When Society Treats Unhoused People as Disposable, It Creates the Conditions for Unspeakable Violence
When multiple homeless men were gunned down while sleeping on the streets of Miami, news outlets called it shocking. But to those paying attention, it was tragically familiar. From Los Angeles to Seattle to Washington, D.C., serial killers have repeatedly targeted unhoused people—victims chosen not for who they are, but for how society sees them: invisible, unwanted, unprotected.
The murders are horrifying. But what’s worse is what they reveal about us.
Most recently, 28-year-old former real estate agent Willy Maceo was indicted for the brutal murders of two homeless men and the attempted murder of a third—all targeted while they slept on the streets of Miami. A Miami-Dade grand jury issued two first-degree murder charges and one attempted murder charge last month.
“These are some of our most vulnerable individuals in our community,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle told NBC Miami. “Having an unknown killer striking out at random victims is like no other type of crime.”
A Disturbing Pattern
Just last November, another serial killer, Jerrid Powell, targeted the unhoused community in Los Angeles, CA. Among the victims was 37-year-old Jose Bolanos, who was targeted first, shot while sleeping in an alley in Vermont Vista. 62-year-old Mark Diggs was also shot while walking in the Arts District. 52-year-old Shawn Alvarez was gunned down in Lincoln Heights.
Last February, yet again, another serial killer targeted homeless people in Seattle. Daravuth Van, a 52-year-old homeless Seattleite, was also killed while sleeping. Paul Ernest Ewell, a 68-year-old homeless man, was attacked and killed. And lastly, 37-year-old Jared Alex Redding was targeted and killed.
In 2022, serial killer Gerald Brevard III targeted those experiencing homelessness in Washington, D.C., and then, a few days later, in New York. Again, victims were shot while sleeping or within homeless encampments.
Over the last 23 years, there have been over 2,000 recorded incidents of violence against homeless people, with at least 588 of them being fatal. Last year, The National Coalition for the Homeless reported “a worrying uptick in targeted violence against homeless people, particularly with attacks involving law enforcement personnel and serial attackers.”
Justice for unhoused people is not something we see often enough. While there is a known history of serial killers targeting homeless people, unfortunately, the names of the victims are often unknown, and more often than not, deaths are not reported, if discovered at all. Such villainy targeted at homeless people seems incomprehensive, but with trends such as these, we must consider what leads to such horrors.
Society Creates Serial Killers
What leads to actions such as these? What happens when culture teaches us to devalue some lives over others? Or teaches us that some people are inferior to us – are less deserving, or not at all, of basic human rights?
These thought processes, which fuel serial killers, are the same ones that fuel other atrocities, such as slavery and genocide. What happens when these ideas are not only normalized but accepted, so much so that we avoid eye contact with homeless people when walking by?
“It’s become normal to ignore any unhoused people you see on the street, to assume that they’re violent substance users, and to call the police on people for simply existing,” reporter Kayla Robbins wrote about the Seattle deaths. “In a statement made about the recent violence in Seattle, the ACLU of Washington said it best: ‘Unhoused people are often targeted due to their vulnerability, but that vulnerability is further exacerbated by a public discourse that promotes fear of and suspicion against them, and policies that continue to criminalize their existence in public spaces.’”
Media’s Harmful Messaging Further Perpetuates Violence Against Homeless People
The dehumanization of poor and homeless people is deeply embedded in our culture. That dehumanization doesn’t just shape public opinion—it has deadly consequences. From biased media portrayals to stigmatizing language in everyday conversation, we normalize the idea that some lives are worth less than others.
The media frequently misrepresents homeless individuals as lazy, mentally ill, or personally responsible for their situation. Some outlets go further, publishing sensationalized or misleading stories that paint unhoused people as dangerous or morally flawed. These narratives—disguised as truth—are widely shared through social media algorithms that reward outrage over accuracy.
This constant barrage of harmful messaging fuels public fear, justifies punitive policies, and fosters an environment where violence against unhoused people is tolerated, ignored, or even encouraged.
Every victim mentioned above was a human being—someone society failed to protect. These acts of violence don’t happen in a vacuum. They emerge from a culture that systematically devalues homeless lives through media, policy, and public indifference.
If we want to stop this violence, we must confront that culture. That means rejecting harmful narratives, challenging anti-homeless laws, and rehumanizing people who have been pushed to the margins. Until we do, the consequences will only grow more deadly.
