In the late nineteenth century, there were so many people without permanent homes moving about the United States in search of refuge that they were sometimes described as the ‘wandering poor’. Today, many activist groups see the work around homelessness and refugeehood as conjoined. Yet the forms of charity and protection that have evolved to assist the unhoused are markedly different from forms of protection that have also emerged to address the movement of refugees and displaced persons across international borders. This chapter considers the historical interplay between homelessness and refugee protection in North America to investigate the contingencies and conceptual outlooks that shaped understandings of causality and care vis-à-vis people marked by different forms of transience and displacement. It considers the history of refuge in Canada and in the city of Montreal/Mooniyaang/Tiohtià:ke in particular, as a way of exploring the structural differences that inhibit aspirational notions of solidarity, inclusion, and participation for all.