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74 points

Unhoused? Has homeless as a word been banned?

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4 points

There’s also the difference in how the word is used more as an adjective than a noun. In the same way calling someone a disabled is a lot more dehumanizing than saying they are a person with a disability.

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29 points

I think the idea is to put the responsibility for housing onto society/authority as opposed to the victim.

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9 points

Doesn’t homeless imply its society’s fault too?

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1 point

Perhaps to some people, but to me it does sound like a homeless person just happens to be without.

Whereas an unhoused person has been let down by whoever is responsible for ensuring people are housed.

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43 points

Not sure about Canada, but in the US:

Homeless = no permanent residence, which also includes couch surfing, parents and children who just fled an abusive family member and are temporarily ltaying with friends or relatives, and people who are living in their car. All people without a home.

Unhoused = homeless people that don’t have a roof over their heads. Might include living in a car.

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24 points
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They are synonyms. Please don’t make things up.

Edit: to all the knee-jerk downvoting. This is literally a quote from an article the user himself supplied as proof that there is a difference.

Unhoused is probably the most popular alternative to the word “homeless.” It’s undoubtedly the one I see most often recommended by advocates. But it doesn’t have a meaningful difference in connotation from the more common term, “homeless.”

It’s literally just a pc synonym of homeless.

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10 points
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They are not. I work with data collections on students and have had to explain the difference to people who don’t understand that a kid who is kicked out of their home and is staying with friends is homeless even if they are not out on the street for federal reporting.

Homelessness defined in law: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/11302#

A more thorough explanation that contrasts the terms: https://invisiblepeople.tv/homeless-houseless-unhoused-or-unsheltered-which-term-is-right/

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20 points

Welcome to the euphemism treadmill

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10 points

Language has power. You’ll notice successful effort on the right to get pundits to refer to Oil as Energy. Oil has negative implications, energy has positive. Homeless has negative implications for the person, unhoused has negative implications for the government.

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18 points
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In the US they mean different things, as homeless includes people living in other people’s homes. That can include people whose house just burnt down and are living with friends or family because they lost their permanent residence (home). Unhoused is about where they are staying.

People on the street are homeless and unhoused.

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-4 points

And you really think people use and understand these terms like that?

You may be correct in the academic sense, but completely wrong in all other senses.

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