Activity B

Ignorance of Church "Service" Projects
I was recently reminded about the misconception
that homeless people gather around homeless services. 
I haven't been to church in a long time,
but I went this past Sunday.  

The Sunday School class that morning was discussing
the homeless ministries the church was involved with,
which seemed rather fortuitous to me,
being a subject I am somewhat familiar with.

As often happens in these discussions,
the subject of where the homeless
choose to be homeless, comes up. 
One person brought up San Diego,
 and said that the weather there
certainly must be attracting a lot of homeless people. 
But then another person countered that Seattle
has a large homeless population
and the weather there is less than ideal.  

So then it was mentioned that
Seattle must have good social services for the homeless,
and that must be what is attracting homeless people there.
But then it was brought up that Nashville also
has good services for the homeless,
yet Nashville does not have nearly the homeless population
that Seattle has.

I think it's important to note that
people who comment on the quality of homeless services
really don't know what they are talking about.  
They only know about homeless services as
they are relayed to them from a third party. 
They don't actually take a first hand look at the services
provided for the homeless,
neither do they take the time to determine
if the services described to them are real or exaggerated,
or if they are actually meeting the needs of the homeless.

Most people don't really know
what it is that homeless people
need. So,
their assessment of services,
especially comparing one place to another,
is factually baseless. 

They just don't know what they are talking about.


http://thehomelessguy.blogspot.com/