Nigay 1

Natalia Nigay
CAS 137H
Robin Kramer
12 October 2015
The Invisible People
Society has a problem with acknowledging the homeless. Too often do people assume that
a homeless person is entirely at fault for their poor situation and therefore do not deserve someone
elses help. However, it is this very assumption that allows homelessness to continue. On any given
night in the last year, there were around 600,000 people sleeping out on the streets in the United
States alone. About 150,000 (twenty-five percent) were children, and 50,000 (one-third) of those
kids under the age of eighteen were all alone (The U.S. Department). In the United Kingdom,
there were a minimum of 83,000 young adults ages 16-25 who did not have a place to call home
(Owen). The number of young people without homes are incredibly high, so there are
organizations worldwide that focus their mission specifically on combating this issue. Two
organizations that strive to bring attention as well as an end to youth homelessness are Depaul
UK and The Mockingbird Society. Depaul UK has created an advertisement for a service called
Nightstop network where volunteers house 16-25 year old homeless youth until they are able to
find a stable home, and The Mockingbird Society has published a video of previously homeless
youth sharing their sentiments about the low level of concern towards homeless youth. The goal
of both PSAs is to alert citizens to the reality that homeless youth face and prompt action towards
a solution. In order to accomplish this, Depaul UK utilizes strategic ad placement to enhance their
message while The Mockingbird Society bolsters the ethos of homeless youth. In addition to the
individual strategies employed by each PSA, they both make use of compelling pathos to

Nigay 2
undermine or play upon a commonplace or an ideology.
In the Street Corner Campaign for the Depaul UK agency, the advertisement is positioned
on the corner of a building in order to have a greater effect on its viewers. The corner location
results in one half of the ad being read before the other, so you first read that It doesnt seem safe
to help a homeless youth. The side that encourages the negative preconceptions associated with
youth homelessness is placed on the more heavily trafficked side of the building and makes it seem
like its okay to turn a blind eye to the homeless. However, by positioning the ad in this way Depaul
sets up the perfect opportunity to show another side to the story. At the bottom of the side that
portrays the dangers of housing a homeless youth comes the line There is another side, which
prompts the viewer to turn the corner. The advertisement as a whole reveals the true message that
Depaul Nightstop wants to convey that homeless youth are simply young people who need a
helping hand to get back on their feet.
While Nightstop shows another side to homelessness, The Mockingbird Society PSA gives
homeless youth a voice which they use to establish ethos that promotes a positive image. The
people who are shown in the video are all well-spoken young adults. They speak plainly from the
heart in front of a simple background that keeps your attention focused on what they are saying.
One of the individuals in the video says, Just the way people look at you, meaning that there is
a stigma of homelessness. People perceive homeless youth in a negative light, so the proper
appearance and demeanor of everyone in the video promotes their ethos by contradicting the harsh
assumptions that many people believe to be true about the homeless. Their statements disprove the
beliefs that homeless youth are a detriment to society and show that they are citizens just like
anyone else.
Its clear that Depaul UK and the Mockingbird Society utilize different platforms to

Nigay 3
advocate against homelessness. However, what the two PSAs share is the fact that each employs
pathos in order to manipulate a commonplace. A general commonplace surrounding homelessness
is one of its not my problem. People tend to turn away from homeless people they pass on the
street and connect them to drugs, alcohol, and violence. In the case of the Nightstop ad, the unique
corner layout contributes to the pathos that leads to the reevaluation of the apathetic commonplace.
When the advertisement is read on the first side, the viewer may feel justified in their assumptions
about homeless youth the assumption that theyre too dangerous and unpredictable to help. But
when viewed as a whole, the viewer starts to feel doubtful as to the correctness of their
preconceived notions. The sympathy that comes from imagining what might happen if you simply
stood by while a young homeless person was sleeping rough when they may have issues with
their family, rather than with drugs and violence like people think brings to light the unhappy
reality that homeless youth face. When a person starts to imagine all of the different reasons for a
young person to be out on the streets, it becomes evident that there is a much greater chance that
for these youth, homelessness is not a choice. This, in turn, generates more sympathy and concern
towards homeless youth and makes people want to do something to help.
While Depaul UK makes an impact with the unique corner layout of their advertisement,
the Mockingbird Society video elicits emotions through individual testimony. Several of the
people in the video recall being ignored as children on the streets: I remember being eleven and
nobody even stopping or slowing down or batting an eye at me, one young man recalls. Another
person recalls, I've always been a sensitive, loving, big hearted person, and I never understood
how people could walk past me and not notice that something was going on. Or how you could
walk past me and I'm only 14 years old. These recollections evoke images of young children,
defenseless and afraid, trying to survive. In our society, youth are associated with innocence and

Nigay 4
there is a commonplace that innocence and therefore youth is treasured. When homeless youth
are brushed past like they dont even exist, society is violating the high held belief that innocence
should be protected. By talking about their past experiences, these young adults are pointing out
how little attention the problem of homelessness among youths is getting. One young woman said
that while they do care about society, society just doesnt care about them and this statement should
bring out a sense of shame. How are youth the supposed future of our nation being ignored and
made to feel like invisible people? At the end of the video, someone asks you to imagine how you
would feel if it were your kids asking for help on the streets and being ignored. He goes on to say
that There's not a specific thing you can do, but you can just care, and that is the first step towards
finding a solution.
In order to end homelessness, people have to stop avoiding what they see happening in
front of them and instead look the homeless youth in the eyes and tell them that someone is trying
to help. That is what both Depaul UKs Nightstop and The Mockingbird Societys video is
attempting to do: address the issue and reach out to find people that want to help. The intriguing
placement of the Nightstop ad and the credible statements given by people who were homeless as
youths goes a long way in encouraging the public to see the homeless as people who deserve their
help. That, in addition to the emotional appeals found in both artifacts highlights the problems that
homeless youth face and creates a compelling invitation to help find a solution to end
homelessness.

Nigay 5

Works Cited:
Depaul Nightstop. Digital image. A Two-Sided Word Puzzle on London Streets Takes on
Homeless Stereotypes. The Slate Group, n.d. Web.
Owen, Jonathan. Number of Young Homeless People in Britain is more than Three times the
Official Figures The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 4 July 2015.
Web. 01 May 2016.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. "The 2014 Annual Homeless
Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. Assessment Report (AHAR) (n.d.): n. pag.
Oct. 2014. Web.
We Are Not Invisible People. YouTube. YouTube, 7 Aug. 2014. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.