diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index a69679b..8979d37 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@ __ https://www.zap.org.au/
 Version 7.17 (not yet released)
 -------------------------------
 
+Fixed a bug when the ``HOME`` environment variable is empty: use the
+current directory instead.
+
 Updated the Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian Bokmål, Swedish, French,
 Esperanto, Serbian, German and English translations (in that order), with
 thanks to Rafael Fontenelle, Johnny A. Solbu, Anders Jonsson, Frédéric
diff --git a/src/utils.c b/src/utils.c
index a209b56..3a30080 100644
--- a/src/utils.c
+++ b/src/utils.c
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ wchar_t *mon_thousands_sep;		// Locale's monetary thousands separator
 #define APPIMAGE_NAME		"AppRun.wrapped"
 
 #define DIRSEP			"/"		// Directory separator
+#define CURDIR			"."		// Current directory
 #define HIDDEN_PATH		"."		// Hidden file start char
 #define XDG_DATA_DEFAULT	".local" DIRSEP "share"
 
@@ -314,7 +315,8 @@ static ssize_t b64decode (const void *restrict in, size_t inlen,
 *          Initialisation and environment function definitions          *
 ************************************************************************/
 
-// These functions are documented in the file "utils.h"
+/* These functions are documented in the file "utils.h" or in the
+   comments above. */
 
 
 /***********************************************************************/
@@ -361,6 +363,8 @@ const char *home_directory (void)
 
 	if (home != NULL && *home != '\0') {
 	    home_directory_str = xstrdup(home);
+	} else {
+	    home_directory_str = xstrdup(CURDIR);
 	}
     }