Why ‘homeless’ is giving way to ‘unhoused’

Yahoo! News and The Guardian quote Elizabeth Bowen, associate professor in the School of Social Work, in an article about the term “unhoused” gaining popularity as an alternative to “homeless” to describe people without a fixed residence.

“It’s a powerful way to remind us that the issue is really a housing problem,” says Bowen. “I think that’s useful: There can be a tendency to think about homelessness in more individualistic ways, like it’s a person’s personal failing or the result of their life choices, when really the most important thing is that we just don’t have enough affordable housing in this country.”