Paige Teague

4/8/19

Mesa English

Period 3

Argument of Definition

I believe that all definitions are open to interpretation because everyone has their own

point of view and different way of looking at everything. Take the word homelessness as an

example. Merriam-Webster Dictionary would define homelessness as “the state of having no

home” while I would consider it to be anyone without a permanent residence. This means that

homeless person doesn’t necessarily have to be living on the streets to be considered homeless,

they could also be living in hotels, cars or other peoples houses for extended periods of time.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) defines homelessness as, A

homeless person is an individual without permanent housing who may live on the streets; stay in

a shelter, mission, single room occupancy facilities, abandoned building or vehicle; or in any

other unstable or non-permanent situation. [Section 330 of the Public Health Service Act (42

U.S.C., 254b)] Some people may even consider all recently released prisoners to be homeless

since they do not have a stable living condition. Programs funded by the U.S. Department of

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) use a different, more limited definition of

homelessness [found in the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing

Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-22, Section 1003)]. An individual or family living in a supervised publicly
or privately operated shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements (including

hotels and motels paid for by Federal, State or local government programs for low-income

individuals or by charitable organizations, congregate shelters, and transitional housing). Many

different agencies have their own interpretation of homelessness but they all seem to have many

similarities from the same general area.

There are many different types of homelessness, but they all experience extreme poverty

as well as a lack of stable housing. Homelessness can come in variations of time, (short-term,

long-term and chronic) these labels determine the time periods between how often their is a shift

between homelessness and housing. Unemployed people are the most common of the homeless

community, there could only be a short period of time before you fall from jobless to homeless.

Many americans live paycheck to paycheck and some are only a single paycheck away from

becoming homeless.

A common argument against homeless people is that you need to be living on the streets

24/7 to be officially considered homeless. Some would not consider people living in hotels, cars

or friends homes to be homeless, because they technically have a roof over their head. Since

shelters and transitional housing also provide stable housing-like structure they could also take

the homeless tag away from your name.

While everyone has their own interpretation of the definition of homelessness, they all

have similarities along the lines of someone who doesn’t have stable housing. I stand by my

statement that all definitions are up to interpretation because many official agencies all have their
own guidelines to what it is to be considered homeless. Personally, I would consider anyone

permanently living in hotels, cars or friends homes to be considered homeless, others might only

address the people that purely live on the streets.

 Works Cited

“Homeless.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/homeless.

“What Is the Official Definition of Homelessness?” National Health Care for the Homeless

Council, www.nhchc.org/faq/official-definition-homelessness/.