A random sample of homeless individuals (106 men and 106 women) residing in a shelter were interviewed using an interview schedule developed for this study. The main objectives were to study the sociodemographic characteristics and childhood history in an urban homeless population in a developing country (Santiago, Chile). The most salient finding is the high frequency of parent-child separation and placement with substitute parents during the early lives of the homeless we interviewed, 16% of men and 26.4% of women. A significant proportion of the study participants reported incarceration before age 17, 13.2% of men and 9.4% of women. Seventeen point nine percent of men and 20.8% of the women never knew their father; 7.5% of men and 5.7% of the women never knew their mother. The childhood backgrounds of the homeless in Santiago, Chile, are, in some aspects, similar to those described by researchers in the United States.