A Problem for Public Transit?

FIRST oF TWo PARTS

Whether traveling by bus, rail, bicycle, automobile, or other forms of public transit, it is difficult to miss the presence of the unhoused community in and around public transportation. Yet we rarely think about the transportation issues because what sticks in our minds now is just the troublesomeness of this huge and growing urban problem. In the year 2020 alone, over 580,000 individuals in the United states experienced homelessness every day!1

Homelessness is a complex social issue, and its ties to public transportation are usually neglected. For the purposes of this essay, it is necessary to first clarify how chronic homelessness is defined by our government. The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) casts a wide net to adequately define it.

This, in and of itself, is indicative of the seemingly unlimited number of social situations that unsheltered and unhoused people face and is a testament to the complex underlying causes of homelessness. i n this analysis, the terms homeless, unsheltered, and unhoused are used interchangeably. t he reader should assume that, when referring to any of these terms, we need to keep in mind the official definition from HUD which defines homelessness per 42 U.S. Code § 11302:

Jeremy terhune, stockton, ca