How do we want to approach the issue of Homelessness?

About 35 people came to the HoT group lunch today after church. I am guessing it was more than most of us (at least more than I) expected. It was a confirmation that Homelessness is an important issue for the Congregation.

 

The HoT group deserves recognition for the amount of effort they have put towards the issue of Housing and Homelessness over the last 4 years. Some of us, including myself, did not realize the amount of work this group has done. They have explored a variety of approaches from using the west end of the building for housing, to having part-time program staff run a drop-in centre for the homeless, to providing showers, or lockers or even a mailbox for the homeless. They finally settled on the need to seriously look at providing housing in a sustainable way.

 

Why not the other approaches? They seem easier to me, at first glance than providing housing. James explained some of the complexities in these options from security and sanitation issues to requiring an ongoing supply of volunteers. The glimpse made me realize there is more to the solutions than what is on the surface. Building housing somehow seemed easier at the end…. Even though in fact it may not be.

 

The real question is how do we want to respond to the homeless and housing issue? There is no doubt in my mind, given the 35 people in the room and the 4 who volunteered to join the HoT group, that the Congregation see it as an issue that we need to respond to. What will our response be? Or what does it need to be?

 

There were suggestions of working in partnership with the Christian Resource Center or other groups who are already working towards housing. Some groups are farther along than the HoT group and others are at the same point. In the midst of the partnership suggestions, the question of whether we are doing something in our immediate neighbourhood or in the broader City was raised.

 

From a 5-year planning perspective, these are the type of questions we need to wrestle with as a Congregation. It is easy to establish directions. It is harder to decide where we are going to place our energy and resources that will make a concrete difference.