A housing unit is classified as occupied if it is the usual place of residence of the individual or group of individuals living in it on Census Day, or if the occupants are only temporarily absent, such as away on vacation, in the hospital for a short stay, or on a business trip, and will be returning.
The occupants may be an individual, a single family, two or more families living together, or any other group of related or unrelated individuals who share living arrangements.
Occupied rooms or suites of rooms in hotels, motels, and similar places are classified as housing units only when occupied by permanent residents; that is, occupied by individuals who consider the hotel their usual place of residence or who have no usual place of residence elsewhere. However, when rooms in hotels and motels are used to provide shelter for people experiencing homelessness, they are not housing units. Rooms used in this way are considered group quarters.