This study aims to fill a gap in the economic literature on homelessness in Brazil by leveraging underexplored administrative data on this population. First, I profile almost 200,000 individuals registered as homeless in Cadastro Único, examining their demographics, formal employment histories from RAIS, and use of social assistance before and after experiencing homelessness, and compare them to housed individuals. I find that 61 percent of homeless individuals have had at least one formal employment relationship. Additionally, before entering this situation, they were already on a trajectory of economic vulnerability - characterized by low wages and unstable employment relationships - and that roughly 55 percent only began accessing social assistance after being observed as homeless. Using OLS regressions, I also find suggestive evidence that being registered in Cadastro Único before losing one s last formal job may provide a buffer against homelessness, potentially due to improved access to financial, legal, and therapeutic support services. I then employ an event study framework to assess how another arm of social policy - the Centros de Atenção Psicossocial (CAPS) - impacts those already experiencing homelessness. The results indicate that homeless individuals living in municipalities that introduced a CAPS between 2013 and 2022 were 2.2 p.p. more likely to exit homelessness than those in municipalities that did not, after controlling for various confounders. However, CAPS initiatives do not appear to promote their (re)entry into the labor market.