Objective Identify and analyze the structure and content of the social representations of homeless people in relation to health care. Method Qualitative study, based on the structural approach of the Theory of Social Representations, conducted with homeless people, linked to two institutional shelters. To produce the data, the free-association test was used. The resulting data was processed by two software and analyzed according to the theory above. Results Seventy-two people participated in the study. The set of evocations from the four-quadrant chart refers to individual, social and cultural actions. The terms 'doctor', 'taking care of yourself' and 'eating' composed the central core of the representation, indicating image-related and functional dimensions of the object investigated. The word cloud confirmed the centrality of the terms. Conclusion The investigated group represents health care as a dynamic action, linked to the person and context, and is anchored in elements of the hygienist conception.