Housing instability

Homelessness

• No universally accepted definition 

• Definitions in different countries and websites they are stated on: 

  • https://www.feantsa.org/en/about-us/faq (Europe)

    • Rooflessness (people living rough and people in emergency accommodation);

    • Houselessness (people in accommodation for the homeless, in women’s shelters, in accommodation for migrants, people due to be released from institutions and people receiving long-term support due to homelessness);

    • Living in insecure housing (people living in insecure tenancies, under threat of eviction or violence);

    • Living in inadequate housing (living in unfit housing, non-conventional dwellings or in situations of extreme overcrowding).

  • https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/4922.0Main%20Features22012?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=4922.0&issue=2012&num=&view= (Australia- statistical)

    • In brief, the ABS statistical definition is that:

      When a person does not have suitable accommodation alternatives they are considered homeless if their current living arrangement:

      • is in a dwelling that is inadequate; or

      • has no tenure, or if their initial tenure is short and not extendable; or

      • does not allow them to have control of, and access to space for social relations.

      
      The ABS definition of homelessness is informed by an understanding of homelessness as 'home'lessness, not rooflessness. It emphasises the core elements of 'home' in Anglo American and European interpretations of the meaning of home as identified in research evidence (Mallett, 2004). These elements may include: a sense of security, stability, privacy, safety, and the ability to control living space. Homelessness is therefore a lack of one or more of the elements that represent 'home'.

  • https://files.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/HomelessDefinition_RecordkeepingRequirementsandCriteria.pdf (from Gravity work) 

    • HUD definition used- please see link due to amount of information. 

  • https://www.homelesshub.ca/sites/default/files/COHhomelessdefinition.pdf (Canada)

    • Homelessness describes the situation of an individual, family or community without stable, safe, permanent, appropriate housing, or the immediate prospect, means and ability of acquiring it. 

    • Homelessness describes a range of housing and shelter circumstances, with people being without any shelter at one end, and being insecurely housed at the other. That is, homelessness encompasses a range of physical living situations, organized here in a typology that includes 1) Unsheltered, or absolutely homeless and living on the streets or in places not intended for human habitation; 2) Emergency Sheltered, including those staying in overnight shelters for people who are homeless, as well as shelters for those impacted by family violence; 3) Provisionally Accommodated, referring to those whose accommodation is temporary or lacks security of tenure, and finally, 4) At Risk of Homelessness, referring to people who are not homeless, but whose current economic and/ or housing situation is precarious or does not meet public health and safety standards. 

  • https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/homelessness-applying-all-our-health (UK) -same definition as Europe

    • The legal definition of homelessness is that a household has no home in the UK or anywhere else in the world available and reasonable to occupy. Homelessness does not just refer to people who are sleeping rough, and is not just a problem found in high-value housing markets such as London and the South East.

      The following housing circumstances are examples of homelessness:

      • rooflessness (without a shelter of any kind, sleeping rough)

      • houselessness (with a place to sleep but temporary, in institutions or a shelter)

      • living in insecure housing (threatened with severe exclusion due to insecure tenancies, eviction, domestic violence, or staying with family and friends known as ‘sofa surfing’)

      • living in inadequate housing (in caravans on illegal campsites, in unfit housing, in extreme overcrowding)

  • https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Housing/Pages/Homelessnessandhumanrights.aspx#homelessness (United nations)

    • Experiencing homelessness means not having stable, safe and adequate housing, nor the means and ability of obtaining it. It should be noted that international agencies, governments, researchers or civil society have adopted different definitions of homelessness depending on language, socioeconomic conditions, cultural norms, the groups affected and the purpose for which homelessness is being defined. The experience of homelessness is not fully captured without a richer definition that goes beyond the deprivation of physical shelter. Reducing the matter to putting a roof over one’s head, would fail to take into account the loss of social connection — the feeling of “belonging nowhere” — and the social exclusion experienced by persons living in homelessness.

      Definitions of homelessness used by UN Habitat, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Institute of Global Homelessness or the European Federation of Organizations Working on Homelessness (FEANTSA) have all in common to include various forms of homelessness: persons living in the streets, in open spaces or cars; persons living in temporary emergency accommodation, in women’s shelters, in camps or other temporary accommodation provided to internally displaced persons, refugees or migrants; and persons living in severely inadequate and insecure housing, such as residents of informal settlements. Rough sleeping is thus only one manifestation of homelessness, but not necessarily the most frequent one.

Current content as at 26 May 2021

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