Law Center slams L.A. as America's 'meanest city' toward homeless"

Law Center slams L.A. as America's 'meanest city' toward homeless
2:58 PM July 14, 2009
Los Angeles tops the list of America's "10 Meanest Cities" in its treatment of the homeless as criminals, two legal advocacy agencies for the poor say in a report proposing alternatives for handling the down-and-out.
The survey of 273 cities by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless based its rankings on the number of laws targeting the homeless by making it illegal to sleep, eat or sit in public spaces.
"Homelessness in America is a human-rights crisis right here at home," said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the law center. click link for more

This reminds me of a speech I gave a while ago. It was to a group of "church people" but evidently they didn't understand that as "church people" they were compelled to care.

My argument is a simple one. Let's say that some of the more ridiculous rumors about homeless people are true. What is required of Christians then? Let's just say they deserve to be homeless because they don't want to work. Or that they are drug addicts and alcoholics. Or that they end up panhandling in the streets only to jump into expensive sports cars. Let's just think if all those rumors were true. As Christians, it's not up to us to judge. It's required of us to help.

The Good Samaritan Christ talked about came upon a man laying in the street. He had been beaten and robbed. Others walked by him but the Samaritan stopped, picked him up, took him to an inn and then paid for him to stay there so that he could recover, fed and provided with shelter. The Samaritan then told the inn keeper he would pay for any other expenses to take care of this stranger. He never asked why the man was laying in the streets or what he did for a living. He never asked to see what background this man had or where he came from. He never asked what he would get in return for his money and time. He just did it because he put himself in this stranger's state and acted the way he'd hope someone else would for him.

This is what Christ was talking about. He told us to take care of the poor and needy, not ask them how they got that way or stand in judgement over them. I often wonder if Calvin ever explained Christ Himself being homeless, depending on the charity of strangers to feed Him and give Him shelter? How would that jive with the attitude about being "chosen" ahead of time and nothing else we do matters because God chose us for blessings and others for cursing? This really does away with using any rumor as a way to avoid taking care of the homeless.

Now with that out of the way, the rumors, for the most part, are not true. Many of the homeless people we see on our streets have mental illness. Many of them using drugs and alcohol are suffering from addiction but others are self-medicating to mask the illness they carry and need medication for. A third of the homeless on our streets every night are veterans. We have homeless people because they lost their jobs. We have homeless families. Does any of this sink into what Christ was talking about as being "just the way it is because they were not blessed" or even coming close to imagining they deserve to be that way? Hell no!

Some people don't want to give homeless "beggars" a dime because they will use it to buy alcohol or drugs. How do we know for sure? How do we know they are not planning on getting something to eat for a friend just too sick to leave the box they sleep in? We don't know anything about them and we are not even required to ask. We are required to help. If you don't want homeless people living in your town or city, then give them a place to live. If you don't want them asking you for money so they can eat, then feed them. If you don't want them walking near you in smelly clothes then give them others to wear. Why is any of this so hard for us to understand?