Why experts say some unhoused people are unfairly assumed to be dangerous

A few high-profile cases of unhoused people committing violent acts in U.S. cities like New York and San Francisco may be unfairly leading to fear and frustration around the homeless population of these areas, experts say.

But while those isolated incidents tend to draw attention, they may create a false impression that homeless people are often dangerous, experts say. That group is more likely to be the victim of a crime, according to research published in the journal Violence and Victims.

Experts say factors like increased visibility of homeless, misconceptions about mental illnesses and underlying stigma about unfamiliar groups contribute to these perceptions.

"Fear of danger far exceeds the actual risk of danger," said Nyssa Snow-Hill, a researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Stigmas around people in marginalized groups can contribute to the false perception that people experiencing homelessness are a risk, Snow-Hill said. Some research shows that people view unhoused people with more disgust and as less human than other groups, for example, she said.

Some people can be very uncomfortable with those that are different from them, according to Snow-Hill, and that can create increased anxiety. "People don't often have a lot of experience with those experiencing homelessness," she says.

People also often think homelessness is a bigger problem and a greater risk if it's more visible to them, Snow-Hill says. Current trends in the number of people homeless and living on the street are making unhoused people more visible, according to data from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. More urban construction and aggressive policing policies that have forced some people experiencing homelessness closer to where other people live and work, experts say.

That makes homelessness seem more common, experts say, But this can be more of a perception than the reality, according to an ABC News analysis of data from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. The number of people experiencing homelessness has actually been relatively stable over the last decade, the analysis shows.

Data around unhoused people and violence is extremely limited. Studies in recent decades have attempted to answer questions about unhoused people and violence, but these studies have produced mixed results, and rely on inconsistent data sources.

Unhoused people are arrested at higher rates than housed people, but they're arrested for non-violent behavior like public intoxication or shoplifting — not violence — according to research out of the University of Central Florida.

A 2022 report from the Associated Press found that, in Los Angeles unhoused people were the suspects in 11% of homicides. The report said they were victims in 23% of homicides. Many of these crimes involved violence between two unhoused people, according to the AP's report. Unhoused people make up 1% of the city's population, the report said.

The Associated Press analysis is consistent with the research showing people experiencing homelessness are at high risk of being victims of crimes. Around 14% to 21% of unhoused people are estimated to have been the victim of violence, compared with around 2% of the general population, according to the research published in the journal Violence and Victims.

Many cities don't track the housing status of crime perpetrators or victims, the Associated Press reported.

Researchers who study public perceptions of homelessness say people tend to have exaggerated fears of unhoused people. They also tend to falsely assume that most have severe psychiatric disorders, experts say

"We tend to stereotype those experiencing homelessness as automatically having mental illnesses," Snow-Hill said. "Then we often assume mental illness is severe and could pose a risk to the general public."

Data suggests around 20% of people experiencing homelessness have severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress, according to an ABC News analysis of data United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Around 5% of adults in the U.S. have a serious mental illness, according to data from the National Institutes of Health.

Like unhoused people, people with mental illnesses are more likely to be the victim of violence than to be a perpetrator, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

"There is this perception that people with severe mental illness are unpredictable and act violently ... even though through research we know that they're more likely to be victims," says Jack Tsai, campus dean at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health and research director for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans.

Encouraging people to have more contact with people experiencing homelessness is one way to try changing attitudes and stereotypes around unhoused people, Snow-Hill says. Situations that offer meaningful contact between unhoused people and housed people — like in shelters through outreach — can help create those shifts. But disrupting deep-seated, often unconscious bias can be difficult, she says.

But changing those attitudes is important for creating the policy change that can actually address underlying causes of homelessness, experts said. People who have more negative views about people experiencing homelessness may be less likely to vote for policies that are less punitive and help provide housing, for example, Snow-Hill says.

"The issue of homelessness often comes down to these large systemic issues that will have to be addressed at policy level," she says. "Unless attitudes change, we're never going to get to that point where we have the change that's needed to make a difference."

ABC News' Dr. Jade Cobern contributed to this reporting.