The growing number of people living below the poverty line has made homelessness a topic of interest, once again. This paper focuses on the homeless adolescent population that is often overlooked, and explores the complexity of the homeless situation, and how there is no definite solution to overcome homelessness. At-risk and homeless adolescents are affected by many negative factors that cause them to seek early independence, such as parenting style, finical instability, lack of an education, drugs and alcohol, physical and sexual abuse, all of which are discussed in this paper. Along with the negative factors, there are protective barriers that can potentially help an at-risk adolescent but are ineffective once the adolescent is homeless. This paper also addresses how we as a society can be more proactive in helping this population, and be aware if the warning signs that can lead a youth to decide to run away and eventually end up homeless.