also homey, by 1970s, slang, short for homeboy (q.v.). OED reports the identical word is recorded from the 1920s in New Zealand slang in the sense "recently arrived British immigrant."
Entries linking to homie
homeboy n.
"person from one's hometown," 1940s, African-American vernacular, also originally with overtones of "simpleton." With many variants (compare homebuddy, homeslice, both 1980s, with meaning shading toward "good friend"). The word had been used by Ruskin (1886) with the sense "stay-at-home male," and it was Canadian slang for "boy brought up in an orphanage or other institution" (1913).