Authorities Announce Arrest Of Man In Killings Of 3 Unhoused People Across LA

DocMcStuffin@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 93 points –
Authorities Announce Arrest Of Man In Killings Of 3 Unhoused People Across LA
laist.com
16

You are viewing a single comment

There is an effort to change the language used to try to remove some stigma.

Homeless implies they don’t have a home through some fault of theirs whereas unhoused helps inform that it’s a failure of society.

Like saying someone who is addicted to heroin and needs help is “sick” rather than an “addict” because of the stigma around the word.

“Homeless” has stigma and stigma can create barriers where none need exist.

This is nice - thank you for sharing this. I'll be using the term "unhoused" going forward.

EDIT: clarity

For the sake of transparency my explanation isn’t all encompassing and my understanding of the purpose might differ than others.

Yeah. Good luck with that one.

Thanks, words have meaning and languages are living things so it makes sense to change our words when their meanings no longer reflect their purpose.

Having been "unhoused" myself, I can assure you the least important thing about my situation was other people's choice of vocabulary in describing it.

Having been unhoused myself I can agree but the idea isn’t about you or I directly but about swaying public opinion in an effort to change the narrative.