The Moral Harms of Homelessness

Abstract

It is well-established that those facing homelessness suffer severe harms and deprivations. Homeless persons are among the worst-off people in any given society. And yet homelessness is a relatively undertheorized issue in ethics and social and political philosophy, and it remains an enduring feature of many affluent, liberal democratic societies. This paper aims to provide an account of the underacknowledged moral harms of homelessness that can ground and motivate adequate durable solutions and public policy reform to alleviate homelessness. The paper argues that the few existing philosophical accounts of the moral harms of homelessness—the freedom-based, privacy-based and care-based accounts—reveal important insights but suffer limitations. The paper then advances a novel status-based account that foregrounds the social and moral status poverty of homeless persons. This account reveals an underacknowledged but fundamental moral harm of homelessness, addresses the limitations of existing accounts, and grounds adequate durable solutions. This more complete account can then help challenge the unsettling tacit acceptance of homelessness in contemporary societies and provide a normative framework for urgent reform.