Massachusetts saw an 11 percent increase in homelessness between 1999 and 2000 as 10,500 families and 24,000 individuals found themselves needing shelter. Even as far away as Augusta, Maine, the numbers rose at one shelter from 800 overnight stays in 1997 to 3,400 in 2000. They'd look around the pews and see that some people aren't there anymore. No. 1 for a range of faith groups, from the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization to the Maine Council of Churches. Faith coalitions say they can mobilize large numbers on this issue because, unlike divisive issues such as teaching about homosexuality in schools, a housing crisis stirs universal concern across the spectrum of liberal and conservative congregations.
Every congregation has issues they speak out about.
Evidence of their clout is clear. Before a hallway crowd at the Massachusetts Statehouse this month, Ray Hammond lavished religious language on a group diverse enough to include Catholic nuns, Episcopal priests and the pastor of a gay-lesbian congregation. In terms of finding solutions to the housing crisis, the faithful's initiatives have focused on bricks and mortar. Faith groups aren't trying this year to solve the social causes of homelessness, however, largely because they don't agree on what those causes are. But it's economic realities.