The most vulnerable and lower-most of occupational groups in the rungs of the value chain of the waste-recycling sector, i.e., the scrap pickers and itinerant buyers, have been studied for this paper. This study, developed within the framework of the "Building Inclusive Urban Communities" / BInUCom project (funded under the EU-Erasmus plus program), explores the access of scrap-picking households to everyday spaces (residential and livelihood spaces) by exploring the challenges/risks involved for and the strategies employed by these households in their day-to-day practices of residential use and livelihood operations. Households in the four modes of scrap collection—1) Door-to-door waste collection, 2) Scrap collection from roadsides, 3) Scrap collection from waste dumps or landfill sites, and 4) Itinerant scrap buyers (raddi wallahs/pitha wallahs)—have been studied to understand the barriers in entry to everyday spaces; challenges; vulnerabilities and opportunities; and, adaptive strategies employed by households in response to the same. The inability of scrap-picking households to access spaces leads to various kinds of vulnerabilities, which they then strive to overcome by using various adaptive strategies. This study is an attempt to understand the negotiations and space-usage-related trade-offs made by these four kinds of households. The close relationship between residential spaces and livelihood spaces in the lives of the scrap-picking households is thus clearly brought out. The study also reinforces the ability of housing as an asset in influencing not only their occupational choices and practices, but also the development gains of waste-picking households, and in having an intergenerational impact as well.