Photograph by Laura Shill from ‘Sleeping Outside’ in “Not Exactly” exhibition.
The poverty, addictions, illnesses, unemployment, and suffering of those without stable housing also occur among those with it. But it is very difficult for those with stable housing to imagine the daily life of a homeless person. Avoidance, aversion, aggression, and criminalization mark the social and institutional response. There is compassion but effective solutions often seem to be preempted by strong desires to look away from the homeless and drive them out of our immediate communities.
The purpose of this website is to support creative, intellectual, and practical address of the problems of homelessness. The UO Community Philosophy Institute seeks to consider contemporary homelessness in our own community of Eugene, Oregon, and beyond. We want to correct ignorance and confront denial about homeless people by recognizing their human dignity through academic study, art, video, photography, the exploration of effective civic and political programs, course content, and informational, philosophical, and roundtable discussion events. We have begun and will continue to collaborate with artists, activists, philosophers, members of other academic disciplines, advocates for the homeless, public officials, and university administrators, both in Eugene and beyond. As philosophers, we believe that the problems of homeless people are the problems of those who are housed and that their alienation, resilience, solidarity, accomplishments, and aspirations speak to the entire human community.