According to the McKinney-Vento Act, a homeless individual lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, or has a primary nighttime residence that is:

• In a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter for temporary accommodations
• An institution providing temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized
• A public or private place not designated for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.

This means that the following people are homeless:

• Families doubled-up with friends or families (e.g., multiple families living in a single family residence)
• Families or individuals staying in parks or camping areas because they have no permanent housing
• Runaway or "throwaway" youth (children whose parents will not allow them to live at home ) who are living on the streets, in abandoned buildings or other accommodations unfit for habitation, in apartments with similarly situated children without adult supervision, or staying temporarily with friends or relatives
• School-aged mothers or pregnant girls staying with friends or in a home for teenaged mothers
• Families staying temporarily in motels because they have no permanent housing
• Families staying in emergency shelters because returning to their permanent homes would subject them to domestic violence
• Children who have been placed by the state in transitional or emergency shelters

Children are not considered homeless if they:

• Are incarcerated or in youth correction facilities
• Are in foster care unless they are temporarily placed in foster care because of a lack of shelter space
• Are from a family of migrant workers