Finding Yourself series

Understanding and Fixing Homelessness in 2025

Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were no strangers to political turmoil and governmental cruelty.

When Mary was near to delivering Jesus, they were forced by a government decree to travel to another town to pay taxes and be counted. This was a bureaucratic hardship, and during their visit, they could find no place to rest for the night. Finally, someone with a good heart allowed them to sleep with the animals.

Soon after, they faced a far more terrifying threat. When the ruthless King Herod sought to kill the child, they were forced to flee as refugees to a foreign country: Egypt.

With no job, no food, and no roof over their head, they somehow found good people who would help them survive. (Matthew 2)

During his ministry, Jesus walked through the regions of Israel, the Palestinian territories, Samaria, and Southern Syria. When one of the scribes who was sympathetic to his cause offered to follow him just as other apostles and disciples (students) were doing, Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” (Matthew 8)

Sometimes life is difficult and awful. Sometimes we try our hardest, and the car we depend on for work has a catastrophic failure, or the roof falls in. We’re supposed to have emergency savings for these things and savings for being out of work for three months, but many are lucky just to put food on their table and have no savings at all.

When the economy fails, people lose work, medical insurance, and everything. They can find themselves and their families with no place to lay their head, wandering in an area foreign to them, struggling to survive.

Sadly, it can happen to anyone. And the impact can be emotionally devastating and very hard to recover from, both emotionally and financially.

One percent of the US population loses itself each year. They are individuals and families who lose a job or face what is, to them, a major life catastrophe, such as a sudden car repair or a major medical expense.

They work, but they don’t make enough money to survive these catastrophes. Their sense of who they are as a competent person, one who is able to “fend for themselves” in our world, comes to an end. We need to be prepared to survive.

This “Finding Yourself” series explores the internal, spiritual journey of voluntarily “stripping away the meaningless” to discover what is real and who you are underneath. This article explores the involuntary side of that journey, asking: Are you only your job? Are you a failure when your job no longer needs you? Are the economic realities of today’s world who you are?

This raises an equally important question: What is our responsibility to those in this crisis, even when it isn’t affecting us directly … at least not today? This article will explore both issues: the personal, unseen injury of losing one’s self, and the practical, public solutions we must build to solve it.

The inhumane problem of homelessness

We often turn a blind eye to problems we can’t resolve, just to preserve our sanity. But sometimes we need to look with fresh eyes, because solutions do exist.

Homelessness is a devastating problem of human suffering, partly brought on by our economic system. The homeless population has three main types: chronic, transitional, and economic, and includes families with children.

The chronically homeless—often those with a disability and homeless for at least one year—reached a record 152,585 in 2025. This increase is driven by factors like affordable housing shortages, the end of eviction moratoriums, and other issues.

When I lived in L.A., I would buy an extra hamburger and leave it near a park where I knew they stayed. It didn’t cure homelessness but at least it was one thing I could do with the little money I had to help one person for the day. We can all do this, and we can all do much more through organized efforts.

It Can Happen to Anyone or Any Family

Who and How Many—the cold facts according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which conducts an annual Point-in-Time (PIT) count. This is a “snapshot” of everyone experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. Around 3.5 million people in the US experience homelessness each year. This is an insane 1% of our population.

Sheltered vs. Unsheltered

While 60% of people find shelter, 40% remain unsheltered in tents, cars, or parks. Thirty percent are permanently on the streets.

One solution is converting motels to shelter homeless people—mostly families—while they find a job. Residents receive one free meal daily, often from local churches, and are given bicycles or share rides for transportation. Once they establish a living wage, they leave.

Increasingly, however, communities simply prevent them from staying in cars or tents, which doesn’t solve the problem, it just moves it elsewhere. In unaffordable areas like L.A., even nurses may live in tents. While there is no cure for greed, there are cures for a lack of affordable housing.

This tendency to make people “go elsewhere” is, in my opinion, against the Christian ethics we claim to embrace. We should be helping, not chasing people away.

Homelessness is viewed as intractable because its solutions can be controversial, so politicians often ignore them to avoid office-ending controversies. But workable solutions exist if we apply ourselves. It’s the right, compassionate thing to do. This article explores the causes, the reasons to help, and working solutions. These solutions may help even us.

Homelessness and job insecurity are having a profound effect on our society. Gen Z has seen this devastation, from the dot-com bust and Great Recession to the Covid crisis. They often prefer entrepreneurship over corporate work. They’ve seen layoffs, mergers, and the hollowing out of the middle class. Consequently, the average age of leaving home is 27, first home ownership is 40, and college is unaffordable or leaves people with 30 years of debilitating debt.

These problems stem from economic components like Wall Street gambling and inflation which still goes on. Gen Z understands the workplace isn’t safe. Homelessness is a major component of that thinking, and for that reason alone, we need to fix it.

But most of the injury is devastating and unseen by those not affected. Let’s talk about what is really happening to the homeless.

Why We Should Help—The Unseen Injury

Going homeless has a much deeper, devastating, psychological impact. The psychological toll includes the human cost, the trauma, and the loss of self-worth. When I studied psychology, it was emphasized that losing a job is about equal in its emotional devastation to losing a loved one.

