Earlier this week, the government announced the repeal of the 200-year-old Vagrancy Act that made rough sleeping and begging a criminal offence. You can no longer be arrested for sleeping on the street. The Vagrancy Act came into force in 1824 to deal with injured soldiers returning from the Napoleonic Wars but were left destitute, begging in the streets with no work or housing. In Scotland, they repealed the Act in 1982.
I hope at the same time as confining the Vagrancy Act to history; we can also move on from using the archaic language contained in the old Act. I fear we have work to do. This week my local paper carried a story about a town centre improvement scheme which included a line “One idea is to take down the walls on which vagrants, beggars and drug users sit during the day”.
Our use of language is essential, whether gender pronouns or how we describe ourselves and others; the words we choose have a lasting impact.
Like other homelessness organisations, the St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity takes great care in the language we adopt. Someone may be at risk of becoming homeless. They may be experiencing homelessness. But one thing they will never be is ‘homeless’ or a ‘homeless person.’ That’s because the experience of being homeless doesn’t define somebody. We respect the people we work with, and we demonstrate that in the descriptions we use. We recognise that people have their own agency, hopes and goals. We talk about individuals and not groups. And we explain how, by working with them, we can help someone find their way out of a difficult situation.
At the moment of Transfiguration, I’m sure that disciples saw Jesus very differently. It changed how they viewed him and perhaps their language as they described him to others.
Tim Bissett
Director, St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity
