My least favorite new politically correct term is "unhoused." Like you can just tell it was created to make liberals feel less icky when talking about homeless people.
I was homeless. I was homeless as a child and as an adult. That shit sucks believe it or not.
The uncertainty. The ever-present grimy feeling from lack of access to running water. Having nothing to your name. The shame you feel is asking your fellow man for the bare minimum. Just so much shame, man.
"Unhoused" is so clinical. A technical term. Sure, its not incorrect, but it doesn't properly convey the emotional and psychological impact homelessness has on you.
You say "house", I think of a structure.
You say "home", I think of stability.
As someone who was also homeless as a child, you put my discomfort with this term into words perfectly. I once had to argue with someone who outright refused to use the term homeless because she worked with homeless people, even when I— an actual homeless person— was telling her that it felt like she was sanitising what I actually went through.
I wasn’t just without a house, I was fundamentally living on the outskirts of society without an ounce of stability, and sometimes not even shelter can relieve that. Sometimes I wasn’t unhoused, but I was still homeless.
