[athenot]

Because the lack of housing should not be an identity that we assign to the women, men and children who happen to be going through a rough time in life. They are—first and foremost—human beings. Losing sight of that can lead to dehumanization which can then exacerbate the issue.

[jaywalk]

To say someone is homeless is not assigning an identity, it's just describing the state they're in.

I'm overweight. To describe me as overweight is accurate, and I wouldn't think you were saying that it's my identity. To describe me as "experiencing obesity" just sounds silly and changes absolutely nothing.

[aaron-santos]

The English copula is frankly a mess that does among other things, assign identity and class membership. It's completely ok to use a verb which specifically indicates class membership in an unambiguous way.