As I interact with the homeless and formerly homeless, I find there is a certain stigma that I have always felt, but had difficulty expressing in words. There are so many “fake” homeless people who have muddied society’s whole perception of the homeless. The truth is that not all of the homeless are fake. Many have legitimate needs, just like diabetics, cancer patients, the blind, the paralyzed, etc.

But sometimes it seems as though society views everyone who is homeless as a “taker,” while everyone else is viewed as a “giver.” And in between these two groups, there seems to be a firewall.

Throughout history, the homeless have not been the only people on the “taker” side of the firewall. In the 1800’s, orphans were often seen as “takers.” This justified using them for forced labor. The blind were on the other side of the firewall in ancient times. The Bible describes a situation where people asked Jesus if it was the blind man who sinned, or if it was his parents’ sin that made him blind.

My mom and I in front of my university dorm, 1999. Before I developed schizophrenia and became homeless, my advisors expected me to make a contribution.

Many of us sometimes wonder whether homeless people we encounter are homeless because of their alcoholism, drug addiction or laziness. But mental illness is known to disable minds. It can leave people unable to work, and sometimes make them homeless. Few people see mental illness like blindness or paralysis– disabilities that are not anyone’s fault.

When I was living in Africa in 2002, I saw homeless children who were on the other side of the firewall. I met friendly, wealthy Kenyans living like upper-middle class Americans. Many of them believed the local homeless children were young criminals who did not deserve better lives.

When I discuss what I saw in Africa, people are sometimes surprised to hear about the wealthy people I encountered. They seem surprised that there are wealthy people in Africa because they reason that, if there were, the wealthy would care for the poor. But despite great wealth in America, we still have homeless people. The excuses Americans use to justify not helping the homeless, such as calling them all criminals, are the same excuses I heard in Africa.

Today in America, when we see a dirty, lost child, we can call the police, knowing that the child will be provided food, clean clothes, and educational opportunities (unlike the situation in Nairobi). Unfortunately, for those homeless and dirty adults with the IQ of children, this is not the case.

The firewall of segregation we’ve set up to isolate all of the homeless and treat them as culpable criminals needs to come crumbling down. A good place to start is to remember that the blind, the sick, the paralyzed and the developmentally disabled were once often viewed the way many Americans view homeless people.