Abstract

The social dimension of «homeless person» emerges clearly from the term itself. When one talks about a person, the latter is inevitably included in a social dimension. A person only exists in relation to the community he/she belongs to. As the homeless person is part of a socio-cultural dimension, he/she benefits from services and establishes contacts with other individuals within the same community. Every homeless person asking for help should be seen as carrying an urgent need to be addressed, that is that of a respectable housing solution. Following the wish to start from the need of homeless people, this study focuses on the phenomenology of the daily activities the life of the dorms' guests in the city of Milan revolves around. Objects of this study are people defined as «houseless», according to Ethos classification. The phenomenology of daily activities relates to the description of phenomena, that is the way in which the daily life of these individuals takes shape. Two research techniques have been used to carry out this study: an analysis concerning the use of time and participating observation.