Homelessness is a phrase in which a broad range of people and circumstances are concerned. Homelessness is a primary existential displacement where people are living on the edge of life. All around the world, homelessness is a major problem due to several causes. Reports indicate that the number of homeless families has increased radically from last decades which may be an occurrence of natural disaster, scarcity and other significant reasons.

There are many issues concerning for homelessness. People are not responsible for their condition of homelessness but there are a number of sociological factors interconnecting at the same time to make people homeless. At present, people are dealing with problems in community setting which give rise to homelessness. One of the major causes of homelessness is poverty. Homelessness and poverty are attached together. Poor people are not in a position to pay for housing, food, child care, health care, and education. It had emerged in the 1980s because of the changeover from an industrial based capitalist economy to a postindustrial capitalist service economy within the framework of globally developing global relations. Second most important cause of homelessness specifically among women is familial violent behavior. Feeble poor women are compelled to live with offensive relationships. They become homeless when violence is heated up. At national level, homelessness experienced by roughly half of all women and children is due to domestic violence.

Some of the other causes of homelessness are declination in workers wages. Due to this, many workers are unable to afford housing. The declining value and availability of public assistance is another cause of increasing homelessness. Only a small fraction of welfare recipients' new jobs pay above-poverty wages; most of the new jobs pay far below the poverty line. Job opportunities are lowering down which make people homeless. Health factor is also a major determinant for homelessness. Today families are struggling to pay rent and if any serious illness or disability occurred in family, they step towards homelessness. Due to poor health condition, people lose their jobs and unable to manage even basic necessities. Many studies recognized mental health problems as the fundamental cause of single homelessness. It is found that about 22% of the severe mental patients are homeless. It is obvious that many mentally ill people are not capable to afford supportive housing. The problem of homelessness has emerged as a social issue which is the outcome of deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill people.

Addiction and homelessness is also a matter of debate. Data indicates that alcohol and drug abuse are excessively high among the homeless inhabitants. People who are poor and addicted are obviously at augmented risk of homelessness. War can flow unexpected flood of homelessness. People who are in a good position suddenly lose their home due to battle among countries. The most important instant causes of homelessness known in 1970 were relationship breakdown. Owners take back their houses due to overdue of rent amount in private or local authority housing. Other noteworthy causes include overcrowding; harassment by landlords; and illegal occupancy of a council residence. In the late 1980s, the most important causes of homelessness were the unhealthy relationships between young people and their parents or guardians, the failure of sharing arrangements in lodging and joblessness. Unemployment is increased as an imperative ground of homelessness from the 1960s onwards. Till now, unemployment has continued as a foremost causal factor related with homelessness.

Divorce is viewed as a significant cause of homelessness. Anyone in a family whether mother, father or child can become homeless due to separation. Single parents with dependent children are mostly at risk of homelessness. Growing tendency of such crisis was previously perceptible in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Statistical data shows that in 1961-62, London study found 41 per cent of the women who were confessed to momentary accommodation with their children were separated (29 per cent), divorced (2 per cent) or single (9 per cent). Homelessness is also related to age. Since the late 1950s, the majority of women populations reported by local authorities as homeless are under the age of thirty, with about half of these under the age of twenty-five, and a substantial percentage under twenty years of age. Number of homeless families accepted by local authorities has increased whereas there has been a tendency of declination in the average age of women (Burrows).

Birth place is also a major cause of homelessness. In the early 1960s, many ethnic minority groups became homeless. They were greatly over-represented among homeless families and, not least, young single persons in London and larger urban areas outside the capital. It is noticeable that homelessness is a predominantly severe crisis in places where there is scarcity of housing. In such areas, the interface between job loss, helplessness and homelessness are particularly strong. For several years, some studies put emphasis on structural causes of single homelessness. Complicated research began to that single homelessness was caused by social and economic changes which unreasonably affected the most susceptible in society. The same kinds of argument never subsisted with reference homeless families, who were from the 1970s in the United Kingdom much more expected to be distinguished as victims of situations. Today attention has not been diverted to look for who were approximately commonly accepted as being not capable to assist themselves, were present in homeless families. When discussing the causes of homelessness, natural disaster emerged as a power cause of homelessness. Cyclone, Tsunami and other calamity totally destroy the region. Hurricane Katrina and its consequences dented beyond repair tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the region and left more than 78,000 people in emergency shelters. At the end of a hurricane season that left much of Florida in carcass, thousands of families remain dislocated. The Red Cross estimates that about 25,000 homes were destroyed in the four hurricanes.

Finally, the problems of homelessness subsist in all cities and many smaller communities. It is a fact that homelessness is both a condition of being and a state of mind. Sometimes it has been seen that people with strong in body and spirit, do strive to get a sense of friendship and community and feel homeless Homelessness has been documented as a considerable social problem in the United States since the early 1980s, when a speedy increase in the number of homeless people was caused by a fragile economy and cuts in federal aid for housing, jobs and income support. Homelessness can now be perceived to be a difficulty affecting different kinds of areas, from crowded inner-city conurbations to striking rural villages, and involving a wider range of population. Its roots have been extended widely and deeply into the community. Government's stern action can reduce the problem of homelessness up to some extent. People have to come forward to solve this problem.