Unhoused Quotes

“For better or worse, defensive designs limit the range of activities people can engage in. They can also create real problems for the elderly or disabled. Some of the goals of unpleasant designs can seem noble, but they follow a potentially dangerous logic with respect to public spaces. When supposed solutions address symptoms of a problem rather than the root causes, that problem is not solved but only pushed down the street to the next block or neighborhood. Spikes beget spikes, and targeted individuals are just moved around without addressing the underlying issues.”
― Roman Mars, The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design

“Keep the lights off. They live in the dark anyway.”
― Niedria Dionne Kenny

“If I can get the people in Houston who are complaining about being without power in this heatwave after the hurricane to understand the unhoused argument about housing. Enjoy your roof.”
― Niedria Dionne Kenny

“When you sit in your car long enough, you will find that this is what everyone is doing.”
― Niedria Dionne Kenny

“The integration of policing and homeless services blurs the boundary between the maintenance of economic security and the investigation of crime, between poverty and criminality, tightening a net of constraint that tracks and traps the unhoused.”
― Virginia Eubanks, Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor