An understanding of the close link between federal policy and family homelessness is critical for ensuring that one day no child in the United States is homeless. This article discusses the nature of family homelessness, the national policy framework that exists to help vulnerable families, the homeless assistance system that federal policy has created to help families that fall through the holes in the safety net, and how local innovation is helping to improve this system and end family homelessness. The author argues that both federal mainstream and federal housing programs have historically not fulfilled their potential to prevent and end family homelessness. However, local innovation has begun to change this unfulfilled potential, and federal policy is beginning to follow suit.