The Complicated Issue that is Homelessness.

If you remember back to 2009, the nation was in a housing market crash. The church I was pastoring lost substantial support from attendees, and we had to take a huge pay cut to keep the church open. In reality, the Sr. Pastor and I had made the same amount of money needed to pay rent in the strip mall that housed the church. 

Before going full-time at the church, I had worked at a hospital, and the church. At that time, I worked two jobs to pay the bill. I left the hospital to go full-time at the church, so after the lost of pay, I went back to the hospital, making only one income, where there had been two.  

I was proactive and called the mortgage company. I was told "call us when you are a couple of months behind" so I did. I was told then that we could make a payment on the mortgage that didn't fit our actual budget. I am not kidding when I say the bank person said: "you are responsible to pay your house payment first, then you can pay utilities and eat!" Crazy right!!

God came through, and I was called to a church in PA who provided a parsonage (pastor's home). When we left the Reno, Nevada area, our home was in a deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure status, which means we turned over the keys to the house to the bank. I should add that when we left at the end of 2009, there were over 650,000 homes in Nevada in foreclosure status. 

The reality of this story is that our family of five were on the verge of being homeless. While we were lucky, so many others were not.

I have had the blessing to work in ministry that served the poor for a number of decades. In fact, the church I went to start in Nevada was to help the working poor. I worked at City Union Mission here in KC, which provided me a wealth of hands-on experience working with people who are "Unsheltered." I have seen first hand the complicated issue that is homelessness.  

For years, I have heard people say, "we should fix up the abandoned homes in KC and give them to the homeless..." Or people say "the answer to being unsheltered is to provide housing," which social services call "housing first." However, if you watched the city of KC spend millions of tax dollars to provide housing in hotels post covid and then watch the plan fail, only to have them back on the streets, you might come to understand this is more complex than housing. 

Homelessness is a multifaceted issue that extends far beyond the lack of housing. While many assume that simply providing shelter resolves the problem, the reality is far more complex, involving economic, social, and systemic factors. In this series of blogs, we will explore the underlying causes and challenges of homelessness, with particular focus on Kansas City, MO, to offer a deeper understanding of this pressing social concern.

YES, for many people, like my family, housing was the need. There are many people who become homeless because of tragic circumstances and situation beyond their control. But, in reality, these people are hard workers, resilient, and find housing fairly quickly. They do not stay homeless for long. 

In this series, I will take you on a journey to explore the various complexities of homelessness, especially as it relates to KC. I hope you will learn and come to understand not just the issues, but some ways to work as a community to resolve many of these issues. 

One final word as we start down this road, apart from putting people in prison to house them, homelessness cannot be 100% resolved. Shocked? Good, then read on...