From the homeless to "people experiencing homelessness"
Alissa Walker and Emma Alpern June 11, 2020 A demonstrator holds a sign at the rally against NYC’s current policies regarding the homeless population. Photo by Albin Lohr-Jones / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty Images Over the past several weeks, leaders across the country have announced the results of their annual homelessness counts, which are conducted in U.S. cities every January. This year, though, those figures might hit harder thanks to an update to the style manual used by many news organizations that will help to remind readers that behind each statistic, there are people. New guidance was presented at the 2020 American Copy Editors Society conference in May, where AP Stylebook editors recommended that journalists stop using the catchall label “the homeless,” a term the editors deem dehumanizing, to describe those without homes. “Do not use the collective noun ‘the homeless,’ just like we don’t use ‘the elderly’ or ‘the disabled,’” said Paul...