I used to do security at some shelters and the local Ministry for Social Development offices (Welfare office). Through those experiences I learned that there is a big, big difference between calling someone homeless/addict or saying “experiencing homelessness/addiction”
The title says it the correct way, the opening paragraph does not. That being said, “unhoused” doesn’t colloquially imply homeless and could be misconstrued as people being evicted. Regardless, after reading the article I don’t think the author intended to degrade people with their wording.
Anecdotally, I think we do a disservice to the people directly suffering from homelessness/addiction/mental health by misdirecting our frustrations towards the journalists increasing awareness of the problem.
Similarly, I think we do disservice to a lot of victimized and marginalized people by continually ‘improving’ the language surrounding specific issues and subsequently attacking people -who are engaging the topic in good faith- for not adopting the prescribed nomenclature fast enough.
Its worth noting that they had completed “15 to 20 contracts previously” and that they had negotiated previous contracts via text message. This process became the norm during the pandemic.
In other words it’s within this context that made it agreement… not that thumbs ups can universally be used to agree to contracts.