Since the 1980s, Blacks have been overrepresented in the homeless population with respect to their share of the national population and the poverty population, but little research has emerged to explain why this overrepresentation exists. Previous researchers have suggested that residential segregation and a declining supply of affordable housing push low-income Blacks into homelessness and that greater access to homeless shelters pulls low-income Blacks into homelessness at greater rates than Whites. These hypotheses have not been tested, because longitudinal data linking housing characteristics, service accessibility, and the homeless population do not exist. For these reasons, the study in this article presents analyses of housed and homeless populations separately. The first set of analyses focuses on the segment of the housed population most at risk of becoming homeless: those living in inadequate and overcrowded housing.