Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli
Among the original 13 colonies that seeded our great country, Philadelphia was the fastest growing city. And it was not without its problems. Benjamin Franklin noted the increasing number of mentally ill and homeless people wandering the city streets. With the help of his Quaker friends, in 1751 he opened the doors of America’s first hospital to care for such people. Homelessness has been a part of our national story from its very beginning.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, homelessness became common across the country. Today, however, our country is witnessing an unprecedented number of down-and-out individuals living on our streets. Cities such as New York, Washington, D.C. and Boston have six times more people wandering the streets without a home than other cities. Of the more than half a million homeless Americans, the largest number of them live in California. Weather certainly is one factor that contributes to this high number. Yet, states such as Arizona and Florida have much lower numbers of homeless.
The homeless population is diverse. Those with mental disabilities. Families evicted from their homes. Alcoholics. Those who have lost their jobs. Drug addicts. Convicts let out of prison with no place to go. Young people thrown out of their homes by their parents. Children no one wants who prostitute themselves to eat. On the streets of New York City alone, half of the estimated 40,000 homeless are under the age of 21. That is a staggering 20,000 abandoned young people!
Some blame statism for the increase in homelessness. Statism is a political system that exercises heavy control over economic and social affairs. In the 1960s, the government adopted the policy of deinstitutionalizing mental health patients and mainstreaming them into local communities. Today, those suffering from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder make up one third of the total homeless population. Other policies that contribute directly or indirectly to homelessness are heavy regulation of housing markets by localities, overly restrictive zoning and growth management controls, rent controls, cumbersome building and rehabilitation codes and tax policies that discourage investment or reinvestment (Rev. Ben Johnson, Acton Institute, “10 facts about homelessness in America,” Sept. 23, 2019).
A recent study done at Baylor University found that faith-based organizations provide almost 60 percent of emergency shelter for the homeless on any given night. Faith-based groups are providing a lion’s share of help to the homeless. For every dollar of government funding, faith-based organizations provide nine dollars and forty-two cents in socio-economic benefits.
Those who work in faith-based organizations not only shoulder a larger burden of caring for the homeless, but they do more than simply provide food, shelter and clothing. With their holistic approach, they care for the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of those without a home of their own. They help addicts recover and the unemployed develop needed skills to find a job. They keep families together. As Robert Doar, a poverty studies fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has said, “Government is good at transactions, faith-based organizations are good at transformation.”
Ultimately, the plight of the homeless will not be solved by programs, however good they may be. Rather, it is to be solved by people with the eyes of faith, people who see beyond an individual’s unkempt appearance to a brother or sister in need. Those with a strong faith see each homeless individual not as a statistic, not as an intrusion on their comfortable life, but rather as a person loved by God and to be loved by them.
Each homeless person is a living sign of the mystery of the Incarnation. They remind us of the Son of God who stripped himself of heavenly glory to be born among us. “A man like us in all things but sin” (Heb 4:15). Hungering. Thirsty. Needing shelter from the cold. Welcoming the hospitality and generosity of others. “Jesus himself was born in a similar situation, though not by chance or accident. He desired to be born this way, in order to reveal the love of God for the weak and the poor, and thus to sow in the world the seeds of God’s kingdom, a kingdom of justice, love and peace, where no one is a slave, but all are brothers and sisters, children of the one Father. (Pope Francis, Vespers, St. Peter’s Basilica, Dec. 31, 2018).
The Son of God left his place in the Father’s house to teach us how to love one another, especially the poorest among us. Loving others as Jesus teaches always means respecting the rights of others for food, shelter, clothing and work. But it means much more. Loving the homeless is becoming one with them on our way to our true home in heaven as the one family of God.