Everyone deserves a home
Just imagine for a moment that you have no home. What will you do for meals today? Where will you shower? Where will you sleep? If you have children, how will you provide for them?
A homeless man rests on a bench in a park outside St. Vincent de Paul Church in downtown Baltimore in early July. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)
And how will you cope with being homeless tomorrow, next week, next month? Such imaginations are distressing. Aren’t they?
Last winter I took imagining what it would be like to be homeless one step further. I lived one day in Baltimore as a homeless man trying to stay warm and fed. From street, to soup kitchen, to shelter I ventured.
I learned a lot that day about how rough it is to have no place to call your own. But later that night my experience as a homeless person ended. I got in my vehicle and headed for home.
But for 100 million people throughout the world, not having a home to go to each night is a hard, sad reality (61st session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights).
And in South Africa, according to the Encyclopedia of Homelessness (Sage Publications), approximately 3 million people are homeless, and about 15 million live in shacks. In Johannesburg the number of homeless people numbers about 7,500 – coming mostly from ethnic groups that were formerly victimised by apartheid.
Recently I spoke with Ken Leslie, a former homeless alcoholic and drug addict, who is now a leading advocate for people who have no home. Based in Toledo, Ohio, Leslie founded 1Matters (www.1matters.org), an organisation inviting each of us to “Be 1 that matters to 1 that matters.”
As their motto indicates, 1-on-1 relationships help break down homeless stereotypes and build community.
One major stereotype is the word “homeless” itself. Because the word “homeless” often conjures up negative images of people – which in most cases are completely untrue – Leslie prefers using the word “unhoused”.
A model project of 1Matters is “Tent City”. Every year on the last weekend of October, Tent City brings together doctors, nurses, medical students, social workers and over 500 other caring souls to serve the unhoused.
Recently – Oct. 24-26, 2014 – Tent City celebrated its 25th anniversary. On Toledo’s Civic Center Mall, under several tents, approximately 1,000 unhoused and marginally housed fellow human beings received medical treatment, prescriptions, job and housing assistance, I.D. acquisition, haircuts, food, clothing, commitment to follow-up care and lots of love.
To watch an inspiring video on Tent City go to www.1matters.org/tentcity. And then kindly consider how a Tent City could be started in your town or city. You can contact Ken Leslie for assistance at .
The social doctrine of the Catholic Church clearly teaches that safe, decent housing is a basic human right. And that individuals, governments and society in general have a moral obligation to help end homelessness.
In the spirit of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are those who help the unhoused, for they shall find a home in heaven
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