Contemporary homelessness is the product of conscious social and economic policy decisions. Over the last 30 years, our society’s attitudes have grown increasingly hostile toward the financing of affordable housing, adequate health insurance, and livable wages to ensure independence even for those at the lower ends of the income scale. These changes have significantly contributed to the rise in homelessness among individuals, families, and children. Federal housing assistance budget authority has declined nearly 50% from its peak in 1978. Thanks to tax, labor, and trade policies, the difference in income between the richest 1% and the lowest 20% more than tripled from 1979 to 2007. Meanwhile, housing and health care costs have skyrocketed. At $7.25 an hour, a full-time minimum wage job provides insufficient income to rent a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the U.S. Health care costs have increased almost ten-fold from 1977 to 2008, leaving nearly 50 million Americans uninsured in 2010.4, 5 The cumulative effect of policy decisions over past decades must be reversed in order to restore a standard of living that enables independent living, even for those households earning low incomes.