Homelessness

[Trevizo]

Buenas Noches,
Quien sabe como se dice HOMELESSNESS, en espanol. Si alguien me pudiera decir. Se los agradeceria mucho.

[Rusty]

'Homelessness' es un sustantivo y es sinónimo de 'the homeless' (persona sin hogar).

Se puede traducirlo:
persona sin hogar (personas sin hogar)
los sin techo
un sin techo
(desamparado, indigente) (vagabundo, holgazán)

[gomey]

I have seen the word "deambulante" be used when referring to homeless people.

gomey

[Tomisimo]

Unas opciones:

el estar sin hogar
el estar sin techo

Depending on how you use homelessness, it could be translated different ways. How about a sample sentence?

[Iris]

I think you could say mendicidad.

[poli]

Desamparado is the best word for a homeless person, and it's odd that there's no equivalent for homelessness. The closest thing I could think of is vagabundería, but being vagabond implies a personal choice to be
without a roof as opposed to being abandoned.

There's politics involved in the choice to the words vagabundo( they brought it on themselves) and desamparado (society abandoned them).

Poli

[Alfonso]

I agree with Iris:

Originally Posted by Iris

I think you could say mendicidad.

... as I think homelessness is an abstract substantive referring to a concept, not to a person.

Homeless: mendigo, sintecho.
Homelessness: mendicidad.

[poli]

Doesn't mendicidad refer to being a beggar? Being homeless does not
necessarily mean being a beggar. Some beggars have a residence. Some homeless people don't beg. In the United States the Spanish word for homeless is desamparado, but I cannot find a good Spanish noun for the state of being homeless or homelessness.

Poli

[Alfonso]

Yes, Poli, you are right. But as we won't be able to find a Spanish word for homelessness, I think it's a good option mendicidad, as you can use it in most of the contexts, unless you are working with homeless people or in a NGO (do you use it for Non Governmental Organisation?) and you need and want to be precise. Then, you'll have to use a periphrases.

I don't think desamparado is a good option because it's got some religious connotations (there exists a Virgen de los desamparados) and because you can be desamparado por la justicia, por tu familia, por tus amigos and have a home, at the same time. If somebody tells me he's desamparado I understand he's without defence. I will not understand anything related to a home, unless he points it out.

[Tomisimo]

Another good translation for desamparado is forsaken.

So, using mendicidad u otra palabra, how would you go about translating something like this?

Homelessness on the rise
The number of families registered homeless in Scotland has risen by 10% in the last year, according to statistics. The Scottish Executive figures reveal there are now 4,400 households without a permanent home, up from 4,000 in 2001. The figures come the day before the executive's Homelessness Bill gets its first reading.

Here's an attempt...

Aumenta la mendicidad
La cantidad de familias sin hogar en Escocia ha crecido 10% el año pasado, según las estadísticas. Cifras del gobierno Escocés revelan que actualmente hay 4.400 familias sin vivienda permanente, cifra más alta que la de 2001 cuando eran 4.000. Estas cifras llegan un día antes de que el nuevo proyecto de ley del ejecutivo, que se trata de la mendicidad, se lee por primera vez.

Problematic words:

• household
• registered
• Scottish Executive
• x up from x in year.
• figure - cifra?
• Homelessness bill