None of us probably wants a spotlight on the very worst day of our lives or us at our worst moment, or only showing the hardest thing we’ve faced, right?” said Kristin Ginger, manager of communications and development at Housing Action Illinois, a nonprofit coalition that expands affordable housing. 

That’s why Heather Bryant, co-author of the Poverty Style Guide, urges journalists to ask themselves “Who we are speaking to when we are reporting out a story and reflect on whether our approach or presentation exploits, dehumanizes or disempowers them as active agents of their own stories.” That means reporting on the whole person and all the factors surrounding their situation, not just how they ended up in poverty. 

Ginger says the language journalists use also matters, but the choices are complicated because different organizations offer different guidelines. “[We would say] a person experiencing 
homelessness, a person facing housing instability, rather than the homeless or a homeless person, and that’s to show it’s not their only identity,” she said. But, she noted, that’s not the language used in everyday conversation. “When I’ve spoken to people experiencing homelessness, they do not say, ‘I am a person experiencing homelessness.’”  
Nor does a phrase like that fit in a headline. In both cases, people are often referred to as “homeless” as a shorthand. “We don’t, I think, always have good options. And I think being more specific when you can is helpful,” Ginger said. 

Ginger also encourages journalists to explain the role of the way social services and safety nets are set in causing people to live in poverty. “It’s the fault of this whole broader system. And an individual story holds someone up to be pulled apart, or for someone to point and say, ‘Well, I blame them for making these choices.’” 

Instead, journalists need to portray poverty and homelessness in all their complexity. “It’s a mess. It’s hard, and it matters,” Ginger said.