language never actually solves the underlying issue, even if it’s often effective politically. Shaming us into changing what we call the unhoused won’t do a thing to solve the um, homeless problem.