Homelessness in America

Homelessness in America

Homelessness is rising in America. For Christians in America, this is both a grim reality but also a promising opportunity to serve.

The facts are harsh. One millions, six hundred thousand American children are homeless. That is a 38% increase over the last three years. These figures were released in December 2011 by the National Center on Family Homelessness. The report is entitled, “America’s Youngest Outcasts 2011.”

The National Center on Family Homelessness was started in 1988, according to Dr. Ellen Bassuk, the president and founder of the organization, to address the emerging problem of family homelessness taking place across America. In 1988, families comprised only 1% of the homeless population. But today, family homelessness accounts for up to 38% of Americans who do not live in a house, but live in a homeless shelter or even on the street.

Dr. Bassuk said that family homeless has been a problem for only a few brief periods over the last 100 years, such as during the Great Depression or severe recessions. But today, it is an epidemic. Part of the problem is Wall Street speculation, otherwise known as greed, and Washington complicity.

Dr. Bassuk continued, “We are seeing more dads who are out there with their kids alone, and more two-parent families. And we’re also seeing more families who are living in shelters and going to work from the shelter. If you have a minium-wage job and work full time, there is nowhere in the country where you can afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair-market value.”

She said the hardest hit by homelessness are the young children. As many as half of the homeless children are under six years of age. “A lot of these children are living in cars and abandoned buildings,” she added.

The hardest hit states are California, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois (particularly in Chicago) and Arizona. Los Angels alone has an estimated 335,000 homeless children. Dr. Bassuk said, “We’re an affluent nation, and this is an emerging third world.” (Interview with Dave Gahary, American Free Press, Jan. 23, 2012, p.3. cf. http://www.americanfreepress.net/).

Reading this makes me wish that we had followed Thomas Jefferson’s economic and political advice for the last fifty years. Two hundred years ago he spoke about this sort of abuse, and the consequences to follow, if we became complacent. ("The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a alarge scale." "It [paper currency] is liable to be abused, has been, is, and forever will be abused, in every country where it is permitted.") His warnings, sadly, have proven true.

And Christians in America can’t remain complacent. I mentioned at the beginning that the current homeless crisis in America is a grim reality, but I also suggested that it is a promising opportunity. It is a promising opportunity because it is an avenue for us to show the compassion and love of Christ that is so desperately needed in all sectors of our society and culture.

“Religion (or spirituality) that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” This verse in James 1:27 speaks to both problems addressed in this article. One, the problem of greed and avarice that leaves people financially broken, and families horribly stressed. Two, the problem of people without homes and adequate food. Christians need to distance themselves from the lust for more, and be grateful for what we have. And we need to be moved to reach out and help others.

While there might not be many, or any, homeless in an area where many of us live, that does not absolve us of any responsibility to help. There are church ministries in America’s major cities that we can support even if we don’t live there. Who knows, the homeless ministry we support today may be the very organization that grants us relief tomorrow should the economic crisis strike that close to home. We can’t stop the crisis, but we can alleviate it’s devastating affects if we will be faithful and strike out in confidence in God’s power to work through us.

Warren Baldwin