vagrants
People without addresses
Vagrants are people who wander from place to place without a fixed home or regular employment.
The term carries legal weight in many jurisdictions, where vagrancy laws historically criminalized being homeless or unemployed in public spaces.
Police rounded up vagrants sleeping under the bridge.
The word has a somewhat dated, official feel compared to more neutral terms like homeless people, and can imply judgment about someone's lifestyle or choices.
Aimless, rootless traveler
- transientTemporary, soon departing
- itinerantMoving for work
- roamerOne who wanders
- wayfarerTraveler, especially walking
rambler · rover · nomad · traveler · journeyer · footloose · peripatetic · floater
Lacking stable housing
- destituteUtterly without means
- streetPublic urban roadway
- povertySevere lack of resources
- displacedShifted from proper location
rough · begging · panhandling · indigent · squalor · encampment · impoverished · shelter
Wandering homeless person
- hoboItinerant without fixed address
- bumIdle vagrant
- beggarOne who asks for charity
- mendicantOne who begs
pauper · ragamuffin · wastrel · loafer · idler · ne'er-do-well · tinker · Romani
Rejected, shunned person
- rejectDismiss as unsuitable
- ostracizedExcluded from a group
- shunnedPersistently avoided socially
- misfitOne who doesn't fit in
marginalized · undesirable · castoff · forsaken · dispossessed · alienated · scapegoat · untouchable
drifter
Aimless, rootless traveler
wayfarer · rambler · rover · nomad · traveler · journeyer · footloose · peripatetic · floater · migrant
unhoused
Lacking stable housing
displaced · rough · begging · panhandling · indigent · squalor · encampment · impoverished · shelter · dispossessed
tramp
Wandering homeless person
mendicant · pauper · ragamuffin · wastrel · loafer · idler · ne'er-do-well · tinker · Romani · poorhouse
pariah
Rejected, shunned person
- rejectDismiss as unsuitable
- ostracizedExcluded from a group
- shunnedPersistently avoided socially
misfit · marginalized · undesirable · castoff · forsaken · dispossessed · alienated · scapegoat · untouchable · loner
- outsidersoutcast, outsider, outcasts, pariah, misfit
- wandererswanderer, hikers, wanderers, drifter, roamers
- Depression EraGreat Depression, Hooverville, breadline, dust storms, soup kitchen
- massmass, masses, bulk, body mass, atomic mass
- Vulnerable Groupshomeless youth, orphans, refugees, disabled people, elderly poor
- underclasspoor, pauper, peasant, homeless, serf
vagrantsresidents
People living somewhere
homeowners · settlers · householders · permanent residents · tenants
vagrantscitizens
Members of a nation
taxpayers · aristocrats · landholders · stakeholders · pillars of the community
vagrantslandowners
Holders of real property
proprietors · freeholders · landlords · landed gentry · homesteaders
- vagrancy lawsStatutes criminalizing homelessness