Everyone has been left without something at some point in their life. Maybe new clothes, cell phone, cable TV, but how many are left without a place to call home? It was estimated that during 2009, on any given night, there were 664,414 people housed in a shelter somewhere in the United States (Khadduri & Culhane, 2010a). During 2009, 1.56 million different people were recorded to have used emergency accommodation (Khadduri and Culhane, 2010a). These numbers do not take into account those who did not use emergency accommodation, but were defined as homeless. The legal definition of homelessness should be revised in the McKinney-Veto Act of 1987, which states "An individual who lacks a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence" and places that are not intended to be places of permanent residence such as public space ( 1987). The history is long and extensive extending well before the 20th century, but this essay will focus on the period after 1900. In modern society, it can be deduced that economic crisis, failure of institutional reintegration (mental illness, prison system ) and veteran reintegration are major culprits in America's homelessness. This essay seeks to explore homelessness through causes, veteran-specific issues, and sociological paradigms such as functionalism, symbolic interactionism, and conflict theory, proposing strategies to solve this social problem. The Basics of HomelessnessFor most Americans, homelessness is an abstract and foreign idea, but in reality it is not. People walk with this inequality on their way to work and ignore those who plead for liberal change. There are multiple reasons why this social travesty exists, not just one. Public opinion and researchers...... at the center of the paper...... Business. (2010). The 2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Lee, B. A., Jones, S. H., & Lewis, D. W. (1990, September). Public beliefs about the causes of homelessness. Social Forces,69(1), 253-265. Lee, B. A., Tyler, K. A., & Wright, J. D. (2010, March 15). The New Homeless Revisited. Annual Review of Sociology, 36, 501-521. Marger, M. (2011). Social inequality: models and processes. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.McKinney, S.B. and Vento, BUS Senate, (1987). Mckinney and wind act (US Code Title 42 USC Sec. 11302). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://uscode.house.govState of Michigan. In the State of Michigan State Housing Development Authority. Retrieved March 29, 2011, from http://www.michigan.gov/mshda/Ritzer, G. (2008). Modern sociological theory. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.