Tiny Houses, Huge Dividends

"The homeless in our country are an invitation to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb," I was once told.  At first, I thought I understood that premise but it didn't take long for me to realize the magnitude of the problem of poverty had reached such epic proportions.  There have been such an uptick in the number of homeless that municipalities are passing regulations to keep the homeless off of the street corners and preclude them from panhandling. Some city leaders across the country have pushed to make it illegal to feed the homeless in public.  Yes, you read that correctly. It's rather indicative of our society as a whole; we want to cover up the darkness that lies all around us that we could shed light upon.  

The issue of how to deal with the homeless in Oklahoma City really has reached an impasse wherein we see symptoms being treated but the disease itself left unchecked.  While it is true that we will always have the chronically transient in our midst, there are a great many homeless men, women, and families who just need a break to succeed.  In Seattle and other cities, the faith community is doing exactly what it should be; meeting need and caring for the least among us.

A Lutheran church used property they owned to build a tiny house village where homeless individuals can have a sense of home with their tiny house that can be locked and has utilities.  The residents will pay $90/mo for utilities and there is a centralized shower and restroom facility being built on the grounds as well.  It is an innovative approach that is going to meet with phenomenal success.  The big surprise of these tiny houses is that they each cost around $2,200 to build and that is chump change when you consider the cost of facilitating massive numbers in a public shelter.

Take a look at this video and ask yourself if our communities are doing enough.

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There are no two ways about it; we are always going to have the poor among us and the true test of our character is what we do about it.  Shame on elected officials who want to hide the problem and consider the homeless to be a nuisance rather than an opportunity to live out what we say we believe.

Of course this is just my opinion and I could be wrong; but I seriously doubt it.

Gorilla