In our country today homelessness persists. Hundreds of thousands of people continue to live without housing within a society of abundance. Other estimates go much higher, especially when the count includes families and persons forced to double-up because of the lack of affordable housing. The number of elderly people, women, and children among the homeless is increasing. Families are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population.
Homelessness is a reality in urban, suburban, and rural communities.
Millions of people exist on the precarious edge of homelessness. Without major changes in our society, homelessness will be more pervasive in the 1990s than it was in the 1980s. For some time congregations, individuals, social agencies, and synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have called attention to the plight of homeless people. Many members have worked with other churches and groups to provide food, shelter, and care, to study the social causes of homelessness, and to advocate policies that respond to the housing crisis. People in our congregations who are homeless and potentially homeless remind us of the urgency of the situation.