My college days were during a time when company loyalty to employees was high. But today it’s more common for people to change careers often and for people to realize there is no company loyalty. So the shock isn’t quite as bad, but it still takes a devastating toll.

Why losing a job is so emotionally devastating

One in five people experience a lower quality of life for up to five years after dismissal. And the grieving process for being let go is still similar to losing a loved one.

The psychological impact is not a side effect; it’s one of the most debilitating and systemic parts of the problem. It’s a cascade of trauma that begins long before a person spends a single night on the street.

The Psychological impact of job loss and homelessness

For most people, a job is a core part of their identity, daily structure, and social community.

The Initial Wound: The Job Loss

Loss of Identity: In the US, “What do you do?” is a primary question. When the answer becomes “unemployed,” a person’s sense of self-worth is immediately attacked, leading to shame and failure.

Loss of Structure: A job’s daily routine provides purpose and stability. Without it, days become formless and isolating, a key driver of depression.

The “Scarcity Mindset”: Financial panic consumes cognitive resources, temporarily lowering functional IQ. This isn’t “bad decision-making”; it’s being overwhelmed, which makes navigating aid applications and job hunts even harder.

The Trauma of Homelessness: The Individual and Family

This trauma is built on the loss of safety. Per Maslow’s hierarchy, without basic safety, a person is incapable of focusing on higher-level goals like finding a job or managing health.

Impact on the Individual

Homelessness puts the brain into constant ‘fight or flight’ mode. This floods the body with stress hormones, leading to paranoia and sleep deprivation. A person is never at rest, but in a constant state of hyper-vigilance—worried about being attacked, told to “move along,” or having possessions stolen.

Losing the basic need of a locked door is a profoundly dehumanizing, grinding trauma.

This state causes conditions often mistaken for the reason for homelessness. The experience is a trauma-inducing event, and depression or anxiety are normal human responses to it.

Impact On the Family

For a family, the trauma is magnified. When parents can’t provide a stable home, they feel overwhelming guilt. A cruel part of the system is forced separation, as gender-specific shelters can shatter the family unit, sending a father to a men’s shelter while the mother and children go elsewhere.

For children, the impact is devastating: academically, they have no quiet place for homework and move schools constantly; socially, they become isolated; emotionally, the constant uncertainty leads to high rates of anxiety and depression.

The Social Devaluation

Society teaches value by treatment. People experiencing homelessness are treated as invisible, a nuisance, or “other.” This social devaluation is a powerful attack on a person’s sense of self.

Psychological theories explain that we see ourselves as others see us; when treated as “worthless,” we internalize it. This “Learned Helplessness” is the final barrier: the system convinces them they don’t deserve a house.

A successful “Housing First” solution must restore dignity by providing a door with a key—a powerful symbol of control.

The Paradox of Internal Versus Outside Influences

This reveals a paradox: our self is vulnerable to external treatment, but it’s also built on internal values we control. Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, imprisoned in a concentration camp, lost everything except his freedom to choose his attitude.

I’ll add that others also can’t remove our core values or our competence. Competence is gained from doing; it is not the same as a job.

When our identity is attacked, we must hold onto these things. We aren’t our jobs. Losing a job is often an economic issue, not a reflection of our competence. Our purpose is to find a new one, and it’s important to keep a sense of who we really are: our competence, our values, and our attitude.

Defining the Nuances (The “Why”)

To solve this, we must stop lumping everyone together. The solutions are different for each group.

1. Transitional (or Episodic) Homelessness

This is the largest group of people, which is the families who lose a job and are unhoused for a few months.

•  Who they are: Primarily families with children, youth, and individuals.
• The Cause: A single life crisis such as a lost job, a major medical bill, a car breaking down, or fleeing domestic violence.
• Their Need: A “light-touch” financial bridge. They are not resistant to being helped. They are broke. They just need to get back on their feet.

2. Chronic Homelessness (~30%)

This is the most visible and most vulnerable group. This group accounts for roughly 30% of the total snapshot (PIT count).

• Who they are: Defined by HUD as being homeless for at least 12 months (or having four+ episodes in 3 years) and having a disabling condition.
• The Cause: This is a complex-care health issue. The “disabling condition” is key. High percentages of this group live with:
  • Severe Mental Illness (SMI)
  • Substance Use Disorder (SUD)
  • Serious physical disabilities or chronic health conditions

  Their Need: Intensive, long-term healthcare and housing stability.

3. Economic Homelessness

This is the fastest-growing group. Los Angeles is typical because of the high cost of housing.

•    Who they are: These are people who are working—often one or two jobs—but are still priced out of the housing market. They are living in their cars, in motels, or in overcrowded, unsafe situations.
• The Cause: This is not a personal failure; it is a market failure. The gap between wages and rent is too large.
• The Data: The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s 2024 report states that a full-time worker in a state like California, the “housing wage” (what you must earn) is over $40/hour.

What Works (The “How”)

Decades of research point to the “Housing First” model as the most effective philosophy.

The Old, Failed Model: “Treatment First” This model forced a person to “earn” housing by being clean, sober, and “housing ready.” This fails because it’s nearly impossible to achieve stability while living on the street, a state of constant survival mode.

