Being houseless immediately puts you at risk for developing PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) as well as many other mental and physical conditions that negatively affect one's health. PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can occur after an individual has experienced a traumatic event, particularly those that include the threat of injury or death. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, symptoms of PTSD appear in three ways:
"Reliving" the event, which disturbs day-to-day activity, including, for example, flashbacks and nightmares.
Avoidance including emotional numbing and feeling detached.
Arousal which might include difficulty concentrating, sleep disturbances, and outbursts of anger, amongst other symptoms.
A person with a history of trauma is way more likely to experience PTSD from a future traumatic event. Symptoms of PTSD usually don’t start until weeks or even months after the initial traumatic event. A feedback loop, relating to mental illness, is when a person’s environmental conditions disallows them from receiving any kind of treatment, leaving them vulnerable to being re-traumatized, and results in the creation of a feedback loop making it nearly impossible for a person to be able to make a positive change. Feedback loops can be caused by internal patterns of thoughts, perceptions, emotions, and behaviors, each element stimulating the next. Author Heidi Helen says, “Experiences of trauma may lead us to develop mental habits; feedback loops are mechanisms that keep maintaining and deepening these habits. One could theorize that feedback loops contribute to reinforcing specific neural pathways in the brain and to developing chronic imbalances in the nervous system and physiology.” Unfortunately most people experience this feedback loop prior to being houseless and still suffer after they’ve been housed. According to the National Alliance To End Homelessness, homelessness as a traumatic experience can lead to PTSD in three different ways.
The actual event of becoming homeless can lead to trauma through the loss of stable shelter, family connections, accustomed social roles and routines.
The ongoing condition of homelessness and its attendant stressors, such as the uncertainty of where to find food and safe shelter, can erode a person’s coping mechanisms.
Homelessness might serve as a breaking point for those who have pre-existing behavioral health conditions or a history of traumatization.
Elon Musk is the richest person in the world making 16.9 billion a year, $22,500 every minute, which is $375 every second. According to Bloomberg, it would cost roughly 8.1 billion a year for 12 years just to end the housing crisis in the state of California (which has the highest statistics of houseless people). That means half of Musk’s annual income for the next 12 years could end the housing crisis in California. This estimated total is still based on our flawed system where it is nearly impossible for anyone to buy a house while rent is increasing steadily by the hundreds every year. In 2023, Oregon's rent hike cap was set at 14.6% increase and it’s set for 10% increase in 2024. With this inflation trend happening presently, this means the estimate made by Bloomberg is accounting for inflation to occur for the next 12 years. This illustrates that the real cost to end the housing crisis is actually way less than 8.1 billion a year, but since billionaires are present, and corporations need to make more money than the previous year, the total is way higher. This financial unbalance forces the working class to make less by having to pay more for necessities, like a place to live. This proves we have a housing crisis due to people wanting to capitalize on our need for shelter. The housing crisis acts as a threshold to keep people from becoming successful and makes them more likely to have a mental illness. Our system in America is ruthless, violent, and anti-humanitarian. In order for the housing crisis to stop in this country, we must have these conversations, point out the cyclical nature of oppression and hold the people, who are responsible, accountable for their actions.
For more information and statistics about PTSD and the housing crisis visit:
Addressing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Caused by Homelessness
State of Homelessness: 2023 Edition
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