Becoming homeless is often triggered by a crisis in a person's life. The crisis might be related to the changing availability of affordable housing and rental patterns, or to job loss. It might be connected with poor health, mental illness, addiction, domestic violence, the break-up of a relationship, or natural disaster. In facing the crisis, persons do not receive the needed familial or communal support, or governmental or private assistance to keep them from losing their housing. Once without a permanent dwelling, individuals often experience a downward spiral in their lives.
Simple survival becomes a full-time, humiliating task.
People who are homeless often lose their sense of self-worth and their hope for the future. They feel cut-off and alienated from the rest of society. Homelessness also concerns society, that is, the institutions, attitudes, and decisions that form the web of relationships in which we live. Homelessness emerges from the brokenness of society, from realities such as the breakdown of family, impoverished schools, low wages, the lack of employment opportunities, the diminishing supply of affordable housing for the poor, the absence of health insurance, and the inadequacy of services for the mentally ill and the substance abuser. Greed, selfishness, and racism are also factors in the economics and politics of housing, contributing to the persistence and increase of homelessness.