Monday, 02 November 2009

  • Hope for the Homeless in Los Angeles

    When I was in college, I experienced homelessness for the first time. No, I wasn't homeless, but before I moved to the big city, I don't think I'd ever met a homeless person before. Then I was invited to participate in a homeless ministry sponsored by my church. It was a humbling experience, driving down roads I knew by heart, turning off onto a side street, and finding ourselves in a wooded area next to a set of railroad tracks; a homeless camp was set up there, and these weren't just the old, dirty people I had imagined. There were families, children and parents, all surviving, but barely.

    Just as I wondered if what we were doing was enough to help them out, so, too, is one Christian ministry in Los Angeles, California, wondering what more they can do. The group, called Union Rescue Ministry, has high hopes for the future of homelessness in L.A.: they plan to rid the city of it in ten years.

    According to a recent Christian Post article, the ministry has a very clear outline for how they plan to achieve their goal. The plan starts not with one church or one homeless camp but with the community of L.A. as a whole. “The first step is for people to experience a change of heart about people who are homeless,” the article explains. “Instead of seeing the homeless as those addicts or transients, the initiative calls on people to see the homeless as 'precious people, made in the image of God, who are currently experiencing homelessness.'”

    It's true that there is a stigma attached to homelessness. When I was going to the homeless camps, I met a lot of people who were truly trying to make their lives better. One man who helped run our ministry had actually been homeless himself for several years. The ministry reached out to him and gave him the inspiration to find a job and eventually a home. He now works to help the people who live in the same camp he lived in, because if he can do it, certainly they can too.

    But not all the homeless wanted our help. There is a problem with pride in the homeless community. Some of those homeless people we spoke to were grateful for our outreach, but they felt that, since they got themselves into the mess, they should get themselves out of it. Others were what one might expect from homeless people: drug addicts, alcoholics, and former convicts. One man I met had recently gotten out of jail and was looking for a way to get back in because it is safer to live in jail than on the streets.

    With all of these complicated situations in mind, the goals of Union Rescue Ministry sound lofty, but one L.A. area pastor puts the situation into perspective:

    Dr. Mark Brewer, pastor of Bel Air Presbyterian Church, noted there are 8,000 houses of worship in the L.A. area and about 8,000 homeless families in the area.

    Brewer called on all houses of worship to remember their two basic motivations – to love God and to love others – and to help sponsor homeless families for a short period.

    There are a lot of places that have problems with homelessness, not just L.A., but if this ministry can succeed in at least putting a dent in the problem, perhaps there is hope for the homeless in other cities.

    Rev. Enoch De Assis, also of the Bel Air Presbyterian Church, speaks of the situation with great personal passion, saying, “They belong to us. They’re our children. They’re our city’s children. They’re our church children living on the streets.”

    Where do you think the problem of homelessness lies, with the homeless individual or with society's stigmas and views on homeless people? Do you think a change of heart will be enough to encourage the community to help the homeless? What else do you think can be done?

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Comments (4)

  • Parsimony@xanga

    In Canada, I've been told funds toward socials services have been reduced.  Subsidized housing is inadequate at peak times of the year ie when it's coldest.  Food banks are inadequately stocked with inferior products.  Education and training is available and in dire need but a trade-off for those who prefer to earn money with their time.


    I think it also does have to do with how people from different stratifications see homelessness.  If someone can be a self-made millionaire, people think the homeless can be self-induced as well.  The only issue is people are willing and eager to help you make money when you have it because they will get something in return rather than help you when you have nothing since they are only giving and might not get anything in return though the community will gain in the long-run.  There will always be a stigma to poverty especially from the working class without consideration or informed judgement.
  • ProDigit

    Times have changed a lot!
    In the past, homeless people would be homeless because they chose to, or where addicts.
    Today things are different!
    People are homeless because they where hard working citizens which lost their jobs, and through a set of perhaps economical pressures, or perhaps mismanagment (perhaps miscalculation) of money, ended up losing everything!

    It's truly sad to see, and if it wasn't for my mother in law, we might have been homeless too!

    Times HAVE changed; and a lot of people are on the streets that shouldn't even be on the streets!

    We're entering times where "The strongest survives" mentality seems to be held. And as christians we're on the bottom of the chain, unless God gives His grace to us in this area!
  • subSacred@xanga
    Where do you think the problem of homelessness lies, with the
    homeless individual or with society's stigmas and views on homeless
    people?

    I think it is a bit of both, and both rely on each other to thrive.

    I also think that there is an overwhelming sense of hopelessness for both the homeless and those who attempt to help. The reality is, if every homeless person woke up tomorrow and was 100% determined to get their lives together, there would simply not be any way for all of them to do it. There is nowhere near enough jobs, homes, or other basic resources needed available to create those jobs and homes to accommodate all of the homeless in America.

     From what I've seen, many finally get to a point where they feel they can no longer pour out all of their energy trying to change their situation just to get kicked back to the curb, so instead they invest everything into simply surviving within their circumstances.

  • even_with_tears@xanga

    First off, thank you so much for this post. It is a beautiful thing to see people reaching out to others, especially those in such need.

    I think the problem lies in both the individual and society. It isn't as simple as laying "they're lazy," or "the world was out to get them." If society, meaning everyone who could, helped everyone who needed it, obviously near everything - at least economical - would be fixed in a heartbeat. The worlds economy, from Hollywood to the third world, is the surface of issues. If the human heart mind and soul were to be fixed and healed and made new, to use Christian speak, then all else would follow.. I don't think though, sadly, that it will ever really come to that (before He comes again at least). Though we will always have the poor (matthew 26:11) we are always called to help them, throughout both the old and new testament and I think that even more importantly than giving them physical stability or comfort (that we often take for granted) we can show them the love of Christ. We have an opportunity to give them something that lasts, something that matters.

    Thanks again for this post :) God bless and Peace

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