Posted on 02/24/2020 3:48:44 PM PST by Hojczyk
HUD Secretary declares, 'In God We Trust'
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson plans to call on all churches, synagogues, and mosques in America to help fight homelessness in the weeks and months to come.
“If every church would adopt one homeless person or one homeless family, with the goal of making them self-sufficient in a year, can you imagine what the impact would be?” Carson asked in an interview with Just the News for the Pod's Honest Truth podcast.
HUD officials say this is not a new agency policy but rather a personal call by a man who is not only a cabinet secretary but also a devout Christian who wants to promote godly principles such as caring for your neighbor.
“Our money says, ‘In God We Trust,’” Carson noted. “Why don't we act like that?”
The call for places of worship to get involved is playing out in cities like Riverside, California. Carson recently visited a group of homes there situated on the grounds of the Grove Community Church, where the homeless stay and receive rehabilitation services.
The program is a public-private partnership between local city officials, who foot the bill, and the church, which provides services. That fits Carson’s philosophy of less government and more community involvement.
“They have all the resources and the skills of the people in the church,” Carson said. “They help them, they develop relationships, they get them jobs, they get them moving.”
As a government official, Secretary Carson’s call for places of worship to help the homeless will no doubt raise eyebrows among those concerned about separation of church and state. But Carson believes current notions of church-state separation have grown more expansive than intended by the framers.
(Excerpt) Read more at justthenews.com ...
If you feed them, they will come.
My daughter and son-in-law took in a homeless man late last year. He was pleasant enough - not a genius but definitely on the ball enough to work, clean, cook his own food, etc. They have a little out-building that serves as their market stand in the summer. It’s heated, and modern and clean. They did have to rent a porta-potty and he had to come in the house to use the shower, but he was always polite and cleaned up after himself. She did his grocery shopping for him (usually picking up the tab). She made the little shop very cozy and comfortable, providing a water system, a day-bed, carpeting, microwave, tv, etc.
She did a bit of researching in order to find something permanent for him (oh, forgot to mention, he was being taken care of by their church but it didn’t work out with the person who was going to take him in). The amount of money he got from the government only allowed about $800 for rent, and she couldn’t find anything in that price range. She found out he could actually work part-time and earn extra money without being penalized. This is where everything went south.
She thought she was being helpful and mentioned to him that he could actually work part-time and he’d have enough money for a nicer place. Now, my daughter is very (I think overly) helpful and friendly and she was not prepared for his reaction. He was mad as a hornet. He didn’t want to work, never liked answering to anyone, he was his own boss. He played his guitar all day, some video games, sat out and had a cigarette several times a day, etc. He was furious and she was now enemy #1....this nice person who invited him in regularly to have dinner with their family.
In the end, he threw a fit (while I was there watching the kids) and I had to keep the doors locked and call my son-in-law and they came home from a farm meeting to deal with this guy. The pastor came and got him and he was moved out a couple of days later.
It was quite the lesson. I think these people often have underlying reasons as to why they are homeless. I’m sure there are some very unfortunate circumstances, but this guy just plain had a rebellious spirit and he was fine as long as everything went his way and people were bending over backwards to do things for him.
I only said two things.....no good deed goes unpunished was one, and, live and learn.
Good for Dr Carson. Any ordinary politician pulling this would be highly suspect, but I know it comes from his heart. What are churches and charities for? Lip service to helping the poor and homeless, but if they can afford it (and that is a big IF) then they should help out.
Gotta want help to be helped.
Leave churches alone. They’re already doing what they can Ben.
Memberships are off at churches, and they have to keep the physical plant financed or die off.
Bravo and all that, but there are many churches out there that scrape by just paying their utility bill.
President Trump’s fiscal 2021 budget asks Congress to allow Medicaid dollars to be spent on a newly created class of residential foster care, a move that it expects to open up half a billion dollars for mental health treatment over the next decade.
How many homeless are homeless because they choose to live that way? Use drugs, get welfare and charity, no responsibilities.... Some people just want to be a bum.
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