The problem of homelessness is a difficult social issue. It does not exclude – as it was the case in the past and as it still is nowadays – the societies in which apart from prosperity there is also poverty. The problem of homelessness among social problems is conditioned not only by the difficult to characterise quantitative parameters, but also by the dynamism of the phenomenon, social attitude and constantly recorded changes in the structure of the homeless population. The article shows some of the more important solutions in the form of welfare assistance for the homeless and the poor, which have developed throughout the centuries in Poland. Furthermore, it brings nearer the range of needs of the homeless, the causes of being excluded from the social and professional activity in the context of transformation and changing social, economical and political conditions in Poland.