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Homelessness and the Limits of Personal Responsibility
How sociologists use theory to explain, understand, and attempt to predict homeless trends and experiences
There was a time when I viewed homelessness as a matter of personal failure.
I believed it was an outcome of bad decisions, financial irresponsibility, or addiction. This perspective was rooted in the micro-level understanding of individual agency. I carried this belief until a single encounter unraveled its limitations.
I met a veteran who had given everything in service to his country. He dedicated his time, his physical well-being, and his very sense of self, only to return home and find that the very system he had defended offered him no safety net. He had no addictions, no reckless habits, and no mismanagement of funds.
He had simply become dispensable.
This shift in understanding mirrors the central tenets of conflict theory, which argues that economic and political structures disproportionately disadvantage certain populations.
Homelessness is not a result of bad choices alone.
It is about the structural conditions that ensure some people never get a fair chance. Consider the Department of Veterans Affairs’ backlog of…
