The topics covered in the questionnaire in 2012 are :

• The socio-demographic characteristics
• The use of services and the housing condition
• The living conditions ( depending on where the person sleeps : dormitory room or a room in a collective accommodation, an accommodation, a hotel, the street or another place that is not designed for human habitation)
• The residential stability and instability ; the residential course
• The search for housing
• The income and the financial difficulties
• The situation towards the labour market
• Education and professional experience
• The involvement in social life
• The health and social coverage ,
• Family and childhood
• The life events
• The use of services, the use of social aid.

The statistical unit is the provision of a service (meals or housing or night shelters) on a given day : it is a couple " provided service * day of survey ", which in practice is the investigation of recipients of these services on a given day.

Individuals ( French or non-French speaking ) attending hosting or catering services offered by organizations or associations for free or in exchange of a low participation for people in extreme precarity. The most important part of these individuals are homeless, but some people living in ordinary housing have been surveyed among those attending meal distribution services. More specifically, the selected field concerns people attending the following services :

• accommodation in an Accommodation and Social Reinsertion Centre or CHRS ( emergency, stabilization, Integration or other CHRS)
• emergency accommodation , stabilization or Integration (except in a CHRS)
• maternal centre, mother-and-child centre
• social hotel
• work communities ( including Emmaus )
• accommodation in a temporary accommodation assistance structure
• Health Care Stayover Centres (LHSS), healthcare beds
• home for young workers, for migrant workers, social residences (reserved for homeless by associations or by municipal centers for social work or CCAS)
• overnight reception centres without accommodation
• distributions of meals ( afternoon, evening or breakfast), indoors or outdoors
• day care, solidarity insertion space with breakfast or meal