The editorial (to read, click here) begins with:
Wend your
way through the streets of any large city, teeming with Christmas shoppers,
where store windows glisten with expensive watches and handbags, and it is all
too easy to avert your eyes from those dehumanized shapes in doorways or
sprawled on the steps or stretched out in the pews of open churches. Swathed in
blankets, they peer out with blank eyes from between scarves and wool hats as
they display their cardboard manifestos: House burned down. Wounded Vet.
Hungry. Pregnant. Jobless. Help. The message is sobering: We are helpless,
abandoned and dependent on your seasonal generosity...
Their follow up can be read here. It is the third article in "Current Comment."
Some major cities have responded by arresting the victims or
requiring religious groups to pay for a permit in order to feed the homeless in
public parks. Utah, in contrast, under Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman, started a
program in 2005 called Housing First that identified the chronically homeless
and designed strategies to supply permanent or transitional housing to meet
their needs. The state calculated that the costs of emergency services and
incarceration amount to $16,670 each year for a chronically homeless person but
found that it could supply each person with an apartment and case management
services for $11,000.
As a result of the program, the number of
chronically homeless people in Utah has dropped from 1,900 in 2005 to fewer
than 500 today. How did this happen?
Assisting the poor and homeless has gotten a new advocate with the election of Pope Francis, but it is not only a Catholic concern. Providing aid to the poor is a basic tenet of Islam, and some of the homeless most active supporters are from the Jewish community. They and non-religious people alike who see poverty and homelessness as social justice issues have contributed so much time and effort to eliminate this indictment of our society.
There are opportunities for you to help: local government agencies, community service groups, religious organizations, and support organizations. Need to find one? Know of one that is looking for volunteers? Let me know.
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