homeless people
Homeless people (noun) means People who have no permanent place to live, whether they are sleeping outdoors, in shelters, in temporary accommodation or on the floors of friends and relatives. Example: “The council counted 340 homeless people in the borough last winter.”
How to Use Homeless people
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishPeople who do not have a home to live in.
Neutral. Person-first alternatives are preferred in social work, policy and charity communication.
Homeless has no plural form of its own — say homeless people, never homelesses.
Fill the Gap
Can you complete this real example?
The council counted 340 _____ in the borough last winter.
Synonyms
View more →Rhymes for homeless people
See all rhymes for homeless people →Frequently Asked Questions
Should you say homeless people or people experiencing homelessness?
Homeless people remains standard and is not offensive. Many charities and agencies now prefer people experiencing homelessness or people without housing, on the grounds that it puts the person before the circumstance and treats the situation as temporary. Either is acceptable; the person-first version is safer in professional writing.
Is the homeless the same as homeless people?
They refer to the same group, but the homeless treats a whole population as a single category and is now widely avoided in careful writing. Homeless people is the more neutral choice.
Does homeless only mean sleeping on the street?
No. Official definitions include anyone without a settled, secure home — people in hostels, emergency accommodation, cars or sofa-surfing. Rough sleeping, meaning sleeping outdoors, is only a small fraction of the total.