Groundbreaking Research Reveals How False Assumptions and Harmful Labels Distort Public Understanding and Block People from Real Housing Help
“I was trying to find shelters, and someone gave me the number to a rehab place, even though I have never been on drugs. Why?” Asked an anonymous Reddit user in a thread that sparked a lengthy but necessary discussion amongst homeless and formerly homeless netizens.
“Yes! This absolutely happens,” chimed in user StrawberryCreepy380. “A well-intentioned young woman’s (victim) advocate referred me to a place that turned out to be the local wet house, where chronic alcoholics can drink, without being kicked out. When I asked her about this, she apologized and said the web description of the facility said the residence had nursing staff.”
Another user, friendly-skelly added, “I’m sorry :/ I get it, too, and I’ve been sober for years. The long and short of it is, people are drunk on propaganda and think we’re all mentally ill and/or addicts. This is their version of hate, and for that I’m sorry.”
The thread spirals on with countless stories of people who need housing being offered drug addiction services when they are not addicted to illicit substances. Many users claimed to have been prompted by social workers to even lie and pretend they have addictions just so they could obtain temporary shelter, which seems to be a common theme.
Perhaps the most telling argument about why came from another anonymous user who stated plainly, “They have to label you to help you.”
This is a dangerous mentality to hold, and as long as it continues, homeless people won’t get the help they need, regardless of their addiction statuses.
More than Half the Homeless Population Consists of Non-Addicted Individuals and Families
The most recent reputable study conducted on the subject of homelessness and addiction suggests that less than half of homeless adults are addicted to illicit drugs. Millions of homeless people in the US are children, accounting for at least 22% of the homeless population, and their addiction status is not counted or represented in that data at all.
Given this fact, it is clear that the number of homeless people addicted to drugs is even lower than the latest studies have reported, particularly because more than half of homeless youths are under the age of six and could not be willingly participating in illegal drug use.
The addicted homeless population is more visible, but non-drug users still represent the silent majority of people living without a stable home.
The Largest Representative Homeless Study in Decades Comes from the University of California
The “Illicit Substance Use and Treatment Access Among Adults Experiencing Homelessness” paper is a probability-based study published online by the JAMA Network. With the goal of estimating substance use patterns among members of the unhoused population, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco combined forces with members of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative to review the lifestyles of approximately 3,200 homeless adults. What transpired was the largest representative survey of this kind since the mid-’90s.
Studies like this are imperative to presenting the full truth about homelessness and addiction, and helping to quell false narratives that are popular but not evidence-based.
Key takeaways from the research are as follows:
- 37.1% of participants were regularly using illicit drugs
- 50.3% of participants reported no use of illegal substances during the past 6 months
- Of those who reported regular illicit drug use, 27.3% said their drug use increased during their episode of homelessness, and 34.8% said their level of usage decreased.
- 23.2% of substance-using participants said they began using drugs after becoming homeless as a coping mechanism.
- Only about 10% of participants reported regular opioid use.
- Of the participants who reported regular illicit drug use, 21% wanted help for their addictions but were unable to access the necessary services.
To quote the study’s authors directly, “The lack of representative research on homelessness risks mischaracterizing and misrepresenting the prevalence of illicit substance use.”
From Substance Abuse to Stigma: Why Telling the Whole Truth About Homelessness Matters
Fifty percent of this study’s participants reported no illicit drug use in the past six months. By magnifying addiction, we are ignoring half of the adult homeless population simply because they do not fit into the description we want to attach to them. By amplifying the addiction narrative in the media, we are also doing a great disservice to the millions of school-aged children who are not even counted in these statistics to begin with.
One of the most telling data points in this study is the fact that nearly one in four illicit drug users says they began using drugs to cope with the horrors of homelessness. This indicates that we have also grossly overinflated drug use as a root cause of homelessness. For a significant portion of this population, drug use was a response to becoming homeless, meaning other factors led to the initial loss of their home.
To be clear, America has an addiction problem and an ever-brewing housing crisis. This means that regular drug use is one of many issues that can elevate the risk of homelessness. However, it is misrepresented as playing a larger role in fueling the crisis, which undercuts the need for more affordable housing.
This misrepresentation hurts homeless people who are not battling addiction while creating even fewer resources for those who do suffer from addiction disorders.
Toxic Exposure: Making Addiction the Face of Homelessness Has Only Created More Barriers to Treatment
Of the homeless population who are drug users, studies suggest that many of their plights are circumstantial, and that drug use can be a cause of homelessness or a consequence of it. Co-occurring conditions such as mental illness and addiction complicate the issue.
Then there are the missed opportunities that stem from stigma. Unsheltered substance users forced to continuously relocate during sweeps often miss out on chances to receive the help they need. Social workers have trouble finding them because they move frequently.
In addition to the move-along orders and criminalization. Drug-addicted homeless people are also being exploited as clickbait for self-proclaimed “producers” broadcasting live shock footage. Negative, obscene videos and images that feature them are uploaded by these clout-seeking content creators who don’t even ask their permission. The slanderous photos remain online forever, making it that much harder for them to obtain jobs that pay a living wage.
Can you imagine trying to explain to a potential employer why there is a video of you in a compromised position on Kensington Avenue or Skid Row? How exactly are images that eternally tarnish someone’s reputation supposed to incentivize them to sober up?
It is difficult to deliver life-sustaining services to drug users who do not have housing. These negative stigmas follow them everywhere, even into spaces where they are supposed to be getting treatment. Due to these negative portrayals of homeless drug addicts, thousands of unnecessary amputations have been carried out by doctors who believed their unhoused patients would be too irresponsible to care for complex xylazine wounds. Hospitals often treat unhoused addicts like second-rate citizens by giving them substandard care and then releasing them back onto the streets.
The prison system operates comparably. Once a homeless person ends up incarcerated because of their circumstances, their chances of re-entering the housing market diminish. Hence, locking homeless people away does nothing to solve the fact that when they get out of jail, they still don’t have homes.
We cannot arrest our way out of the opioid crisis or the housing crisis, and it is dangerous to constantly conflate the two.
The solution is narrative change. Remind your local representatives.