One of the smallest things we can do for someone experiencing homelessness is also one of the biggest: acknowledge them.

Homeless people are people first and foremost. They have feelings, thoughts, hopes, fears, histories, and dreams just like everyone else. Losing a place to live does not make someone less human.

Yet it is surprisingly easy for people who are homeless to become invisible. People walk past without making eye contact. They look away. They pretend they aren’t there. Sometimes it seems as though society has decided that if someone doesn’t fit comfortably into the world around them, it is easier to simply stop seeing them.

I don’t think that is who we should be as a society.

We have a responsibility to be inclusive. We should not allow people to be forgotten or discarded simply because they are struggling, living differently, or haven’t yet found their way back into stable housing.

And maybe that starts with something very simple.

Make eye contact. Say hello. Nod your head. Wave. Ask someone how they are doing. You don’t have to solve their problems. You don’t have to give them anything. You don’t even have to stop and have a conversation.

Just let them know that you see them.

There is something powerful about being seen.

We also need to be willing to meet people where they are instead of insisting that they first become the person we think they should be. People don’t all arrive at the same place by the same road, and they don’t all need the same thing to move forward.

Sometimes helping someone means providing housing. Sometimes it means providing a meal, a shower, a safe place to sleep, or access to services. Sometimes it means simply listening. And sometimes it may mean doing nothing more than saying, “Good morning.”

Meeting people where they are doesn’t mean giving up on helping them move forward. It means starting with the person who is actually standing in front of us—not the person we wish they were.

Because before someone is homeless, before they are a client, a case number, a statistic, or a problem to be solved, they are a person.

And people should not have to earn the right to be seen.