Homelessness - the reasons it will not go away

How much is the problem is on us, and how we can communicate it to the public

GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS

Thomas Y. Lynch

11/20/20268 min read

The conversation...

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I work every day with people who fight homelessness and are passionate about their work. These people are boots on the ground in the trenches, looking the crisis in the eye, and it seems to have no end. Which is correct: homelessness won't end until we, as a collective society, decide to end it.

We talk about why so many people are homeless, and we usually land on the same short list. Housing costs are too high, and there aren’t enough affordable homes. There aren’t enough shelter beds for everyone who needs one. And the cost of living squeezes people more and more each day. All of these issues are true.

I asked my wife why homelessness hasn’t ended. She is a licensed clinical social worker who has spent years working with unhoused people, and she's seen real success. She didn’t mention housing, rent, or beds. She said the real reason is,

“Because we are not decent people, society is self-centered, we don’t have the patience, and we don’t realize the core of the work is changing the conditions of a broken environment.” Then she added that no cookie-cutter approach will work unless you roll up your sleeves, work out what each person needs, and genuinely care about their success".

The common unhoused talking points matter. But she is describing something that homeless people can’t fix on their own, and that something is humanity. This post breaks down what she asserts and explores why an advocate's lens points to the human condition as the biggest barrier. Because this is a communications blog, I will also give you methods you can use to mitigate each human condition.

1. We Are Not Decent - Action: Tell The Story

Let's start with the "Hot Take": are we, as a society, decent? The question is amorphous because decency is hard to define. What is decent for one may not be decent for another. Let's start with one simple question: "Do you care about the well-being of others?" Most of us would say yes, until it requires us to demonstrate that care. Frankly, most people don't care unless it affects them directly.

It is easy to treat homelessness as a problem that belongs to other people. The numbers suggest otherwise. In the 2026 count, homelessness rose 1.2% to an estimated 73,040 people in LA County, and 3.4% to 45,194 in the City of Los Angeles. That ended two years of declines. The problem is not getting better.

Most of us say we want homelessness solved, then stop supporting it when the solution is proposed for our street. Supportive housing, shelters, and affordable apartments get delayed, downsized, or blocked. When patience runs out, we reach for enforcement instead. Both reactions come from the same place. We care until it asks something of us.

How to communicate it - Story over Stats

Statistics prove a problem is real, but they rarely move anyone. A number lets the reader file the issue under “other people.” A story doesn’t allow that.

They may seem cliché, but success stories about the unhoused quickly connect people to the crisis. The community usually finds similarities in the story that let them see homelessness up close. Make the story specific enough to feel real, and make it clear that our family member or we can be that person. One unfortunate event can change lives. Let the unhoused individual share their journey in their own words.

Experts describe homelessness as an experience people have, not an indicator of character, and your language should reflect that. Develop the story around one stat (not ten). This focuses the story around a proven problem and makes it more relatable. The story-over-stat method connects everyday people to ownership of the crisis. This may help them level up their empathy and decency.

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2. We Don’t Have Patience: Action: Level Set the Expectation

Getting someone into a home is a real victory, and my wife would be the first to say so. But also says, "Housing is where the work starts." A person who has just been housed may still have no job, no healthcare, no recent work history, and no support, and may still be dealing with mental health or substance use challenges. The honest question is how long they will stay housed.

The research is encouraging, with a condition attached. The first national study of Housing First programs found that 84% of participants were still in housing after 12 months. The researchers noted that intensive, ongoing services and housing subsidies are critical components. Keys alone didn’t produce that result. People stayed housed because someone stayed with them through their process.

That population requires the slowest, most individual care. It means learning what one person needs, which may be different from the next, and being willing to keep showing up when progress is uneven. We like solutions that are fast and measurable. This work is neither.

It isn’t a reason to give up, either. LA County’s homeless services department reports that between July 2025 and March 2026 it moved more than 4,000 people into permanent housing and nearly 5,000 off the streets into interim housing. It also says the latest count reflects a significant decline in state and federal funding, not a local strategy failure. Progress is happening, and cuts to the resources behind it are undoing some of it.

How to communicate it.

The public wants a fix with a date on it. Don’t give them one. From your first communication, say that this is a process with stages, and that each person’s path looks different. Avoid cookie-cutter messaging that suggests one program or one policy covers everyone, and be careful with pledges to end homelessness by a fixed date.

Define success the way the research does. Someone placed in housing is not the same as someone housed for good, so report retention, not only placements. Tell people what the next stage looks like and how long it commonly takes. A median of 22 months is a useful thing to say out loud.

When the count goes up, explain why plainly and without excuses. The funding decline is a fact worth stating, but pair it with what you are doing about it. Acknowledge setbacks before critics do, and update on a regular schedule, so people’s patience has something to hold on to.

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3. We Don’t Understand the Challenges: Action: Be Direct and Transparent

We also tell ourselves that people experiencing homelessness came from somewhere else. The California study found the opposite. Ninety percent of participants lost their last housing in California, and 75% were still living in the county where they were last housed. These are our neighbors, and they are not passing through.

Money is not the only barrier. LA County’s homeless services department says the county’s new affordable housing agency is investing more than $228 million to build and preserve affordable homes, and over $114 million in programs to protect renters and prevent homelessness. That funding only works if the buildings can actually go up.

Enforcement has its own problems. In 2024, the Supreme Court ruled in Grants Pass v. Johnson that cities can enforce public camping bans even when no shelter is available. In the year after that ruling, the National Homelessness Law Center counted 260 new laws criminalizing homelessness across the country, most of them camping bans. The first nationwide study of these laws, published in the Policy Studies Journal, found no evidence that they reduce unsheltered homelessness, or that they push people into neighboring cities. A citation doesn’t give anyone a place to live. It gives them a record, which makes finding housing and work harder. Policies that move people out of sight without building anything for them to move into only change where the problem is.

How to communicate it

A lot of public opposition comes from not knowing what is actually being proposed. Tell people before the rumor does. Say what the project is, where it’s going, who decides, and how and when the public can weigh in. Name the barriers directly, whether that’s zoning, funding, timelines or who controls each piece. Explain where the money goes in plain terms, for example how much is going to build and how much to prevent. If the evidence says a popular approach doesn’t work, say so, and say what you’re doing instead. Don’t dodge the question because it’s politically awkward.

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Where This Leaves Us

Most of us can’t rebuild a housing system. Communicators do control how the public meets it. Thousands of volunteers turn out each year to help conduct the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, and many describe it as the first time they really saw what’s happening in their own city. That’s the lesson. People care more once they can see it, and your work is to put the person in front of them.

Try the exercise my wife would probably suggest. Imagine yourself in that situation, with no address, no safe place to sleep, and a long wait in front of you. Think about what you would want from the people around you. Patience, probably. Some respect. Someone who wants you to succeed.

Homelessness has causes we can name, and many of them are fixable. But the way we respond depends on whether we treat the people living through it as our own. That is the part my wife keeps coming back to, and I think she’s right.

Thomas Y. Lynch

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“How well we communicate is not determined by how well we say things but how well we are understood.”