By Jayden Park
It is without a doubt that homelessness has been decreasing. Or has it? Whenever the search term ‘California homelessness’ is used, a plethora of different articles come up, with all of them saying completely contradictory things. In one case, an article claiming that homelessness was at an ‘all-time high’ would be next to another praising Newsom’s Proposition 1 for reducing homelessness. So which really was it?
To truly understand homelessness, we need to look beyond headlines and examine firsthand perspectives from journalists. For that reason, I interviewed Marisa Kendall, a homeless reporter at CalMatters, last month. After covering murders in Florida and court cases in San Francisco, she decided to pursue a career to cover housing and homelessness. As a reporter, she investigates the issue by getting information from the Newsom administration’s documents, PIT (Point-in-Time) counts, and homeless shelters. In the interview, we discussed misconceptions about homelessness and the challenges of accurately reporting the issue. For the purposes of this article, the main focus will be on the former.
This discrepancy can be seen most clearly in societal stigmas about homeless people. One major misconception Kendall highlighted is the belief that all people experiencing homelessness struggle with severe mental illness or addiction. This is corroborated by a recent 2025 academic article, “Rethinking homelessness: a scoping review of social constructions,” that provides insight into how homeless individuals are framed as ‘lazy, filthy, irresponsible, dangerous, addict, and alcoholic’; these portrayals are reinforced by the media, policy, and research. As Kendall furthers, “If you just walk down the street in San Francisco and see someone in crisis, you might think that all homeless people are addicted to drugs—but that isn’t accurate. Many don’t even feel safe sleeping on the street.” She emphasized that the most visible cases often get the most attention, while people quietly managing jobs or other responsibilities remain unseen. Another false narrative she discussed is the idea that homeless people are “service-resistant.” In reality, many shelters offer only one type of housing—often a crowded bunk-style room where pets aren’t allowed and privacy is minimal. For individuals with PTSD or other challenges, this environment is unlivable.
This is further exemplified by the omission of firsthand accounts from unhoused individuals, which significantly distorts the media’s portrayal of homelessness. A study by Moorhead (2024) reveals that U.S. newspapers predominantly quote service providers, experts, and officials, while rarely including the perspectives of those experiencing homelessness themselves. This lack of representation leads to a narrative that often overlooks the lived experiences and needs of unhoused people. That led me to ask if journalists ever get input from homeless people, and the topic of conversation if they do. When journalists do engage with unhoused individuals, the conversations often focus on immediate needs, particularly housing. Kendall described that these discussions usually cover “what they need…mostly housing and a variety of reasons for why they haven’t gotten it.” Reporters also ask about experiences with shelters and social services to highlight gaps in the system, and sometimes explore how people ended up on the streets—a topic that “might be traumatic but can be really informative when people share their stories.”
It is not to say that the media always perpetuates false narratives, rather that some claims should not be accepted at face value. Take the example of a city clearing encampments; it claims to have offered housing to homeless individuals, who did not want it. Kendall cautions against taking such statements at face value, stating that people should “investigate that statement—what do you mean by ‘housing’? Did you just give them shelter for a week? Oftentimes, journalists don’t quote unhoused people properly, and that’s really important.“ It is quite difficult to attain this information, however, as Kendall explained. “It can be tough to keep in touch with and track down homeless sources,” she said. “When you’re writing about someone who’s unhoused and you want to interview them again people don’t have a phone or it gets stolen or it’s not charged or they might be sleeping on one street corner and then get moved so it’s really easy to lose track of people.” This may explain the difficulty there is in attaining accurate information because the transient nature of homelessness makes it challenging to track individual experiences.
In short, homelessness is a complex, multifaceted issue that cannot be simply explained through statistics or labels of people. Although the media is a valuable source of information, like many other sources, it may contribute to an incomplete narrative. As a result, it is imperative to stay actively informed and fact check questionable information.
Special thanks to Marisa Kendall for generously sharing her time and expertise. The interview transcript can be found here.
References:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10530789.2025.2506841#d1e486
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17512786.2023.2300281
https://homelesshub.ca/blog/2024/media-matters-changing-homelessness-narrative