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Totally agree, I just wanted to point out that a lot of Americans probably wouldn't click on the article in the first place from the headline alone

DiabloD3 8y ago
I'm an American and clicked on it in hopes I'd figure out what that meant. In the end, I had to come to the HN comments because I wasn't 100% sure they meant the homeless; since this is the BBC, and I've seen enough British TV, I know the British themselves use the word homeless. Maybe this is one of those weird misplaced PC-ification of the language things?
- yeutterg 8y ago
  Same here, I didn't fully grasp the meaning from the article. Despite some of the skeptics' comments here, what I find fascinating is that we have a subject that could include a variety of situations (poor and living on the street, poor and sleeping on someone's couch, middle income and voluntarily choosing not to have a permanent living place), yet we tend to throw it all into the same "homeless" bucket. Another commenter suggested that "unsheltered" is the American equivalent to rough sleeping, and I think that makes a lot of sense, even though I haven't heard it much. Homelessness is obviously an issue in many American cities, and perhaps using more specific definitions could help us understand the issues unique to each group.
- NeedMoreTea 8y ago
  In a Brit context, homeless encompasses both rough sleeping and sofa surfing. There's countless homeless who aren't sleeping rough on the streets but are taking space, unofficially in someone's spare room, or literally on their sofa or floor. How are the two forms of homelessness distinguished in US usage? Rough sleeping is as it suggests: Sleeping outside, sleeping bag in shop doorway, tent, abandoned building, under the railway bridge etc.
- NLips 8y ago
  “Homeless” includes people who are housed in dormitories, or who have to sleep on a friend’s sofa. “Rough sleeping” largely means sleeping outside, or “on the street”. The rough sleeping set is a subset of the homeless set.
b1r6 8y ago
This is it. I thought the article was on the eradication of some medical sleeping issue, so I decided not to read it.

DiabloD3 8y ago

I'm an American and clicked on it in hopes I'd figure out what that meant. In the end, I had to come to the HN comments because I wasn't 100% sure they meant the homeless; since this is the BBC, and I've seen enough British TV, I know the British themselves use the word homeless. Maybe this is one of those weird misplaced PC-ification of the language things?

yeutterg 8y ago
Same here, I didn't fully grasp the meaning from the article. Despite some of the skeptics' comments here, what I find fascinating is that we have a subject that could include a variety of situations (poor and living on the street, poor and sleeping on someone's couch, middle income and voluntarily choosing not to have a permanent living place), yet we tend to throw it all into the same "homeless" bucket. Another commenter suggested that "unsheltered" is the American equivalent to rough sleeping, and I think that makes a lot of sense, even though I haven't heard it much. Homelessness is obviously an issue in many American cities, and perhaps using more specific definitions could help us understand the issues unique to each group.
NeedMoreTea 8y ago
In a Brit context, homeless encompasses both rough sleeping and sofa surfing. There's countless homeless who aren't sleeping rough on the streets but are taking space, unofficially in someone's spare room, or literally on their sofa or floor. How are the two forms of homelessness distinguished in US usage? Rough sleeping is as it suggests: Sleeping outside, sleeping bag in shop doorway, tent, abandoned building, under the railway bridge etc.
NLips 8y ago
“Homeless” includes people who are housed in dormitories, or who have to sleep on a friend’s sofa. “Rough sleeping” largely means sleeping outside, or “on the street”. The rough sleeping set is a subset of the homeless set.

b1r6 8y ago

This is it. I thought the article was on the eradication of some medical sleeping issue, so I decided not to read it.