REsearch paper

peacebe1

10-11-2006, 04:06 PM

Dominic

10-15-2006, 08:41 PM

Greetings from the USA. I am a seminary student doing a research paper on homelessness. It is not just a paper for me. I have four questions:
1. what can an individual do to help homeless people?
2.what should the church be doing to prevent or help end homelessness?
3.What do homeless people need the most?
4. What do homeless people most want homed people to know?

Thanks so much:)

my paper is due the middle of November
Peace be with you 2 :). Great questions. My responses are relevant to a first world setting.

1. what can an individual do to help homeless people?
Acknowledge them as people and say hello when they see them in the streets. Homeless people are modern day lepars. It's about the social divide and social exclusion as much as it's about anything else. Individually we can do nothing, and nothing we do can help homeless people. We can only change the way we interact with them, and change it from a 'your nothing, your shit' message they hear from us ignoring and avoiding them to a 'hi, you are a person, you are someone.' ... get it?

2.what should the church be doing to prevent or help end homelessness?
*Homelessness will never be 'ended.'
*The church's role should be to demonstrate the worth of christian values as a starting point for responding to the problems we face as a community and as families and individuals.
*Christ's life and message offer a lot to modern day social problems, but the people of the church's institutions fail often because they 'comply' to keep participating, to keep their place at the table instead of overturning the table and saying 'not in my father's house.'
* Remember to value the individual more than the institution.
* Not abuse our our power as the 'adequate' and 'powerful' and 'healthy' and 'wealthy' and so called 'Godly' and impose our values or faith or religion on people who are powerless. They need our sense of humanity, not our take on life and God and whatever else.

3.What do homeless people need the most?
People willing to listen and learn and be present with them as Mary would have.

4. What do homeless people most want homed people to know?
I'm not or haven't been homeless, but I'd imagine it would go something like this:
If only you knew how easy it is for you to be in our position, if only you knew how close to us you were, maybe you wouldn't treat us like we are so far away from you.

Hope this helps, please pray for our community.

Likely you will get some more answers to your questions.

Tom.

10-25-2006, 04:00 AM

Greetings from the USA. I am a seminary student doing a research paper on homelessness. It is not just a paper for me. I have four questions:
1. what can an individual do to help homeless people?

2.what should the church be doing to prevent or help end homelessness?

3.What do homeless people need the most?

4. What do homeless people most want homed people to know?

Thanks so much:)

my paper is due the middle of November

Hi Peacebe1,

I'm a homeless guy living on the streets of London ...
I can't respond to your questions on everyones behalf,
but what I can do is to give you my answers
to those questions of yours.

Q.1 I agree with Dominic on this one, society tends to stereotype homeless
people and we are all reduced to the identity of the lowest behaved
individuals which is'nt fair because those 'high profile' homeless guys we
all know about are not a fair representation of the homeless communities
at large. A kindly word to those that you meet can work wonders.
Many street people feel alienated from society.

Q.2 As for what can the church do ..? There are many churches here in
London that do a tremendous job with the homeless. unfortunately,
these churches are either operating on an individual basis, or in small
co-ordinated groups. I would like to see a national (global ?) get
together of the churches to speak with one voice ... the conscience
of the nation(s) nagging the government(s) into action to help reduce
the problems of homelessness with an effective long term solution.

Q.3 Quite simple in it's complexity, Understanding.

Q.4 Homelessness can happen to almost anyone ... Job loss, divorce,
illness, ( mental or physical ) alcohol / drug / substance dependancy
debt bankruptcy e.t.c e.t.c.
I have met many different sorts of people on the streets from various
class layers of society.
Perhaps having a mature enough mind to understand that might
be a giant leap forward in understanding the homeless plight.

Hopefully this is of some benefit to you .....

Good luck with your paper.

Tom.

peacebe1

10-26-2006, 12:07 PM

thanks so much for your input. i really appreciate it. I can do little for you in London from the USA. I will pray that God meets all of your needs, physicall, financially, emotionally, and spiritually. He loves you so much. My huscand have been a miracle away from being out on the streets many times, but God has always made a way for us.:)

Tom.

10-27-2006, 12:24 AM

Thanks for that reply peacebe1.

To be quite frank with you ... God and myself are getting on just fine with each other.
Physically .. I'm fit. Financially .. I quess being poor by mans define is not quite the same thing as the way God would see it ... maybe I don't get what I want .. but I certainly get what I need.
As for emotionally ... everyday is a joy to me ... I look at the orthodox
way of life ( I spent most of my life in there) and I'm glad to be free from the yokes that being normal means I would have to carry.
( The yoke of Jesus is light ... an awesome thought to some maybe...
but beleive me, It's the truth.)

Spiritually ? ....... I'll let you work that one out.
here is a clue for you .. Psalm 23 is a everyday reality for me.

Having found my peace with the lord ... I now try and help others that are in a far less fortunate position than me.
Being homeless is not the worst thing in the world. ( Jesus himself was homeless during the days of his missionary.)
Having a home but not being able to service the financial obligations
associated with keeping it is more stressful than being on the streets.

People talk of the homeless being vulnerable .. surely thats true, but who isn't vulnerable in today's society ?
The widow collecting her pension ? The teenagers on the street corner
buying drugs ? Young girls on the late night transport systems ?

There are many worst things than being without a home ... not that I would
encourage anyone to render themselves homeless, but all things in proportion.

We are constantly being told now that we live in a ' global village ' ...
If thats true then I guess the homeless problems of all the nations amount to
' the global village problem.' So let us be thankful for this particular website
for giving us all the opportunity to communicate with each other...
It does not matter if you are in America ... It's only on the other side of the pond....

Good luck, and thanks.

Tom.