This article discusses temporary housing for children and adolescents as a modality of health care. Using the framework of French Institutional Analysis, the research was based on interviews with practitioners, participant observation and analysis of individual records so as to understand the trajectory of the cases and the implications of the temporary and volunteer nature of this service. The hybridity of this home and its acceptance of other possible life norms generate tension with custodial and stigmatizing practices in the Brazilian health and social assistance services available to children and adolescents.