Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O'Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People

Kidder and the Street Team use the terms “homeless” and “homelessness” in contrast to “unhoused” and “houseless,” which are presently common terms to refer to people who do not have consistent shelter. “Homeless” and “homelessness” refer to a variety of circumstances. People without shelter aren’t always chronically “homeless.” Sometimes the term refers to people who might not sleep in the streets but sleep on couches or in shelters. Because this term is so ambiguous, the statistics that represent the many people in this category might not always capture them.

Some activists advocate for using “houseless” and “unhoused” instead of “homeless”: “The term ‘homeless’ makes the spaces [unhoused people] do call home sound illegitimate, when home represents far more than a location. Instead, home is friends, family, and community” (“Why ‘Houseless’ Instead of ‘Homeless?’” LA Community Alliance).

Redlining is a policy used by lenders to refuse loans for properties deemed “unsafe” or as belonging to neighborhoods with too much risk. This practice is historically racist, keeping income from flowing in impoverished, predominately Black neighborhoods. It originated from maps where banks deemed predominantly Black neighborhoods too risky for investments.

A 19th-century term used to refer to people who sleep in the streets, rough sleepers are unhoused and remain chronically houseless, usually declining to stay in shelters and fashioning makeshift homes or sleeping in various spots outside. Rough sleepers are the primary demographic with whom the Street Team works and whose stories become central to Kidder’s narrative. Rough sleepers in Massachusetts generally die “at about ten times the normal rate,” according to Kidder (56).