They are often faced with reduced access to private and public services and vital necessities:
General rejection or discrimination from other people
Increased risk of suffering violence and abuse
Limited access to education
Loss of usual relationships with the mainstream
Not being seen as suitable for employment
Reduced access to banking services
Reduced access to communications technology
Reduced access to healthcare and dental services
Targeting by municipalities to exclude from public space
Implication of hostile architecture
Difficulty forming trust in relation to services, systems, and other people; exacerbating pre-existing difficulty accessing aid and escaping homelessness, particularly present in the chronically homeless. Statistics from the past twenty years, in Scotland, demonstrate that the biggest cause of homelessness is varying forms of relationship breakdown.There is sometimes corruption and theft by the employees of a shelter, as evidenced by a 2011 investigative report by FOX 25 TV in Boston, wherein a number of Boston public shelter employees were found stealing large amounts of food over a period of time from the shelters kitchen for their private use and catering. Homeless people are often obliged to adopt various strategies of self-presentation in order to maintain a sense of dignity, which constrains their interaction with passers-by, and leads to suspicion and stigmatization by the mainstream public.Homelessness is also a risk factor for depression caused by prejudice. When someone is prejudiced against people who are homeless, and then becomes homeless themselves, their anti-homelessness prejudice turns inward, causing depression. "Mental disorders, physical disability, homelessness, and having a sexually transmitted infection are all stigmatized statuses someone can gain despite having negative stereotypes about those groups."
He said, “A lot of people dont look at housing as a human right, but it is.” His view contrasts with many American, especially those in power, that do not believe this right is inline with the US constitution. Other terms
Recent homeless enumeration survey documentation utilizes the term unsheltered homeless. The common colloquial term street people does not fully encompass all unsheltered people, in that many such persons do not spend their time in urban street environments. Many shun such locales, because homeless people in urban environments may face the risk of being robbed or assaulted. Some people convert unoccupied or abandoned buildings ("squatting"), or inhabit mountainous areas or, more often, lowland meadows, creek banks, and beaches. Many jurisdictions have developed programs to provide short-term emergency shelter during particularly cold spells, often in churches or other institutional properties. These are referred to as warming centers, and are credited by their advocates as lifesaving. History
Early history through the 19th century
United Kingdom
Following the Peasants Revolt, English constables were authorized under 1383 English Poor Laws statute to collar vagabonds and force them to show support; if they could not, the penalty was gaol. Vagabonds could be sentenced to the stocks for three days and nights; in 1530, whipping was added. The presumption was that vagabonds were unlicensed beggars. In 1547, a bill was passed that subjected vagrants to some of the more extreme provisions of the criminal law, namely two years servitude and branding with a "V" as the penalty for the first offense and death for the second.