Church efforts key to helping homeless
The efforts of Colorado Springs churches toward the homeless probably helped the City Council feel secure about passing the no-camping ordinance on city land.
The combined efforts of the Colorado Springs Police Department, nonprofit social service organizations like Westside CARES and Catholic Charities, and local churches showed the council that the law passed on Feb. 9 will not leave some 300 campers along creek beds near downtown and on the west side without food and shelter once the law is enforced.
The Interfaith Hospitality Network, founded by downtown churches, will continue its work of sheltering homeless families on a rotating basis. Some of the churches involved are First Presbyterian, First Lutheran, First Congregational, First United Methodist, First Christian, St. Mary’s Cathedral, and Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal.
Also, in a new program, about seven churches that are part of the Black Pastors Union, such as Trinity Baptist, have agreed to shelter families or individuals.
Church volunteers also regularly visit campers to offer moral support, food and clothing.
A religious organization helping out is the Salvation Army’s New Hope Center, which has 200 beds for the homeless.
Then there’s the Criminal Justice Center’s detox center. Detox has dozens of beds and, unlike most shelters, will accept those who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Another positive sign that alternative shelters will be found for the campers is that, with the passage of the ordinance, the El Pomar Foundation has awarded a $100,000 grant to Homeward Pikes Peak for housing assistance.
“We have enough beds for the people who want to get off the street,” said Bob Holmes, executive director of the local homeless outreach.
The issue on the horizon, however, will be what to do with the substantial number of homeless who don’t want to get off the streets. Of the encamped homeless, Holmes thinks only about 100 will agree to leave their soon-to-be-illegal shelters.
Trinity Baptist pastor Jim Dotson hopes that whatever plan develops will exhibit “the spirit of love and compassion” toward the campers.
Organizers anticipate that some of the public will be unsympathetic toward the homeless who ignore the law.
To those people, the Rev. Kent Ingram of First United Methodist has questions: Do you know the homeless? Do you know their names? Have you heard their stories?
“The human contact would change their perception,” Ingram said. “The homeless are not a blight on our city.”
“We can do what is helpful to them,” he said, “while offering them an appropriate boundary.”
The anti-camping law is expected to take effect in early March.
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Call Barna at 636-0367.
To read more on the homeless and churches, go to my blog, The Pulpit, at www.thepulpit.freedomblogging.com.
