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2 Peter 3:11
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved,
what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness
Romans 15:7
Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you,
for the glory of God.
Matthew 25:40
And the King will answer them,
‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,
you did it to me.’
Hebrews 13:2
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,
for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Titus 1:8
But hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.
"Fox News August 24, 2022
Lucie Arnaz, the daughter of "I Love Lucy" stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, wants to do something about the homeless crisis in her home state.
The fellow performer has recently teamed up with Doors of Change, a nonprofit that aims to transform the lives of homeless youth. Since its launch in 2001, it has raised over $4.7 million and placed over 2,000 homeless youth in safe housing.
Doors of Change revealed there are 3.5 million homeless youth in America with the transitional age group 16-25 being the most "undeserved" of the homeless population. Mental health referrals have increased by 105% in one year alone."
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of Texas says, by 2024, we will have received 29 million immigrants across the Southern Border. The same population Texas has today. The Population of Ukraine. 33 Million.
1990s
One of the best life improvement stories of homelessness, I know, comes from San Francisco in the late 1990s. A man in his early 30s was fortunate to buy into one of the closer to downtown San Francisco neighborhoods.
The man moved in and made a few friends. One man nearby was his age, they became good friends. Both shared some frustration, and guilt, because both neighbors would drive out in the morning with homeless camped on their curb. In the 90s.
And as they continued to talk, the man in the article said he noticed, his homeless was a black woman about 60 years old who literally used the curb to his driveway as her pillow. When he sometimes had to ask her to move, to go to work, she bolted. Like most homeless, there was an aroma and a few bags. And then his neighbor said places are staked out and his homeless was the same, always, a man.
The frustration of wanting to meet, marry, have a family, be blessed, and their homeless had to be moved sometimes to drive to work. The men did agree, being able to discuss the guilt, the anger, the sorrow, the horror helped them face this unchanging problem. Unless you lived the problem, it was not the same. Finally, the man in the story decided he could park in the back. And as he drove by one evening, he realized the older woman was having turf wars. And was injured. He attempted to help her with basic first aid and, again, she fled. A new dimension of sorrow. Anger to face the situation.
Three months along, the man decided the older woman should have some shelter and the turf should be hers. He put a shelter on wheels. At first, she wouldn't even consider it. And the man felt stupid to do this for someone who didn't speak to him. Another beating and she realized she would. She wanted no bed clothes or coverings. Just a space. The homeowner rolled the thing from the front garage and rolled it back in during the day. One of these disappeared, immediately. The woman wouldn't speak, she could, but she understood if this was going to be hers, she had to be in it to claim it.
As time when by, the homeless woman, Irene, told a story of a teenage runaway. Abused by homelessness spousal. Abuse by all. Unwanted. Beaten at times. The homeowner man, who never disclosed his name, said he would find her sitting in his shrubs sometimes during the day. And the rolling house couldn't be kept in the street during the day, or it was ticketed.
Irene didn't want to hear about solutions or conversations, she was content not to be beaten or chased and refused food.
The homeowner began to look at local hardware stores for a shed, one he could insulate. He built the shed with a door to the back of the fence, to the street. Not facing the house.
When hospitality becomes an art, it loses its very soul.
~Max Beerbohm, "Hosts and Guests," 1918
And in time, Irene accepted the necessity of a key. And eventually two meals a day. Returning the favor around the house. Small conversations happened. And a decade went by.
Romans 15:7 ~ Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
Some angels build rolling wheel shelters
and tiny houses.
Hebrews 13:2
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,
for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
The original rolling box...
What happened to the original roller house? His neighbor began using it. Eventually, it would be built facing outside the neighbor's fence.
Our son when on a Youth Ministry Mission to Atlanta in 2006. And as they were shopping in a nearby mall that evening, they were chased, all 10 of the Mission Group, by some pretty tough homeless men who recognized them in the Mall. Our friends reported this as extremely frightening. My son went on a decade later to go to Law School and had low income surrounding the University apartments. His next door neighbor, he helped a neighbor who was a Veteran and formerly Homeless, placed by Church and Government. Arriving during the Pandemic to Cal's Student Housing. Cal gave rides to the Grocery, advice and clothing. Finding the Police frequently visited his neighbor, while the neighbor had homeless stay with the neighbor and violence happened. Frequently between men and women homeless at the neighbor's place.
Visits always give pleasure — if not the arrival, the departure. ~Portuguese Proverb
The Homeless are not easy. San Francisco had $24 million in the 2020 budget to help inner city Homeless during the Pandemic. And couldn't keep an employee to work with them. The Budget went unspent.
After the riots of 2020, the elderly population homeless exploded. Was explored for about a week and a half in the National news. Wow.
2020
Who is feeding the newly Homeless in New York City? The Church.
Who fed the Astrodome containing about 25,000 Katrina victims? The Church. Not the Red Cross in great depth. It was a grid of Houston Churches who fed the Katrina Refugees, daily. All the way, 40 miles outside Houston to the Suburbs and packed hotels - still fed for an entire year by Church Volunteers.
The doors of Churches opened in the Pandemic to the homeless to sleep.
2015. A man in our Church had a homeless man living in his suburban office yard shed. The telltale wake-up call? All the yard equipment suddenly rested in the yard. I am not joking or exaggerating, the man in the shed eventually appeared one night and was a National TV comedy show actor, who had been let go. He wanted a place to live like Thoreau. They let him stay on.
The successful Homeless Programs and Rehabilitation have been led by the Church. Even the Churches who pray the Rosary. For Decades. And Centuries. And Millenniums.
We have news, it just isn't sexy about sexual choices. This is about Children, Families and the Elderly.
A God sized work. For His Glory.
Amen in Jesus.
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