A/HRC/31/54 (c) The third dimension recognizes those who are homeless as rights holders who are resilient in the struggle for survival and dignity. With a unique understanding of the systems that deny them their rights, homeless people must be recognized as central agents of the social transformation necessary for the realization of the right to adequate housing. 18. A human rights definition of homelessness undermines “moral” explanations of homelessness as personal failures to be solved with acts of charity and instead reveals patterns of inequality and injustice that deny those who are homeless their rights to be equal members of society. III. Discrimination, stigmatization and social exclusion A. Social construction of homelessness 19. Those who are homeless are constructed as a social group. Worldwide, their identity is created and then reinforced by people who have more money, more power or more influence. It is a vicious circle. Laws, policies, business practices and media stories depict and treat homeless people as morally inferior, undeserving of assistance and authors of their own misfortune, and blame them for the social problems they come to represent. Once stigmatized, their needs are further neglected and inequality and discrimination further entrenched. 20. Strategies to address homelessness are, ironically, often tainted with prejudice and stigmatization. For example, in August 2015, the office of the Mayor of New York introduced a mobile telephone application called Map the Homeless7 that allowed users to take snapshots of homeless people and report them to the police. Social media hashtag labels included #AggressivePanhandling and #Violent. 21. Homeless people are subject to constant intimidation and harassment by authorities and the general public; they are denied access to basic services or places to shower, urinate or defecate; they are rounded up and forced out of cities and relocated to uninhabitable places; they are walked over and passed by; they are subject to extreme forms of violence, including hate crimes and sexual violence; and they are often the subject of vilification. At the same time, some forms of homelessness remain totally invisible and neglected, in particular in parts of the global South, where homelessness remains relatively unacknowledged or where the distinction between very precarious housing conditions and homelessness may not be easily drawn. 22. The humiliation homeless people suffer in their daily lives cannot be underestimated. Take for example, the experience of women who lack adequate sanitation facilities, especially during menstrual cycles, or of families who are treated like “human waste”, forced to establish their households on or next to a garbage dump. Homeless people have told the Special Rapporteur, often through tears, that more than any material security, what they yearn for is to be “seen”, to be recognized and treated by society as human beings with inherent dignity and respect. 7 6 Available online from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com. dfox.nycmapthehomeless&hl=en.