The homelessness phenomenon signals the need for us to rethink our notions and ways of seeing and acting with respect to citizenship. A society which is concerned about the inclusion and participation of its citizens in community and institutional development should invest in two fundamental vectors. The first pertains to teaching the exercise of citizenship, and the second to the nature of the social organizations and institutions in which citizenship can be exercised from childhood to adulthood: teaching on the one hand, context on the other. Both the family and school can contribute significantly to preventing homelessness if we rid our social policies, both as much those with respect to early childhood as those affecting children and adolescents, of the double language of verbal compassion and economic and social exclusion.