We’ve all had that feeling, you see someone at a stoplight with a cardboard sign. Do I make eye contact or look straight ahead? Should I give money or does that feed the problem more?
It seems like the number of homeless in Denver is rising. More people are at stoplights, and tent encampments are frequent downtown.
Denver Mayor Michael Johnston declared a state of emergency regarding Denver homelessness during his second day in office back in June 2023. He rolled out a plan called House1000, a strategy that uses converted hotels and “micro-communities” to move people from encampments to indoor housing. Micro-communities involve tiny homes or other temporary structures on vacant properties. His goal was to literally move 1,000 people from sleeping on the streets to being in housing, even if temporary, by the end of 2023. His larger goal is to end homelessness in Denver in four years.
The mayor’s micro-communities have received the largest amount of pushback from neighboring residents, and of the proposed 10 communities, only one opened by the end of 2023. Still, according to their housing dashboards, a little over 1,000 people were successfully moved indoors.
As Catholics, what is our response? Are we open to a micro-community or a hotel housing the homeless in our neighborhood? Are the mayor’s efforts enough to end homelessness? Do we have a part we need to play?
Christ in the City – Offering the Hope of Christ
Christ in the City, a Catholic organization in Denver, goes about it in a bit of a different way. Young people sign up to give a year of their lives to the mission by living in community, receiving formation, and going out to the streets daily to encounter the poor. These missionaries walk consistent routes every day to encounter the same people and build relationships.
Philip Couture, director of formation for Christ in the City, lauded the Mayor’s plan as “maybe the best we could ever devise, humanly speaking.” But he acknowledged its shortcomings precisely because it ends with the human and doesn’t recognize the need for God in a broken world.
“All poverty, all homelessness is the result of sin,” Couture said. “This is the source of all ruptured relationships. And that rupture is in the human heart, it’s not something the government can reach.”
Christ in the City’s efforts are less tangible with the goal being relational rather than material. The missionaries offer the hope of Christ through an ongoing friendship with their “friends on the street,” as the missionaries affectionately call the homeless.
Christ said the poor will always be with us, Couture said, and as long as there’s sin in the world, there will be poverty and homelessness, no matter the best of initiatives we propose.
Sam Schultz, director of homeless outreach for Christ in the City, said the missionaries have been visiting the hotels that have become transitional housing under the mayor’s plan and have been a welcomed presence.
“The ministry is still the same,” Schultz said. “It’s not as if these people have suddenly regained all they’ve lost.”
The missionaries offer a smile, a warm conversation, and the love of Christ inside these hotels. The people may have been moved inside, but they are still lonely, facing the same problems they struggled with while on the streets, Schultz said.
“Give people the experience of being known, loved and seen by others,” Schultz said. “It’s a force in itself.”
While the mayor’s “housing first” strategy meets a direct need of the homeless, one of the criticisms is that it may not address the deeper issues and reasons people are on the street in the first place. Schultz also spoke about a “shelter first” response, recognizing that every person deserves shelter, a place to rest their head, but that they might not be in a place to receive and steward a home. There might be more healing that needs to occur first.
Principles to Guide Us
While there may be many ways to approach the needs of the homeless, the Church in her wisdom sets out some principles to guide our efforts. Couture spoke about Catholic Social Teaching as guiding Christ in the City’s mission and needing to guide each one of our responses to the poor.
“The person is of the highest value, period,” Couture said. The dignity of the human person is the first principle of Catholic Social Teaching — themes and principles pulled from papal documents written over the last 100 years.
“All of creation is intended for every person,” Couture said, explaining another guiding principle.
This principle often jars with the American value of private property, he said. We can be tempted to hoard our goods, keeping them for ourselves, rather than recognizing that what we have in excess actually belongs to the poor.
“Why is the first reaction to bemoan the troubles that the poor cause us, and why don’t we bemoan the fact that poverty and homelessness exist in this world?” Couture said. “Am I viewing the person as central to my decisions and my concerns?”
Another principle is subsidiarity, that the lowest level, or most accessible level of a community takes responsibility for its own needs.
“His plan is excellent, it’s laudable,” Couture said. “But we intuit that the government can’t take responsibility for all things. They can’t take responsibility for things the homeless need to. We can’t relinquish our responsibility to the government to make the homeless our neighbor.”
Making the Homeless Our Neighbors
“Acting as if we belong to each other, that’s where it starts,” Schultz said.
We need an array of programs, and we need good initiatives, like the Mayor’s, but we also need an individual response for our own hearts to be moved, Schultz said.
“I can still argue for good policies, but when I see that person on the street, my heart goes out to them,” Schultz said.
Christ is very clear in the Gospel about the individual need to serve the poor. He assures us of his very presence in the poor in Matthew 25:40, saying, “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”
With the hope of the Resurrection urging us on, Christians have a duty to be neighbors to the least brothers and sisters we encounter. Christ in the City recommends the simple step of rolling down your window when you see someone at a stoplight. You may choose to offer them money or not, or maybe a soft snack or a small bag of items you have on hand for this situation, but that is secondary. What comes first is looking them in the eyes, greeting them warmly, and in a small way, offering them the hope of Christ.
“The call to evangelize is inherent to the Christian life,” Couture said. “Many imagine powerful speeches and debates changing people’s minds, but this is unconvincing if the person senses you don’t care to have a relationship with them. When you witness someone live out an unconditional love that you did not think was humanly possible, it gives you hope that the world can be different.”
Get Involved
Christ in the City also welcomes volunteers at their lunches in the park, happening every Wednesday at noon, and the second Saturday of the month at noon. For more information, or to volunteer, visit christinthecity.org/get-involved.