The New, Proven Model: “Housing First” This model flips the script:

Provide Housing: Give the person the stability and safety of a home first, with no strings attached.

Offer Voluntary Services: Offer wrap-around services (mental health, addiction treatment, job training) after they are housed.

This works because housing is a healthcare platform; you can’t get well when you’re focused on surviving the night.

The Solutions (Matching the Problem)

Solutions must be matched to the specific population.

Solution for Chronic Homelessness: Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH)

This is “Housing First” for the highest-need group. It combines a permanent, affordable housing unit with on-site, voluntary case management. It is incredibly effective, with 85-90% housing retention rates.

PSH is cheaper for taxpayers. A person experiencing chronic homelessness costs a city $40k-$60k annually in ER visits, jail stays, and police calls. PSH cuts those costs by over 50%.

Solution for Transitional Homelessness: Rapid Re-Housing (RRH)

This is a short-term bridge for those whose only barrier is cash, like a family that just lost a job. It provides “light-touch” help like housing identification and short-term financial aid for security deposits or rent. It is highly effective at preventing families from falling into chronic homelessness.

Solution for Economic Homelessness: Prevention & Supply

The solution is financial and structural.

Prevention: It is vastly cheaper to keep someone in their home. This includes Emergency Grants (e.g., a one-time $1,500 grant for back-rent) and Legal Aid (free counsel for tenants in eviction court).

Supply: The only long-term solution is to build more affordable housing. This includes Housing Vouchers and Inclusionary Zoning.

A key supply solution is Community Land Trusts (CLTs). A non-profit CLT buys land, separating the house price from the land price. The CLT sells the house to a family but retains land ownership through a long-term “ground lease.” This lease includes a resale formula that locks in affordability, allowing the family to build stable equity while ensuring the home remains affordable for the next low-income buyer.

CLTs are a proven model to create permanent affordability, stop displacement from gentrification, and build stable wealth. They are also incredibly resilient; during the 2008 financial crisis, CLT homes were 8 to 10 times less likely to be foreclosed on. They are a structural “Supply” solution that fixes the market failure.

Lessons from Being Homelessness

I wouldn’t wish being homeless on anyone. But we can gain valuable insights from the experiences of those who have endured it.

Instead of being defined by loss, many who have experienced homelessness report learning profound lessons in:

• Resilience and Resourcefulness: The ability to persevere and adapt in the face of extreme uncertainty.
• Profound Gratitude: A new, deep appreciation for basic needs and small comforts once taken for granted.
• Human Connection: A clearer understanding of the importance of community and the impact of both fear and the kindness of strangers.
• A Shift in Perspective: A re-evaluation of what truly matters, prioritizing character and relationships over material possessions.

Conclusion

There are effective solutions, so why throw money away fighting problems caused by homelessness when we can end the problem by taking a more compassionate route? Why put people through the inhumane treatment of homelessness causing them and their families to be debilitated for years?

Being cast out is a hazard of our economic system. I’ve found, as have others, that most people want to do a good job and they do. The problem isn’t the person.

Losing a job isn’t something we should take personally. We don’t “find ourselves” in a job loss. Rather, we find a weakness—not in us, but in an economic system that treats people inhumanely. The greatest tragedy is when we allow this systemic failure to paint us in a negative light.

We are more than our jobs. We’re human beings and deserving of better treatment.

But in some ways we do find ourselves when homeless. We learn to be grateful and not take everything for granted. We learn how resilient we can be. We learn that the homeless a just like ourselves and to stop being fearful of them. And the biggest lesson of all is to understand what matters in our lives.

Something to think about: We should build sports stadiums that cost a billion dollars even though their economic benefit is dubious. But these are often built in areas where poverty and homelessness reign and the public finds that parking their cars near a sports stadium may result in a break in. This illustrates the problems we have and ignore. We should focus more money on ending homelessness. It will help civic pride just as much or even more than a sports stadium.

Helping those in need and active community engagement generally create a more lasting, deep, and broadly shared sense of civic pride than a professional sports stadium alone, as told in the article How to Fortify Healthy Civic Culture.

Concluding Challenge

To “find ourselves,” we must realize what is truly important. If we are deliberately callous toward others in need, why should we expect to be treated any differently when we are in need?

Our spirit and conscience reveal who we truly are. If we ignore them, that callousness betrays us—leading to the false expectation that we can deny compassion yet still receive it. We must clear away what is not meaningful to discover, or rediscover, what is.

The challenge, then, is this: What is truly important to you? Is it ignoring what needs to be addressed, or fixing it?

Pay attention to your life, and learn from it.

“Our answer is God; God’s answer is us; Together we make the world better.”

– Dorian Scott Cole

“With hate we have more to lose than gain. Break the cycle.”

– Dorian Scott Cole

Some of my recent articles on my Author’s website: DorianScottCole.com

A New Model for a More Meaningful Communion

Food Service for Those In Need in a A Self-Supporting Food Service Model

Revitalizing Economically Depressed Areas – Systemic and intractable problems – Part 3

Keystone Compact for a More Representative Government