roofless
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GC: n

S: UCSC – http://artsites.ucsc.edu/sdaniel/177_2015/homelessness_and_meaningofhome.pdf (last access: 18 June 2023); SHELTER – https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/policy_and_research/policy_library/briefing_defining_homelessness (last access: 18 June 2023); Edmsocplan – https://edmontonsocialplanning.ca/2022/11/01/cm-housing-and-homelessness-terminology-and-word-choices/ (last access: 18 June 2023).

N: 1. roofless (n): From “roof” and “less”. 1. Without a roof, open to the sky. Before the tornado we had a dining room with a skylight; after it we had a roofless home with too much ventilation. 2. Having no house or home; unsheltered.

2. “roofless” in American English: 1. having no roof. 2. without the shelter of a house.

3. Someone is homeless if:

  • They have no accommodation that they are entitled to occupy.

  • Or, they have accommodation they are entitled to occupy it but it is so bad that they cannot reasonably be expected to occupy it.

Local authorities must treat someone as homeless if they are threatened with homelessness within 28 days, for example because a landlord has secured a bailiffs’ warrant to evict them from a rented property.

This means a person does not have to be roofless to be homeless. They may be staying informally with friends or family (“sofa surfing”), placed in a poor quality Bed and Breakfast (B&B) placement, or living in conditions so appalling or unsafe that they cannot reasonably be described as a home. This is often referred to as a “broad definition” of homelessness.

4. These contradictions (having no home but not homeless, and having a home but homeless) are explained by the researchers in terms of respondents’ adoption of the minimal definition of homelessness in the case of the first contradiction (that is, no home in a non-minimal sense, but not roofless), and of home in the case of the second contradiction (that is, having a place to sleep, but homeless in a non-minimal sense) (ibid., 1986: 103). Such research serves to indicate the multi- dimensional complexity of meaning of home and homelessness, which will be explored further in the fourth section here.

5. In 2017, the English version of ETHOS and ETHOS Light were re-designed to reflect FEANTSA’s new visual identity. Whilst ETHOS remains a comprehensive framework for experts and academics, ETHOS Light is intended as a harmonised definition of homelessness for statistical purposes,

Homelessness is perceived and tackled differently according to the country. ETHOS was developed through a review of existing definitions of homelessness and the realities of homelessness which service providers are faced with on a daily basis. ETHOS categories therefore attempt to cover all living situations which amount to forms of homelessness across Europe:

  • rooflessness (without a shelter of any kind, sleeping rough)
  • houselessness (with a place to sleep but temporary in institutions or shelter)
  • living in insecure housing (threatened with severe exclusion due to insecure tenancies, eviction, domestic violence)
  • living in inadequate housing (in caravans on illegal campsites, in unfit housing, in extreme overcrowding).

6. Differences between “homeless”, “houseless”, or “housed”:

– homeless: Homeless is a word most often used to describe people living unsheltered on sidewalks, in tents, camps, cars, or RVs. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word homeless as “having no home or permanent place of residence.”

– houseless: More frequently, the word houseless is used in place of homeless. The reason is the important distinction between a house and a home. People described as homeless are not necessarily without homes.

– home: Home is the word we use to describe the personal community in which we live. Home includes our loved ones and pets, our important or sentimental possessions and valuables, and our traditions and rituals.

– house: House is the structure in which all of this takes place. It’s why we say, “home sweet home” and not “house sweet house.” We experience homesickness, not house-sickness.

If “home is where the heart is,” then people experiencing homelessness absolutely have homes. But they don’t have a house. They may have shelter, but not shelter we ordinarily think of as a house.

People Experienced Homelessness or Houselessness: Sometimes the phrase “people experiencing homelessness or houselessness” is used. This phrase emphasizes the humans at the center of this crisis rather than the houses. This phrase also underscores that the problem isn’t the people themselves but the lack of housing and affordable housing.  

These are individuals experiencing the effects of our housing shortage and increasingly unaffordable rental market. They are technically homeless, houseless, and unhoused.

S: 1. Wiktionary – https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/roofless (last access: 18 June 2023). 2. Collins – https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/roofless (last access: 18 June 2023). 3. SHELTER – https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/policy_and_research/policy_library/briefing_defining_homelessness (last access: 18 Junes 2023). 4. UCSC – http://artsites.ucsc.edu/sdaniel/177_2015/homelessness_and_meaningofhome.pdf (last access: 18 June 2023). 5. FEANTSA – https://www.feantsa.org/en/toolkit/2005/04/01/ethos-typology-on-homelessness-and-housing-exclusion (last access: 18 June 2023); ETHOS – https://www.feantsa.org/download/ethos2484215748748239888.pdf (last access: 18 June 2023). 6. https://blanchethouse.org/homeless-houseless-unhoused-glossary-about-homelessness/ (last access: 18 June 2023).

SYN: roofless person, roofless people.

S: FEANTSA – https://www.feantsa.org/download/romania_final579528914493760919.pdf (last access: 18 June 2023); Macrothink – https://www.macrothink.org/journal/index.php/jsr/article/view/12179  (last access: 18 June 2023)

CR: evicted person, group home.