Attempts to answer that simple question have filled countless books, Government reports, newspapers articles and television documentaries. Indeed, there are probably almost as many answers to that question as there are homeless people. Besides which, getting a job in and of itself is not a guaranteed path to getting a permanent home. And, even if you don’t care a jot about helping others, you might well be moved by the thought that, as long as the problem of homelessness exists, it seems certain that our Government will continue to spend a huge amount of time and money trying to tackle it, so if only from the most purely practical point of view, it would seem extremely sensible to tackle the root causes of the problem.