How Right-Wing Media Is Beating Us on Homelessness Narrative

If you work in the homeless sector, especially in communications or leadership, you need to watch this video from a right-wing media influencer — at least until he interviews homeless people. Here’s the reality: actual facts don’t matter, perception does. Pay attention to both the protester screaming at police and the homeless people calmly explaining what happened. If you were the general public, what impression would you walk away with?

Now compare that to what the homeless sector puts out: endless photos of police presence and homeless people’s belongings being tossed into garbage trucks. Both are horrible, but let’s be real — the public already wants homeless encampments gone and out of sight. So when you show tents and belongings being thrown away, you’re not building empathy, you’re reinforcing exactly what the public already wants.

This is precisely why we’re losing the narrative war. Right-wing philanthropy is investing in media publishing — funding influencers who pump out stories that connect with the public, whether they’re true or not. Meanwhile, our sector is told to write op-eds no one reads or post cliché graphics and GIFs that no one cares about. Since Trump's executive order that brought military and law enforcement into Washington, DC, I’ve mostly seen the homeless sector recycle tired sound bites and churn out boilerplate organizational statements.

I know many nonprofits and advocates feel like they have to do something, and we do, but without resources, they’re stuck — another statement, another webinar, the same old noise. And here’s the hard truth: nothing will change for the better until philanthropy funds communications and advocacy at the same level as right-wing institutions fund Cicero Institute, Manhattan  Institute, Discovery Institute, and the rest. Don’t say the money isn’t there — millions are being poured into “narrative change campaigns” right now that are having little to no impact.

We need to face the world as it really is. No more heads in the sand. No more pretending that recycled sound bites and legacy media are going to save us. We need to embrace modern media publishing strategies, take control of our story, and get it in front of the public quickly and at scale. What’s happening in this country is horrible, and it’s only getting worse. We’re running out of time, and if we don’t act now, we may never get another shot at regaining public support for housing as the real solution to homelessness.

We talk about all this and more in our most recent podcast:    • The Screwed Scale: Why We’re at 9.7 Out of 10  

MORE:

Fined. Arrested. Still Nowhere to Live.    • Fined. Arrested. Still Nowhere to Live.  

Illegal to Sleep: Grants Pass’ Cruel War on Homelessness    • Illegal to Sleep: Grants Pass’ Cruel War o...  

From a Tent to a Home: No Longer Homeless    • From a Tent to a Home: No Longer Homeless  

Can We End Homelessness? Hennepin County Shows How    • Can We End Homelessness? Hennepin County S...  

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About Invisible People:

There is a direct correlation between what the general public perceives about homelessness and how it affects policy change. Most people blame homelessness on the person experiencing it instead of the increasing shortage of affordable housing, lack of employment, childhood trauma, lack of a living wage, or the countless reasons that put a person at risk. This lack of understanding creates a dangerous cycle of misperception that leads to the inability to effectively address the root causes of homelessness.

We imagine a world where everyone has a place to call home. Each day, we work to fight homelessness by giving it a face while educating individuals about the systemic issues that contribute to its existence. Through storytelling, education, news, and activism, we are changing the narrative on homelessness.