Education

We're so glad you want to learn more about homelessness! Education leads to understanding, and understanding leads to compassion.

Homelessness is a condition that can happen to anyone...any age...gender...race...religion...background.

The United States Code contains the official federal definition of homeless. In Title 42, Chapter 119, Subchapter I, homeless is defined as:

1. an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and
   
2. an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is —
   
   
   1. a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill);
      
   2. an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized; or
      
   3. a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.

So a person doesn't have to be living outside to be considered homeless.  A mother and children who have lost their home, and are temporarily doubled up with family, sleeping on the couch, are homeless (they lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence).  A guest at the Mission is homeless (an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is a supervised privately operated shelter). Someone living in a cave carved out under the boardwalk, with cardboard floor, sand walls, and boardwalk roof is homeless (an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings).