This morning I spoke at the community forum on homelessness at Pacific University that was organized by Forest Grove United Church of Christ to help prevent the closure of four area shelters. Click here to learn more about the issues involved. Below are my remarks:
Thank you for participating in this gathering sponsored by Forest Grove United Church of Christ. It is important for all of us to be here and to both learn about this community's homelessness crisis and to act in an effort to solve it.
For twenty years I have been involved with the effort to end homelessness in Oregon and the nation and I believe that homelessness is both a political crisis and a spiritual crisis.
The political crisis is obvious. Starting with the Reagan Administration in 1981 the federal government has retreated in their responsibility to care for the most vulnerable in our society and a tax system has been created over the last six years in particular that is morally out of balance - it rewards the richest of the rich and leaves the least of these behind.
Taking care of those Jesus calls the "least of these" is a primary obligation of all Christians and it is fitting that Forest Grove UCC has answered that call by organizing an effort to save four area homeless shelters. Without these shelters people will suffer.
We read in Matthew 25:40 that Jesus says "just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." If we leave people out on the streets without support it is the equivalent of abandoning God, Jesus tells us. So our responsibility to both ourselves and the divine is clear.
Sadly, Washington County is not the only community facing the loss of shelter beds and affordable housing.
The National Coalition for the Homeless reports that President Bush's proposed 2007 federal budget includes new cuts totaling nearly $2 billion in homeless assistance programs. Cuts being considered include a 20% reduction in Community Development Block grants, a 26% cut in housing assistance for the elderly, and a 50% cut in housing assistance for people with disabilities.
Programs to assist those with housing who suffer from mental illness will see additional cuts. In addition, nearly $2 billion will be cut from critical children's programs and nearly half a million senior citizens will have their food assistance eliminated. More people will be vulnerable to homelessness than ever before.
The non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes in their analysis of the federal budget that these massive cuts in services are being used to help pay for tax cuts which would benefit the wealthiest Americans.
Unfortunately, Gordon Smith, one of Oregon's senators, voted just this week to make many of these tax cuts permanent.
You can hear echoes of times like these in Scripture. Just turn to Isaiah and read of God's frustration with the people of Judah when after God surveys the community and sees the rich getting richer while the poor starve God cries out "What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor?" (Isaiah 3:15 NRSV). God calls us to do better and to seek justice.
Think of this gathering this morning not as an end point but as a beginning. Saving these four shelters will be a difficult task. Each one of us will have to become an evangelist for a way of doing community that is counter-cultural and the lifting will be heavy. We will need to speak with our neighbors, pressure our elected officials, organize in our sometimes complacent churches, fight to get our message heard, and work not just for but along side those who experience homelessness in our communities. Our task is not just to save four shelters but to change the national conditions that make shelters necessary.
Is there a reward for such work?
Again, turning to Isaiah, it is written:
10if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
11The Lord will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.
12Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in.
- Isaiah 58:10-12 (NRSV)
Amen.
Related Link: Putting a Face on Homelessness from Russ Dondero
