H Homelessness by Choice and by Force Lindelwa Sinxadi 1 and Maléne Campbell 2 1 Department of Built Environment, Central University of Technology, Free State, South Africa 2 Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa Synonyms Houselessness; Inferior or substandard housing; Insecure accommodation; Rooflessness Definition The concept “homelessness” is interpreted in terms of the purpose, value, ideology, and politi- cal agenda. Homelessness cannot be clearly understood in isolation of the meaning of the concept “home.” In order to define homelessness, an understanding of the concept “home” is cru- cial. A “home” is a place where one lives whereas “homelessness” refers to having no home (Hornby 2015: 730). A “home” refers to a decent dwelling, which meets the needs of the family, where they can maintain privacy and enjoy social relations. It also refers to security of occupation and entitlement (Busch-Geertsema et al. 2010: 21). Somerville (1992: 532) presents seven key signifiers of home, namely –“shelter, hearth, heart, privacy, roots, abode and paradise.” Home- lessness is seen as a global concept affecting the poor in both the developed and developing coun- tries, both in urban and rural context. The global definition of homelessness is “living in severely inadequate housing due to a lacking access to minimally adequate housing” (Busch-Geertsema et al. 2016: 131). Introduction Homelessness is a complex and multidimensional concept that has been defined in different ways depending on the specific social and economic context or setting. Historically, from 1960s to 1980s and beyond, homelessness has three expla- nations, namely, (i) people who are homeless because of their personal behavior such as drug and alcohol abuse, recklessness, and irresponsi- bility; (ii) people who are homeless due to struc- tural factors like unemployment and lack of access to decent and affordable housing; and (iii) homeless people with mental health problems, personality disorders, different incapacities, and “vulnerabilities” (Somerville (2013: 388). Differ- ent individuals have faced homelessness and it is assumed as a matter of choice or force. Homeless- ness as a choice is categorized in terms of struc- tural and individual context (Parsell and Parsell 2012: 425). The choice of homelessness is in two © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), No Poverty , Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69625-6_5-1