The purpose of this study was to discover what events led to families becoming homeless and how that journey has or has not affected their school age children. Additionally, this design allowed the researcher to study the impact that homelessness has on a students’ perception of school and their ability to participate in after school programs. This research design also focused on the influence of a teacher’s perceptions, beliefs and opinions of homelessness in regards to their homeless students’ population and what supportive resources are useful to the families. The researcher interviewed twenty-two randomly selected families who were homeless as defined by the McKinney Vento Homeless Act (2002) and were housed at an emergency homeless shelter located in Middle Tennessee. The data reflected that homelessness had a drastic effect on student’s ability to participate in afterschool programs due to lack of money and transportation. Additional emerging themes concluded that unemployment and affordable housing were key factors that led to families becoming homeless.