You may think that I’m an old man
As I walk with shoulders bent
But once I had a young man’s dreams
Now I wonder where they went

I once had a home and family
But my choices forced them away
Now lonely days and tear filled nights
Is the way I have to pay

The city it is crowded
But we walk the streets alone
It seems that you’re invisible
If you don’t have a home

Now thanks to people out there
Who have shared my despair
I have a beautiful place to live
And friends who really care

I’ve been down and out
Despair staked its claim
But like the phoenix from the ashes
I shall rise again

There is a rarely a simple explanation for a person's homelessness. Homelessness is usually a consequence of a combination of both structural and individual factors. In the past, explanations of homelessness tended to concentrate on its being an individual problem due to personal difficulties. Now there is a much wider recognition of how societal factors such as social policy and social exclusion along with structural issues such as, poverty, unemployment and housing shortages contribute to homelessness. It is important in working to eliminate homelessness that both individual and structural factors are taken into account in order to come up with an appropriate and concerted response that meets the needs of the individual whilst addressing long-term causative factors.

Individual Factors
On an individual level, homelessness is frequently the result of a crisis in someone's life. There is a range of events or crisis points that can trigger homelessnessas:

Leaving the parental home after arguments
Marital or relationship breakdown
Widowhood
Leaving care
Leaving prison
A sharp deterioration of mental health
Increased drug or alcohol misuse
A financial crisis or mounting debts
Eviction

There are many factors that put individuals at a greater risk of homelessness when a crisis occurs. Common background characteristics of people who become homeless have been identified as:

Physical or sexual abuse in childhood or adolescence
Family disputes of breakdown
A background of institutional care
Offending behaviour and/or experience of prison
Lack of social support network
Debts, especially rent and mortgage arrears
Causing nuisance to neighbours (anti-social behaviour)
Drug or alcohol misuse
School exclusion and lack of qualifications
Mental health problems
Poor physical health

Structural Factors
Structural factors, relating to how we organise our society and distribute wealth and power, are widely acknowledged as being a pivotal factor in homelessness. The failure of infrastructure to support those most vulnerable in our society has resulted in high levels of poverty, rising unemployment, social exclusion, the lack of affordable accommodation and increasingly negative effects of de-institutionalisation ultimately creating pathways into homelessness.

The term "homelessness" includes the people whose primary daytime residence is in an institution that provides a residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized, or in a public or private place not designed for use as a regular sleeping conditions for human beings.

other names for homelesness:

*wondering poor
*urban outdoorsman
*bum
*tramp
*houseless
*transient
*bagman/woman
*homeless people
*hobo
*vagrant
*Street walker