vagrancy
Crime of drifting
Vagrancy is the state of wandering from place to place without a fixed home or employment.
Historically, vagrancy laws criminalized homelessness and unemployment, giving police broad power to arrest people for simply having no visible means of support: He was picked up on vagrancy charges.
Such laws have largely been struck down as unconstitutional, though the concept persists in related offenses like loitering.
Aimless, rootless traveler
- wandererRootless, roving person
- roamingMoving without fixed purpose
- itinerantMoving for work
- transientTemporary, soon departing
rootless · footloose · nomadic · rambling · roving · wayward · aimless · meandering
Extreme poverty, lacking necessities
- penuryExtreme lack of money
- indigenceExtreme poverty, total want
- privationLack of necessities
- pauperismCondition of being destitute
pennilessness · impoverishment · want · neediness · hand-to-mouth · subsistence · squalor · hardship
Lacking stable housing
- shelterlessHaving no protection overhead
- encampmentTemporary military or refugee settlement
- squatterUnauthorized building inhabitant
- dispossessedDeprived of home or land
destitute · panhandling · begging · makeshift · survival · outcast · displaced · evicted
Purposeless public lingering
- trespassingUnauthorized presence on property
- criminalizationMaking conduct unlawful
- ordinancesLocal government rules
- law-enforcementMaintaining legal order
vagabondage · misdemeanor · citation · arrest · prosecution · decriminalization · statute · enforcement
Artistic nonconformist type
- nonconformityRejection of prevailing norms
- dropoutOne who quits early
- beatnikFifties counterculture member
- freeganOne eating discarded food
off-grid · hitchhiking · anarchism · anti-materialism · freedom · rebellion · wanderlust · flaneur
Damaged public standing
- shamePainful awareness of failure
- disgraceLoss of honor
- degradationDecline in condition
- ignominyState of dishonor
ostracism · outcast · marginalization · scorn · disapproval · undesirable · pariah · untouchable
Passing time idly
- loiteringPurposeless public lingering
- shiftlessnessHabitual lack of ambition
- indolenceAversion to activity
- idlingOperating without working
aimlessness · time-wasting · layabout · ne'er-do-well · shirking · malingering · good-for-nothing · workshy
drifter
Aimless, rootless traveler
transient · rootless · footloose · nomadic · rambling · roving · wayward · aimless · meandering · restless
destitution
Extreme poverty, lacking necessities
pauperism · pennilessness · impoverishment · want · neediness · hand-to-mouth · subsistence · squalor · hardship · deprivation
unhoused
Lacking stable housing
- shelterlessHaving no protection overhead
- encampmentTemporary military or refugee settlement
- squatterUnauthorized building inhabitant
dispossessed · destitute · panhandling · begging · makeshift · survival · outcast · displaced · evicted · indigent
loitering
Purposeless public lingering
- trespassingUnauthorized presence on property
- criminalizationMaking conduct unlawful
- ordinancesLocal government rules
law-enforcement · vagabondage · misdemeanor · citation · arrest · prosecution · decriminalization · statute · enforcement
bohemian
Artistic nonconformist type
- nonconformityRejection of prevailing norms
- dropoutOne who quits early
- beatnikFifties counterculture member
freegan · off-grid · hitchhiking · anarchism · anti-materialism · freedom · rebellion · wanderlust · flaneur
disrepute
Damaged public standing
- shamePainful awareness of failure
- disgraceLoss of honor
- degradationDecline in condition
ignominy · ostracism · outcast · marginalization · scorn · disapproval · undesirable · pariah · untouchable · lowlife
loafing
Passing time idly
- loiteringPurposeless public lingering
- shiftlessnessHabitual lack of ambition
- indolenceAversion to activity
idling · aimlessness · time-wasting · layabout · ne'er-do-well · shirking · malingering · good-for-nothing · workshy · wastrel
- crimesarson, burglary, robbery, kidnapping, vandalism
- Depression EraGreat Depression, Hooverville, breadline, dust storms, soup kitchen
- historical crimestreason, heresy, blasphemy, witchcraft, piracy
- misdemeanorsmisdemeanor, petty theft, disorderly conduct, public intoxication, petty larceny
- Urban Problemsurban blight, blight, abandoned buildings, vacant lots, crime rates
- aimlessnessaimlessness, directionless, drifting, purposelessness, wandering
vagrancyresidence
Place one inhabits
permanence · domicile · homeownership · dwelling · habitation
vagrancycitizenship
Status as state member
respectability · establishment · prosperity · affluence · stability
vagrancyemployment
Paid occupation status
livelihood · prosperity · self-sufficiency · financial security · affluence
- vagrancy lawsStatutes criminalizing homelessness