Transients
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Transients are people who live outdoors in urban centres, often because they cannot support themselves. The popular image is often that of the hobo, or "bum".
Poverty is one cause of homelessness. Many people live with no fixed address for some period in their lives, despite having the means to secure permanent shelter. Whether out of boredom, curiosity, panic or otherwise, not everyone who lives outdoors is impoverished. Some famous transients-by-choice include hippies.
As a social problem, homelessness is hotly debated. The question of ownership in democratic countries has taken both extremes of private, defendable proprietorship to transient ownership of disused property. Squatters' rights (See Adverse possession), which legally secure disused property for transient residents if they have not been removed by the owner within a set period of time, seem to be enforceable according to property values.
To protect the homeless against abridgement of their rights, poverty coalitions have sprung up, but they are often faced with government/media bias, and poor public image.
