Couch Surfing
Couch surfing is a term that generally indicates the practice of moving from house to house, sleeping in whatever spare space is available (often a couch or floor), generally staying a few days before moving on to another house. People sometimes couch surf when they are travelling or because they are homeless. Couch surfing in travel Couch surfing's cultural significance grew when the website CouchSurfing was launched in 2004. Upon the release of the app, what previously used to be a cheap alternative for budget travelers became recognized as a hip, new way to travel. Couch surfing became not only a way to save money, but a way to meet new people and have new experiences. Its attraction was in the way it allowed people to have a more immersive and authentic travel experience. Besides CouchSurfing, many other platforms were created and groups were formed in order to help people who are looking to couch surf connect with potential hosts and other travelers. While couch surfing ma ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Homelessness
Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, living in boarding houses with no security of tenure, and people who leave their homes because of civil conflict and are refugees within their country. The legal status of homeless people varies from place to place. Homeless enumeration studies conducted by the government of the United States also include people who sleep in a public or private place that is not designed for use as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings. Homelessness and poverty are interrelated. There is no standardized method for counting homeless individuals and identifying their needs; consequently, most cities only have estimated figures for their homeless populations. In 2025, approximately 330 million people worldwide experience absolute homelessness, lac ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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CouchSurfing
CouchSurfing is a hospitality exchange service by which users can request free short-term homestays or interact with other people who are interested in travel. It is accessible via a website and mobile app. It uses a subscription business model, and while hosts are not allowed to charge for lodging, members in some countries must pay a fee to access the platform. History Conception (1999–2004) Couchsurfing was conceived by computer programmer and New Hampshire native Casey Fenton in 1999, when he was 21 years old. The idea arose after Fenton found a cheap flight from Boston to Iceland but did not have lodging. Fenton hacked into a database of the University of Iceland and randomly e-mailed 1,500 students asking for a homestay. He received between 50 and 100 offers and chose to stay at the home of an Icelandic rhythm and blues singer. On the return flight to Boston, he came up with the idea to create the website. He registered the couchsurfing.com domain name on 12 June 1999. F ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Homelessness
Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, living in boarding houses with no security of tenure, and people who leave their homes because of civil conflict and are refugees within their country. The legal status of homeless people varies from place to place. Homeless enumeration studies conducted by the government of the United States also include people who sleep in a public or private place that is not designed for use as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings. Homelessness and poverty are interrelated. There is no standardized method for counting homeless individuals and identifying their needs; consequently, most cities only have estimated figures for their homeless populations. In 2025, approximately 330 million people worldwide experience absolute homelessness, lac ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hidden Homelessness
Hidden or The Hidden may refer to: Film and television Film * ''The Hidden'' (1987 film), an American science fiction/horror film * ''Hidden'' (2005 film) or ''Caché'', a French thriller film * ''The Hidden'' (2005 film), a Spanish-British-Italian psychological thriller film * ''Hidden'' (2009 film), a Norwegian horror film * '' Hidden 3D'', a 2011 Italian-Canadian horror film * ''Hidden'' (2015 film), an American psychological thriller film Television * ''Hidden'' (2011 TV series), a British political drama series * ''Hidden'' (2018 TV series), a Welsh/English bilingual police drama series * "Hidden" (''The 4400''), an episode * "Hidden" (''Smallville''), an episode * "The Hidden" (''The Penguins of Madagascar''), an episode Literature * ''Hidden'' (''Torchwood''), a 2008 audiobook based on the TV series ''Torchwood'' * ''Hidden'', a 2012 ''House of Night'' novel by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast * ''The Hidden'' (Animorphs novel), a 2000 ''Animorphs'' novel * ''The Hid ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United States Department Of Housing And Urban Development
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the secretary of housing and urban development, who reports directly to the president of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet. Although its beginnings were in the House and Home Financing Agency, it was founded as a Cabinet department in 1965, as part of the " Great Society" program of President Lyndon B. Johnson, to develop and execute policies on housing and metropolises. History The idea of a department of Urban Affairs was proposed in a 1957 report to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, led by New York governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. The idea of a department of Housing and Urban Affairs was taken up by President John F. Kennedy, with Pennsylvania Senator and Kennedy ally Joseph S. Clark Jr. listing it as one of the top seven legislative pri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United States Department Of Education
