Does 住 人 mean "people living in the area" or "real live people, as opposed to puppets and fictions"?
It would help if you provided the sentence in question.

Baidu (http://baike.baidu.com/view/1402096.htm) gives two definitions for 住人 as a noun, meaning either residents or, in the right construction, a group of people demarcated by the preceding description

ABC has 住人 as a separable verb meaning to "accommodate or put up people"

现代汉语词典 doesn't list 住人

And since 住 is a common complement, it could be that 人 is the object of V+住

It could also appear in 同住人, meaning husband and wife, and in 常住人口, meaning permanent residents