Before you call someone “vermin,” “a rodent,” “a dirtbag,” or whatever other degrading name you can think of, please stop for a moment and remember: you are talking about another human being.

They are people.

They have names. They have families. They have histories, experiences, hopes, fears, and things they have survived that you may know absolutely nothing about.

Many of our brothers and sisters who are experiencing homelessness are struggling with substance abuse, mental health challenges, trauma, poverty, isolation, or some combination of these things.

But not everyone experiencing homelessness is using drugs.

And not everyone who avoids a shelter is avoiding help.

Sometimes the Environment Is the Problem

How many people commenting here have actually spent time inside the shelters in this town?

How many know what the day-to-day environment is like?

How many know the restrictions placed on residents, the rules they must follow, the loss of privacy, the schedules, the requirements, and what it can feel like to turn over so much control of your daily life to a system?

And how many have actually talked with people who chose not to enter a shelter and asked them why?

I have.

And I can tell you from my own experience that my reasons for not wanting shelter were not centered around drugs.

The environment itself mattered.

There are people who would rather sleep outside than enter an environment that doesn’t fit their needs, their circumstances, their personality, their sense of safety, or their ability to function.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t want help.

It may mean that the help being offered doesn’t work for them.

And honestly, how many people who are calling homeless people names would willingly choose to exchange their current lives for a place where they have little privacy, numerous restrictions, schedules and rules, and where many aspects of their daily lives are controlled by someone else?

You might make a different choice.

But I would ask you to consider whether you would make that choice before judging someone else for making it.

We Don’t Have to Fix People to Help Them

We also need to stop thinking that helping someone necessarily means fixing them or correcting their behavior.

We don’t always need to fix people.

We don’t need to make them conform to our idea of what a successful life should look like before we’re willing to help them.

Sometimes helping someone simply means meeting them where they are.

A safe place to sleep.

A shower.

A bathroom.

A meal.

A place to store their belongings.

A little stability.

A conversation.

A person who treats them like a human being.

Those things can be offered without demanding that someone first become the person we think they should be.

How We Treat People Matters

And here’s another question we should ask ourselves:

If we treat people with disrespect, how can we reasonably expect them to respond to us with respect?

I have personally found that when I approach someone who is homeless with concern and respect, I can have a completely different interaction than when someone approaches them yelling, threatening, or calling them names.

Think about the difference:

“Are you okay? Is there something I can help you with?”

is a very different opening than:

“Get out of here, you filthy [name].”

One approach recognizes a human being.

The other tells that person that we don’t believe they deserve basic dignity.

This isn’t about excusing harmful behavior.

People can make bad choices. People can behave badly. People can be disruptive, frightening, frustrating, or even dangerous. Those situations can and should be addressed.

Communities have a right to safety, and everyone has a responsibility to respect other people’s property and space.

But we can address harmful behavior without dehumanizing the person.

If we want people to respect our community, perhaps we should start by showing them what respect looks like.

If we want better interactions, perhaps we should consider how we approach people in the first place.

If we want people to accept help, perhaps we should listen to them about what kind of help they actually need.

You don’t have to agree with someone.

You don’t have to tolerate harmful behavior.

You don’t have to put yourself in an unsafe situation.

But you can still choose not to dehumanize another person.

Homelessness is a circumstance. It is not a species.

These are our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, our friends, and sometimes people who simply ended up in circumstances they never imagined they would face.

Before you decide what someone deserves, remember that you’re looking at a human being—not a problem, not an eyesore, not an inconvenience, and certainly not an animal.

A little compassion doesn’t mean ignoring the problems.

It means remembering the humanity of the people we’re trying to solve them for.