A person who occupies an empty building or land without owning it or having permission to be there.
From 'squat' meaning to crouch or occupy, from Old French 'esquatir' meaning 'to crush or flatten.' The noun 'squatter' appeared in English in the 1700s referring to people settling on public lands.
Squatter villages are still major parts of cities worldwide—from Manila to Rio to Lagos—and squatters have historically been both desperate homeless people and bold settlers who claimed land and built entire neighborhoods, sometimes becoming legal property owners over decades through adverse possession laws.
Squatter has been applied with gendered disparities; women in poverty or housing insecurity are pathologized differently (vagrant, trespasser coded as criminally irresponsible) versus structural analysis applied to men.
Use 'unhoused person', 'person in housing insecurity', or structural language ('displaced by eviction'). Avoid terms that criminalize poverty.
["unhoused person","person experiencing housing insecurity","displaced person"]
Women and children represent majority of unhoused populations; language should center systemic failure (lack of affordable housing, wage suppression) not individual moral judgment.
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