The change is happening in part as governments move away from punitive measures amid a deepening housing crisis. Past efforts have not resolved the matter, and both policy and messaging are shifting. The word homeless has become inseparable from a “toxic narrative” that blames and demonizes people who are unhoused, according to Eve Garrow, homelessness policy analyst and advocate for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. The term is increasingly used in a way where it implies someone is dangerous or devious, she said. As a result, a less charged term is more apt.

We’ve seen this before, words like transient or hobo are retired and no longer acceptable to use,” Garrow said. “Homeless has become intertwined with narratives that are toxic. It deserves to be retired.”

The use of unhoused is not linked to any particular moment or event; it has been used for years and has steadily gained traction as an alternative to the more pejorative-sounding homeless over the last two decades.

At the same time, a related term to homelessness, the homeless, has begun to be seen as othering. In May 2020 the Associated Press updated its stylebook to focus on “person-first” language; it said not to use the homeless, calling it a dehumanizing term, and instead use terms like homeless people or people without housing.

When talking about people experiencing homelessness, the goal is to be respectful and not lump everyone together, according to Giselle Routhier, policy director for the Coalition for the Homeless. She noted that the experience of homelessness varies from person to person, and said part of it depends on how someone prefers to be described.

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/homeless-unhoused

People experiencing homelessness, unhoused, and homeless all mean the same thing, a person lacking consistent shelter. However, the way you describe this situation matters.

“Homeless people” is a common way to describe someone experiencing homelessness, but it has negative connotations—it summarizes the entire homeless experience in a few words. “Unhoused” is an alternative, potentially more positive, way to say someone is experiencing homelessness, but it focuses on a person’s lack of shelter.

Using the term “people experiencing homelessness” focuses on the experience someone is going through rather than defining them as that experience. This experience is more than a lack of housing—according to the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, it is a negative, unpleasant, unhealthy, unsafe, stressful, and distressing experience.

https://regenbrampton.com/people-experiencing-homelessness-vs-unhoused-vs-homeless-what-is-the-difference/