Judaism and the Homeless by Rabbi Jill Jacbos
The parallel themes of homelessness and wandering pervade the Bible and Jewish history. In the first chapters of the book of Genesis, Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden. Abraham begins his relationship with God by leaving his native land, and Jacob and his sons leave their own home to go down to Egypt. After the Exodus, the Israelites journey through the wilderness, homeless, for 40 years. The destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem is followed by 70 years of exile, and the destruction of the second Temple in 70 C.E. is followed by two millennia of national homelessness, which ended only with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
It is no wonder, then, that Jewish law (halakhah) attempts to guarantee housing stability. Though powerless to grant the Jewish people a permanent home, halakhah can at least help to assure individual members a stable place to live.
A Religious Duty
A few Jewish sources explicitly speak of the provision of housing as a means of tzedakah (charity). Most famous among these texts is the exhortation in Isaiah to “take the poor into your homes,” read as the Haftarah on Yom Kippur. This prophetic cry defines the relief of homelessness as a religious duty, preferable to fasts, sacrifices, and other ritual observances.

Talmud Bavli Ketubot 67b
The Sages taught: Concerning an orphan boy who has come to marry, the community tries its utmost to provide for all of his needs. The charities rent a house for him, arrange for him a bed and all his utensils, and thereafter they marry him a wife, as it is stated: “But you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his deficiency in that which is deficient for him” (Deuteronomy 15:8). With regard to the phrase “sufficient for his deficiency,” this is referring to the house. “Which is deficient”; this is referring to a bed and table. “For him [lo]”; this is referring to a wife. And similarly the verse states: “I will make him [lo] a helpmate for him” (Genesis 2:18), when God created a wife for Adam.

Shulhan Arukh: Yore De'ah 250:1
How much is to be given to a poor man? Sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth. Thus, if he is hungry, he should be fed; if he needs clothing, he should be clothed; if he lacks household utensils, they should be purchased for him; and even if he had been accustomed before he was impoverished to ride on horseback with a slave running before him, he should be furnished with a horse and a slave. And so each and every one should be supplied with what he needs. If it is fit to give him [merely] a slice of bread, give him a slice; if it is proper to give him dough, give him dough; if he ought to be provided with lodging, too, provide a bed for him. If it is fit to give him a warm meal, give him warm food; if cold lunch, then cold lunch. If he has to be fed [like an infant] then he must be fed. If he is unmarried and he comes to take a wife, the community should find him a mate; but first they should rent him a home, prepare him a bed and furnish him with necessary household utensils, and then marry him off.

Likutei Moharan II 4:2:4
And charity is always a beginning, as in (Deuteronomy 15:8), “open, you shall open [your hand to him].” Even where an opening and a beginning already exist, charity opens more and more, widening the opening further. When a person wants to embark upon a particular path and devotion in worshipping God, he needs to make an opening in order to enter that path. This is as in “all beginnings are difficult,” because at the beginning one must break through and open a new entrance. It is therefore very difficult. Yet the remarkable power of charity is that it can widen and open the opening more and more. When we make an opening in some devotion and give charity, the charity opens and widens the opening more and more. This is because charity is the beginning of all beginnings, for it opens and widens all the entrances.