Being Homeless: Other People’s Perceptions

People assume lots of things about me because I don’t have a home

Some people assume this is how I spend my nights. I actually spend most nights in an air-conditioned shelter in a bed under a blanket. Photo by Fredrick Lee on Unsplash

Fifty thousand years ago, one of our ancestors saw a Smilodon, the species known as a saber-toothed tiger. “Avoid!”, he thought to himself, and he took off. It’s a good thing, too. We would not be here if he had not lived to procreate.

In modern times, people are not faced with as many mortal threats as they go about their day. However, our brains are still wired to perceive threats and react.

Sometimes I am perceived as one of those threats.

A little over half a year ago, I became homeless. I’m still the same person I was, except that now I don’t have a living space to call my own. However, I find that people make assumptions about me simply because they see me sitting on a park bench before dawn with a few supplies.

Those assumptions and perceptions break my spirit. They cause me to expect people to think the worst of me.

Let’s look at a few of those perceptions and what homeless people have to do to fight them.

Perception that I’m not clean

There was a time when this perception was true, but it was months ago. For several weeks after I first became homeless, I…