How do you (and who does) define homelessness?

A recent New York Times article documents the debate currently taking place in Congress over whether to expand the definition of homelessness:

to include about a million additional people — a subset within the group of children and their families in desperate need of stable housing

Other propositions under consideration advocate smaller expansions of the definition, and it is as yet unclear which motion will be agreed upon between the two parties. The stakes, of course, are high for those on the cusp of the current definition. For example:

In the 2006-7 school year, the Education Department categorized 688,174 children as homeless. But only 32 percent of those children lived in shelters or outdoors. The rest failed to meet HUD’s criteria for homelessness and so were ineligible to receive emergency shelter or priority on waiting lists for public or subsidized housing.

The other side of the debate questions whether an expansion in the number of people classified as homeless would spread funds too thin, leaving those already perceived as homeless with even less support. As Steve Berg of the National Alliance to End Homelessness puts it, "When push comes to shove, when you’ve got people in apartments and people in shelters and on the streets, the people in the latter group need the help more.”

What, indeed, does it mean to be homeless? Does it strictly mean you have to be living on the street, or might it include the two families barely getting by while crammed into one apartment? Given how much of a preconceived stereotype one may have of the term homelessness, this is an interesting question.  And important as it always is to address this issue, it becomes especially consequential in light of the current housing crisis and economic downturn.

Congress is expected to vote on the resolution within the month.

The full article: Capitol Strives to Define ‘Homeless’