>Why the effort to classify with a single word?
Reduce redundancy. Other "occupations" do this as well. You say "painter", not "people/person who paint(s)".
One, you choose your occupation.
Two, if you really want to reduce redundancy just use "person/people." Everyone knows if you say "homeless person", that that person is, in fact, a person. Seems like an extra word there.
If you want to be precise and point out someone is homeless, use "person, who is homeless." If two words and a comma is too redundant for you, see my first point.
yeah, with the extra word being "person", not "homeless"
Since we're firing off arbitrary primary characteristics, let's just choose "male" for me. Could be that I'm homeless. Could be I'm a billionaire. I could be a Nazi with heads in my freezer.
Dimunitive language dehumanizes. Why the effort to classify with a single word?