Want to have an eye-opening experience? Study the homeless situation where you live.

Last November I started thinking about the homeless situation in our little town. Spencer is a town of about 3-3500 people. Owen County is about 23,000. We have two main bridges, neither of which is conducive to living under. They are bridges over rivers, not an overpass type of bridge. When I inquired about the homeless I was told we had none. One who had been “hiding out” under the one bridge was now in jail. The one someone saw on the steps of the post office didn’t exist. So I considered it pretty much a dead issue until a meeting a few months ago spurred the talk. So some of us have proceeded further in our discussion and, man, has it been eye-opening.

The information was basically right. Until you begin to include the students who “sofa surf;” those who live in substandard housing, cabins, tents, campers, storage units-many of them without running water and/or toilets. Sadly, many of them 1) like it that way and 2) want to be left alone. So the expected number of students who sofa surf is expected to be 150 by the end of the school year.

My point: homelessness is much more than living under a bridge. It could be the single mom/dad trying to raise two children with some dignity, living with a friend or relative, sleeping on a couch or floor. It could be the family whose house/trailer burned and they live there because it is all they have. It could be that panhandler begging you for a little something.

Whenever I think I want to quit thinking about people like this, I am stopped dead in my tracks by Jesus’ words: “When I was hungry, you gave me something to eat…naked…thirsty…in jail…” Which part of “I don’t care” is easy to stomach?

Have you ever checked out the homeless situation in your community? I’d like to hear results. I’d also like to hear if any of you are involved in a ministry to “street people” or the homeless.