Solving Homelessness in America

Too Bad There Are No Lobbyists for the Poor and Unhoused

A Sunday rant.

“Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.” I used to sing that line during mass from my Catholic hymnal. It comes from the New Testament and Christ’s teaching that to serve him, you should serve those who are the least among us, society’s “losers,” if you will, society’s “have-nots.” It is easy, after all, to be kind to your peers, your friends, and especially to those from whom you can gain something. Far more difficult it is to help the “unwashed,” the poor among us, the sick and the addled, the addicts and the difficult.

I submit to you that it’s not impossible to solve homelessness in America. What it requires is national will and money. Housing exists or can be built. Drug treatment centers can be funded. A health care corps can be created to take to the streets and render service to the most vulnerable among us. Assuredly these are difficult tasks, but not impossible.

America’s current approach is a Dickensian variation on Scrooge before his awakening: Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses? Americans tend to vilify the poor and the helpless, blaming them for their helplessness, their addictions, their sickness, their habits. After all, if it’s all their fault, we don’t have to help them. They just need to get jobs, right? (Note how I wrote “jobs,” since one job isn’t likely to pay enough to get them off the streets.)

As my dad once said, rich people have neither sympathy nor use for the poor, unless it’s to exploit them. The rest of us, those who are broadly in the middle class, are encouraged to fear the poor while blaming them for being that way. It’s all their fault that they didn’t go to college, didn’t get a better job, got hooked on drugs, and otherwise fell on hard times.

We can’t just throw money at the problem, right? Because all those “losers” will take advantage of welfare and buy Cadillacs and Alaskan king crab legs with their government relief funds. We must make them suffer for being poor; the Lord helps those who help themselves, am I right?

Meanwhile, America is spending nearly $900 billion on wars and weapons while seeking more than $100 billion for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and border security. That’s a trillion dollars for wars and more wars, weapons and more weapons, but we can’t seem to get the homeless or unhoused off the streets and provide them with help.

Speaking of the unhoused, American-made bombs and missiles are “unhousing” untold numbers of Palestinians in Gaza. No shortage of money for this!

I’m not saying it’ll be easy. Again, national will is required. But the money is there. If we can spend a trillion on wars and weapons, we could spend one-tenth of that on housing the unhoused and giving them the help they need to live dignified lives. Call it a hand up, not a handout, and most Americans would support it.

America allegedly is a Christian nation. In the service of Christ, what is it doing for the least of its people? I submit we’re not doing nearly enough.

It’s funny: I never hear politicians talking about lifting up the poor. Come to think of it, I never hear politicians talking about peace either. Yet they nearly all profess to be followers of Christ, the Prince of Peace, the one who came to save sinners, the one who came to serve the most humble among us.

Something tells me there’s more to being a Christian than shoveling money and weaponry to Israel in the hopes of Armageddon and Christ’s return. And, with respect to Christ’s return, be careful what you wish for. You just might not be on the list that you think you are.