The United States Department of Education is a cabinet-level department of the United States government, originating in 1980. The department began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services by the Department of Education Organization Act, which President Jimmy Carter signed into law on October 17, 1979. An earlier iteration was formed in 1867 but was quickly demoted to the Office of Education a year later. Its official abbreviation is ED ("DOE" refers to the United States Department of Energy) but is also abbreviated informally as "DoEd". The Department of Education is administered by the United States secretary of education. In 2021 it had more than 4,000 employees – the smallest staff of the Cabinet agencies – and a 2024 budget of $268 billion, up from $14 billion when it was established in 1979. In 2025, the departme ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Divorce
Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the Marriage, bonds of matrimony between a married couple under the rule of law of the particular country or state. It can be said to be a legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other competent body. It is the legal process of ending a marriage. Divorce laws Divorce law by country, vary considerably around the world, but in most countries, divorce is a legal process that requires the sanction of a court or other authority, which may involve issues of distribution of property, child custody, alimony (spousal support), child visitation / access, parenting time, child support, and division of debt. In most countries, monogamy is required by law, so divorce allows each former partner to marry another person. Divorce is different from annulm ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hostel
A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory sleeping 4–20 people, with shared use of a lounge and usually a kitchen. Rooms can be private or shared - mixed or single-sex - and have private or shared bathrooms. Food and beverage, laundry services, luggage storage, and lockers may also be available. Hostels are popular forms of lodging for backpackers and with youth travel, however very few impose age limits. The global size of the hostel market was estimated at US$7.21 billion in 2023 and was projected to grow at a 6.5% compound annual growth rate until 2030. In 2019, there were an estimated 5,829 hostels in Europe and 4,738 hostels in Asia. The typical guest is between 16 and 34 years old, although it can vary depending on the country. Many hostels are locally owned and operated. Advantages The benefits to travelers of hostels include lower costs opportunities to meet people from diff ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Housing First
Housing First is a policy that offers unconditional, permanent housing as quickly as possible to homeless people, and other supportive services afterward. It was first discussed in the 1990s, and in the following decades became government policy in certain locations within the Western world. There is a substantial base of evidence showing that Housing First is both an effective solution to homelessness and a form of cost savings, as it also reduces the use of public services like hospitals, jails, and emergency shelters. Cities like Helsinki and Vienna in Europe have seen dramatic reductions in homelessness due to the adaptation of Housing First policies, as have the North American cities Columbus, Ohio, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Medicine Hat, Alberta. Housing First is an alternative to a system of emergency shelter/transitional housing progressions which characterize the Continuum of Care and staircase housing models. Rather than moving homeless individuals through different "le ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Internally Displaced Person
An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee. In 2022, it was estimated there were 70.5 million IDPs worldwide. The first year for which global statistics on IDPs are available was in 1989. the countries with the largest IDP populations were Ukraine (8 million), Syria (7.6 million), Ethiopia (5.5 million), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (5.2 million), Colombia (4.9 million), Yemen (4.3 million), Afghanistan (3.8 million), Iraq (3.6 million), Sudan (2.2 million), South Sudan (1.9 million), Pakistan (1.4 million), Nigeria (1.2 million) and Somalia (1.1 million). More than 85% of Palestinians in Gaza (1.9 million) were internally displaced as of January 2024. The United Nations and the UNHCR support monitoring and analysis of worldwide IDPs through the Geneva-based Internal Displ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Right To Housing
The right to housing (occasionally right to shelter) is the economic, social and cultural right to adequate house, housing and shelter (building), shelter. It is recognized in some Economic, social and cultural rights#National constitutions, national constitutions and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The right to housing is regarded as a freestanding right in the International human rights law which was clearly in the 1991 General Comment on Adequate Housing by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The aspect of the right to housing under ICESCR include: availability of services, infrastructure, material and facilities; legal security of tenure; habitability; accessibility; Affordable housing, affordability; location and cultural adequacy. The United Nations, UN Human Settlement Programme is known as UN-HABITAT. At least 84 states make an explicit reference to housing rights in th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cultural Exchange
Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tylor, Edward. (1871). ''Primitive Culture''. Vol 1. New York: J. P. Putnam's Son Culture often originates from or is attributed to a specific region or location. Humans acquire culture through the learning processes of enculturation and socialization, which is shown by the diversity of cultures across societies. A cultural norm codifies acceptable conduct in society; it serves as a guideline for behavior, dress, language, and demeanor in a situation, which serves as a template for expectations in a social group. Accepting only a monoculture in a social group can bear risks, just as a single species can wither in the face of environmental change, for lack of functional responses to the change. Thus in military culture, valor is ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |