ABSTRACT
The social perception of homelessness as a marginal situation which affects a small number of people largely determines the scope of the political action, perception of social responsibility and allocation of public resources for tackling housing deprivation. A comparative overview of legislation and administrative practice reveals that the term homeless is used to cover quite diverse living conditions of socially deprived individuals or households. The European research discourse has largely been influenced by the policy context under which homelessness emerged as a social construction in Europe. Social exclusion entails an accumulation of deprivation in several of the most important domains of human activity: labour, education, consumption of public services and care, family and informal networks, communication, political participation, leisure and recreation. The combination and the feedback between background, intermediate and personal factors causes homelessness. The proximate or personal causes of homelessness are a set of factors associated with a personal history and personality features of individuals.
