homeless

American  

[hohm-lis] / ˈhoʊm lɪs /

adjective

1. without a home or without permanent housing.

   a homeless refugee.

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noun

(used with a plural verb)

1. Sometimes Disparaging and Offensive. Usually the homeless people who lack permanent housing or a fixed residence, collectively.

homeless British  

/ ˈhəʊmlɪs /

adjective

1. 1. having nowhere to live

   2. ( as collective noun; preceded by the )

      the homeless

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Sensitive Note

There are a number of words used to label people who don’t have permanent housing. While the term homeless was used without controversy for some time, advocates for this population, many style guides, and some people who identify as members of this group now prefer other terms including unhoused, houseless, and unsheltered. The alternative terms to homeless each have a specific nuance of meaning. Unsheltered, for example, includes people who sleep in cars and under overpasses, but not people in temporary housing like city shelters. Houseless and unhoused both mean that a person lacks permanent housing, but may still be a member of a community that they call home, in which case the designation homeless is imprecise. Further, someone’s homeless status is often temporary, as expressed in the phrases “people moving through houselessness,” “people experiencing homelessness,” and “unsheltered people.” Nevertheless, the term homeless is easily understood and even preferred as a term of self-identification by many members of this community. The designation homeless is still widely used and only sometimes offensive or disparaging. However, one should be mindful of the negative connotation this word may have and the many unfortunate associations it has had with poverty, mental illness, substance abuse, or crime. The word should not be used as a euphemism for these other statuses and stigmatized conditions. Homeless should be used only in the strict denotative meaning, and alternative expressions that put the person first, like “an individual experiencing homelessness,” are often preferable.

Other Word Forms

• homelessly adverb
• homelessness noun

Etymology

Origin of homeless

First recorded before 1000; home ( def. ) + -less ( def. )

Example Sentences

The following year she gave $1 million to the Lord’s Place, a provider of services for the homeless, in her late husband’s memory.

From The Wall Street Journal

The Country Food Trust is a food poverty charity that uses venison from deer shot on estates and farms to provide meals at 1,500 foodbanks, homeless shelters and community kitchens across the UK.

From BBC

The proposal would allow the city to remove hazardous materials, including homeless encampments, from private property in hillside areas in “Very High Fire Severity Zones,” including in the Santa Monica and Verdugo Mountains.

From Los Angeles Times

“One in five of the class of our employees has been or is homeless. We are tired of seeing our peers go hungry,” Arias said.

From Los Angeles Times

The Eaton and Palisades fires left an urban population of tens of thousands homeless in a single day.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• houseless
• unhoused
• unsheltered