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In this research, we explored a specific type of housing, private or interpersonal, i.e., having third parties host people without homes of their own or established family ties. Research on this informal, invisible social practice was carried out in a large town in the Île-de-France Region, on a group which benefits from social intervention. The data were collected from 15 people who were housed in private residences, and 12 hosts. The cooperation between them and the social workers will be the subject of a later analysis. This article presents the main results of the first part of the research which focuses on long-term private housing as a form of « social assistance », on the model of a gift economy, showing both its social usefulness and its socialization of the parties involved.