Abstract
The article describes how homeless people subjectively perceive their "everyday reality", and compares their point of view with the idea of reintegration found within social policy. While the mainstream culture perceives homelessness as a difficult and undesirable life situation which has to be sorted out as fast as possible, the homeless might see their own situation as a way of living which does not necessarily need any changes.
The core of this paper lies in a description of identity processes in which mainstream norms and values are gradually replaced by norms and values created by the subculture of the homeless. On the one hand, when homeless people accept a new "homeless identity", their lives become more meaningful.
On the other hand, adoption of this new identity makes the life of these people more irreversible.
