Several years ago, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appropriately called his city, "The Homeless Capital of America." At the time, they counted over 84,000 homeless people in the second largest metropolis in the country.
One of those people was Bob, a 60-year-old homeless man who parks himself near one of LA's famous beaches. He lives day by day earning a pocketful of change from a cardboard sign that states, "Spare Change? I am hungry."
Since the 1980s, when Bob just became homeless, the leaders of the battle to address homelessness in this sprawling city were the nonprofit homeless service providers. Most of the homeless shelters, soup kitchens and food banks were created back then.
Bob first became homeless when he lost his job, and had nowhere else to go but the newly created homeless shelter. He scrambled from shelter to shelter for years until he finally gave up. He has been sleeping on the streets ever since.
Today, many experts believe this 1980s compassionate short-term response to homelessness was inadequate to resolve homelessness.
In the 1990s, the City of Los Angeles sued the County of Los Angeles for not providing enough resources and leadership to confront homelessness. The final outcome of this lawsuit was the creation of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a joint powers authority that would oversee the millions of dollars earmarked to help homeless people. I am sure Bob had no idea that such a government agency existed.
Today, most local leaders see this agency as another government department struggling to deal with the overwhelming need in Los Angeles, not a driving force to end homelessness in Los Angeles.
Other initiatives to address homelessness have come and gone. A few years ago, the County invested $100 million to help homeless people. Before then, the city and the County created a blue ribbon panel to design a plan to end homelessness within 10 years. Such great efforts, but neither actually ended homelessness in Los Angeles. And neither ended homelessness for Bob, who has been homeless for close to three decades.
Today, a new initiative has been put forth by a fresh set of community leaders. The business community recently announced a new plan to end homelessness in Los Angeles called, "Home For Good." The basis for this plan is economics. The message is simple: it is more cost effective to permanently house homeless people than it is to allow them to languish on the streets.
Skeptics of the plan are certainly around, including the editorial board of the local newspaper who wrote, "Los Angeles County has seen a revolving door of ideas, initiatives and proposals..."
A newly formed alliance of faith leaders committed to providing a spiritual voice on homelessness has also responded to the plan. The leaders of Our Faith Matters distributed a statement that supports the plan, but not for economic reasons.
Putting economics aside, our entrenched political systems will struggle with raising the capital, or even diverting existing resources, to house our hurting citizens. The motivation for making tough political decisions, like spending more tax payers' money on housing, cannot be solely based on society saving money.
The real reason for housing homeless persons is because housing everyone is an act of justice.
As faith leaders, we see human beings as of inherent worth who deserve a place to call home. A housing policy that honors people as unique creations of God is vital to a functional, meaningful, and just society.
Could the leaders of a faith movement be the moral and spiritual voice for a plan that is driven by economics? Could the residents and leaders of this expansive urban and suburban community be moved by the fact that the moral reason for ending homelessness is based on human dignity, not on economics?
The compelling reason to help house Bob, a homeless senior citizen who hobbles from street to beach, from freeway exit to street corner, in order to find a meal to fill his stomach and a safe place to sleep, is not because Bob is costing the system too much money. Faith leaders in Los Angeles would say helping Bob is an act of justice.
These spiritual leaders are defining the end homelessness as an act of faith. So fitting here in Los Angeles, a city also known as the city of Angels.