This year was rough. Something unique about this pandemic is it touched everyone. No other crisis has affected every single person on the planet as the coronavirus has.
Frontline and essential workers became heroes. Medical professionals worked tirelessly in hospitals as minimum wage workers kept grocery shelves stocked. Americans continue to rise up.
Many lost loved ones. Millions lost their jobs. Families who never had to rely on food stamps now wait in long lines to feed their families.
The world changed, and we don’t know yet if we’ll ever get back to normal, whatever normal is.
What we do know is we will survive. We will become better having gone through such a horrible crisis.
That’s what happened to Invisible People. We started this year with big plans then the pandemic changed all of us. Our 2020 road trip was canceled. We were not able to travel as we have in the past. Like you, we had to change.
Our first commitment became reporting on the coronavirus and homelessness. We hired new writers, many of them currently or formerly homeless and we developed advocacy campaigns to push legislators for badly-needed pandemic relief and eviction moratorium.
We produced eight mini-documentaries, several of which highlighted volunteers continuing to help people during the pandemic. One of our mini-docs even won a Shorty Award for best documentary short. We also produced the VR experience “We Live Here”.
Our YouTube channel had 135 million views in 2020, and we will soon hit one million subscribers. We also launched research on what America believes about homelessness.
We all hope that at some point, 2021 will be better than this past year. It’s starting to look this way as vaccines are now being distributed. However, the aftermath of the pandemic has put millions of households at risk of being evicted.
All signs show homelessness will get worse with numbers significantly increasing.
As we wrap our first full year of reporting on homelessness, we are committed to continue bringing you quality, original reporting on homelessness and related topics. Most of all, we want to thank you, our readers, for your support. You make us relevant, and you help to bring us closer to a day when everyone has housing.
As we close out this year, we want to share a recap of our top 10 news articles for 2020:
Truth Talk: 74% of Homeless People Are NOT Drug Addicts
When all homeless people are included in the statistics, we learn only 26% of the entire homeless community suffers from a serious drug addiction. This means the overwhelming majority, which equates to 74%, are not addicted to drugs.
The Role that Interest Plays in Oppression, Homelessness and Racism
Only about 44% of Black Americans across the country own their homes even though homes in communities of color cost much less money. This article explains why.
What Happens When Kids Are ‘Exposed’ to Homelessness?
If kids hear homeless people are just like them, they’ll be better able to put themselves in others’ shoes. This leads to children who eventually start to ask not just why people are homeless, but what they can do to help.
Truth Talk: 84% of Homeless People Do NOT Struggle with Chronic Mental Illness
- Lack of Affordable Housing
- Poverty
- Lack of Affordable Healthcare
These are the leading causes of homelessness in the US – not Mental Illness!
Underlying Causes of Homelessness Nobody Talks About
Of all developed countries across the globe, the USA bears the largest disparity between rich and poor. Learn how consumerism, individualism, racism, and other variants play a contributing role in wealth inequality, which can lead to homelessness.
Stop Blaming Illegal Immigration for Homelessness
Evidence overwhelmingly shows that illegal immigration is not driving the housing crisis— greed is. Blaming illegal immigration is not only incorrect and misdirected, it deepens the social disfigurements that are causing homelessness.
Smartphones are the Smarter Way to Fight Homelessness
Having a smartphone is a lifeline for homeless people. It allows them to apply for jobs, access assistance and opens up an entire network of resources. This article is the first in a series outlining the necessity of keeping people connected.
The Race to End Homelessness Means Ending Racism Too
When people of color in America make up a majority of this country’s homeless population, should we call this racism? Or is this just an extreme response, what some people would call pulling the “race card”?
What America Believes About Homelessness
We recently surveyed people across the country to better understand public attitudes toward homelessness – here’s what we found.
How to Use Respectful, Instead of Degrading, Language Around Homelessness
Did you know that people find it offensive when someone uses the phrase “The Homeless”? The latest updates to the AP Stylebook suggest changing this and other harmful language, which is explained further in this article.
