This study aims to understand the differences in conceptualizations of health and illness amongthe urban poor. Although the interconnections between poverty and health have been revealed manytimes, sometimes lumping the poor together into one homogeneous mass. But how poor individualsperceive health and illness has not received much attention sociologically, especially in the Turkishcontext. This study examined the urban poor’s perceptions relating to health through in-depth interviewswith 40 participants in two squatter housing neighbourhoods in Altındağ, a district in Ankara. In thestudy, a qualitative research method was used on the basis of primary and qualitative data. To understandthe respondents’ health-related perspective, their subjective health and wellbeing; their views about thecausation of their illness; how they define/explain health, being healthy, the prerequisites of health andbeing healthy, and the causes of disease were analysed according to gender, age, poverty experiences andthe state of being healthy/ill. The findings show that poverty experiences, age, gender and beingpermanently sick are influential on perceptions of health and illness. Four constructs were found in thesample: health as the absence of illness, health as tool or capital, health as product or consequence andhealth as peace and wellbeing.