A person who lacks a home is someone who does not have access to accommodation that meets the criteria of commonly accepted human habitability during the reference period, whether the accommodation is legally of their own property or whether it is rented, or occupied freely with the permission of the owner, or under contract or another type of non-temporary agreement (including housing provided by the public sector and non-governmental organizations and that provided by employers).
As a result, they are obliged to sleep:
- In the street
- In buildings that are commonly considered not to meet the conditions for human habitability (privacy, hygiene, space)
- In emergency residences by the public sector or Charities
- In long stay housing provided by the public sector and Charities (non-emergency centres, shelters for women victims of gender-based violence, internment centres for asylum seekers or illegal immigrants)
- In pensions provided by NGOs or paid by the individual himself with the Income Guarantee Income (RGI), or similar benefit
- In other short stay housing (duration less than one month)
- (commonly called "squatters")
This excludes persons who live in the following types of accommodation:
- Hospitals; mental health residences; homes for the elderly
- Prisons; internment centres
- Student residences; boarding schools
- Orphanages; adoption homes
- Barracks; military missions at sea
- Moored vessels
- Mobile homes (circuses)
- Au-pairs; household service; hotel personnel who live in the hotel
- Tourists staying at hotels
- Subsidized housing
Subsidized accommodation (low income)
However, although the theoretical population is the one indicated (in the absence of an agreement on the definition of homelessness in the context of the European Union), the population that will actually be investigated is those that go to the centers that offer accommodation and / or catering services.