+
upworthy

homelessness

Democracy

From adding spikes to removing benches, anti-homeless architecture hurts us all

These "solutions" to homelessness issues are making things worse.

"HOMELESS JESUS" by sculptor Timothy P. Schmalz in Toronto, Canada

Have you noticed it's getting harder and harder to find a place to sit in public spaces these days? There's a reason for that. It's a purposeful choice many municipalities are making in an effort to keep people who are homeless from setting up camp or making beds out of benches.

The anti-homeless spikes that make lying down on steps, along buildings and on other flat surfaces have been addressed by communities in creative ways, such as the artists who set up a cozy bed with a bookshelf attached to it over one set of spikes in London. But there are other manifestations of hostile architecture popping up around the world as the homelessness crisis reaches dire proportions in some cities.

Hostile or anti-homeless architecture makes the environment incompatible with comfortable rest and relaxation, which serves the purpose of pushing homeless people out of those spaces (but does nothing to actually solve the problem). And at the same time, it makes shared public spaces a lot less comfortable for everyone.

Keep ReadingShow less
Photo by Jackie Cook/MyLondon Photography Contest.

Many locks of bright, pink hair peek around the corner of the stairwell.


A group of 105 homeless people gathered at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

Each of them was given a disposable camera and told to take pictures that represent "my London."

The photos were entered in an annual contest run by London-based nonprofit Cafe Art, which gives homeless artists the chance to have their work displayed around the city and, for some of the photographers who participate in the yearly challenge, in a print calendar.

Keep ReadingShow less

A demonstration of the Satellite Shelter.

When blizzards line up to rip through the Northeast, schools close, flights are canceled, and people even board up their houses. Though missions and homeless shelters do what they can to provide safety to those who have no homes to go to, thousands of people still have to weather the cold outside.

At Carnegie Mellon University's 2015 Impact-a-Thon, students were challenged to provide a temporary low-cost shelter for homeless people during the winter.
Keep ReadingShow less
Democracy

How would a homeless person spend free cash? The answer may surprise you.

Fifty people experiencing homelessness were given $5,400 and told to spend it however they wanted. Here's what they did with the money.

Canva

A study revealed what a homeless person actually spends their money on.

In 2018, 50 individuals in Vancouver who had become homeless in the past two years were selected to receive a lump sum equivalent to around $5,498 USD to do with whatever they wanted. No questions asked.

In addition to the cash, they received a year of coaching and workshops that could help with developing life skills, goal setting, self-affirmation and brainstorming strategies to gain more stability.

The gesture was part of a peer-reviewed PNAS study, which also included the research team separately surveying 1,100 people, asking them to guess how the recipients would spend their money.

The general prediction was that these individuals, if experiencing homelessness, would spend 81 percent more on “temptation goods” like alcohol, drugs or tobacco than if they were not.

A follow-up survey proved that prediction wrong.

Keep ReadingShow less