Wikipedia Deep Dive

Homelessness

6 min read

The streets of London have witnessed homelessness for centuries. In 1933, George Orwell walked through the slums of Paris and London, documenting poverty in ways that shifted public consciousness. Yet the phenomenon he described—people without stable shelter, without a place to call home—has only grown more complex and urgent with time.

What It Means to Be Homeless

The definition varies by nation, but the essence remains consistent: homelessness is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. This isn't simply about sleeping on pavement. The United Nations has catalogued two broad categories. Primary homelessness encompasses those living in streets, under bridges, in doorways—literally without shelter. Secondary homelessness covers a different phenomenon: people bouncing between temporary accommodations—the couches of relatives, the floors of friends, emergency shelters, cheap hotels, and institutional housing. Both categories capture people who lack what most societies consider fundamental: a fixed address where they can rest, cook, clean, and exist with dignity.

In the United States, enumeration studies by the government include those who sleep in public spaces not designed for regular human habitation. In 2025, approximately 330 million people worldwide experienced absolute homelessness—without any form of shelter. The number is staggering: nearly half a percent of humanity sleeping rough, without walls to block the wind.

The challenge extends beyond counting. There is no standardized method for identifying homeless individuals and assessing their needs. Most cities possess only estimated figures, often wildly undercounted. Some jurisdictions define homelessness legally; others have no definition at all. The legal status of homeless people changes from place to place, creating a patchwork of policies that rarely addresses the root problem.

A History of Punishment and Pity

The treatment of homeless individuals has shifted dramatically over centuries. In medieval England, the English Poor Laws of 1383 authorized constables to collar vagabonds—those without visible means of support—and force them to demonstrate capacity for labor. Those who could not show support faced the stocks: three days and nights locked in execution. The penalty was intended as punishment, not assistance.

By 1547, the legal framework intensified. Vagabonds could be sentenced to two years' servitude and were branded with a "V" on their hand for first offenses; death awaited those who offended again. The presumption: homeless individuals were unlicensed beggars, criminals by definition rather than citizens in need.

The sixteenth century marked a turning point. England began attempting to provide housing instead of punishment—introducing bridewells designed to train vagrants for professions. By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, workhouses replaced these, though their intent was less about compassion than discouraging reliance on state assistance.

By the 1930s in England, 30,000 people were living in dormitory housing called "spikes"—facilities provided by local boroughs. The numbers reveal a growing recognition: shelter rather than stocks.

American Rescue Missions and the Great Depression

Across the Atlantic, similar patterns emerged. After 1870, hundreds or thousands of homeless men formed part of America's counterculture known as "hobohemia"—traveling between small towns, living near train tracks, hopping freight trains to various destinations. The term "hobo" emerged for those seeking work; "tramp" for those not working.

The first U.S. rescue mission—the New York City Rescue Mission—was founded in 1872 by Jerry and Maria McAuley. After 1890, the Progressive Era movement sparked development of more rescue missions across America. These missions represented a shift: from viewing homeless individuals as criminals to seeing them as souls needing salvation and practical aid.

The Great Depression of the 1930s caused an epidemic of poverty, hunger, and homelessness in the United States. When Franklin D. Roosevelt assumed the presidency from Herbert Hoover in 1933, he signed the New Deal, expanding social welfare—including funds to build public housing. Meanwhile, Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives and Jack London's The People of the Abyss (1903) had already discussed homelessness and raised public awareness, causing changes in building codes and social conditions.

Modern Definitions and Global Scale

In 2004, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs defined a homeless household as those without shelter that would fall within scope of living quarters due to lack of steady income. The affected people carry their few possessions with them—sleeping in streets, doorways, on piers, or another space, more or less randomly.

The ETHOS Typology was developed in 2005 as a means of improving understanding and measurement of homelessness in Europe—and providing a common language for transnational exchanges. The typology conceptualizes homelessness as a process rather than a static phenomenon affecting many vulnerable households at different points in their lives. It exists in 25 language versions, with translations provided mainly by volunteer translators.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter addressed this issue in a 2017 interview: "A lot of people don't look at housing as a human right, but it is." His view contrasts sharply with many Americans who do not believe housing constitutes a basic human right—revealing the philosophical divide at the heart of homeless policy.

Terminology and Shifting Language

The language used to describe homelessness has evolved significantly. The common term "street people" fails to encompass all unsheltered individuals, as many such persons avoid urban environments where they face risks of robbery and assault. Some convert unoccupied or abandoned buildings—"squatting"—or inhabit mountainous areas, lowland meadows, creek banks, and beaches.

Many jurisdictions have developed programs providing short-term emergency shelter during cold spells—often in churches or institutional properties. These warming centers are credited by advocates as lifesaving interventions.

Other terms include "unhoused," "urban campers," "unsheltered," "unhomed," and "houseless"—each carrying different connotations about the nature of displacement.

In 2020, an entry on homelessness was added to The Associated Press Stylebook noting how "homeless is generally acceptable as an adjective to describe people without a fixed residence" and that reporters should use person-first language to "avoid the dehumanizing collective noun the homeless, instead using constructions like homeless people, people without housing or people without homes."

A Condition Without Boundaries

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948, contains Article 25: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services."

Yet despite this declaration, many countries and individuals do not consider housing as a human right. The gap between principle and practice persists—in policy, in funding, in public opinion.