Scholars have suggested that the persistence of homelessness in the richest country in the world at the beginning of the 21st century is a consequence of massive policy failure, as on any given night, point prevalence estimates indicate that as many as 800,000 people are homeless in the United States. Quantitative and qualitative researchers have addressed a plethora of causes, correlates, and covariates, and micro–meso–macro systemwide approaches have been recommended in numerous policy arenas. Too often policy-making processes at the federal, state, and local levels have been limited to local emergency measures, such as various health care services for the homeless coalitions that began in the 1980s. Although short-term program and policy changes are needed at the local level to cope with fiscal crises and the disjointed system of emergency services for individuals and families who are homeless, longer-term fiscal and programmatic recommendations contained in newer initiatives such as housing trust funds merit our attention. State and local communities as well as nonprofit and public agencies should rethink the place of shelter care within a larger continuum of services for special at-risk populations faced with crisis poverty and chronic homelessness. Shelters have become the frontline response, but their presence should not be viewed as a policy solution. Social workers should, in collaboration with people who are homeless, be actively involved in the development of continuity of services for individuals, children, and families who are without residence and in the development of a sound national housing policy that reaches those most in need.