Analysis. Last weekend, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler sounded the alarm over his city’s homeless crisis, calling it “a human catastrophe.” Portland’s homeless population has shot up by 50% — from 2,037 in 2019 to upwards of 3,000 this year, resulting in some 700 homeless encampments over 146 square miles.

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That’s just Portland. Many cities across the U.S. are experiencing similar problems. San Francisco counted 7,800 homeless people this year, Los Angeles 69,144,  Minneapolis 2,578, and Atlanta 2,017. According to the website PolicyAdvice, the total number of homeless people nationwide is estimated at 552,830.

The numbers only tell part of the story.  In San Francisco, citizen journalists took it upon themselves to document the squalor homelessness has brought to once respectable neighborhoods. Earlier this year, the BBC reported on the fentanyl crisis overtaking the homeless on the streets of San Francisco. And the mayor of Portland stated that the relationship between drug addiction and homelessness is what makes it a humanitarian catastrophe.

The Causes Are Many

Homelessness is a multilayered problem. During my tenure as a law-enforcement chaplain, I was called upon to form a suburban poverty task force to address the growing issue of homeless campers in the wealthy suburbs north of Atlanta. I learned that people are homeless for different reasons and that many of them are difficult to help.

Some are homeless by choice: They simply don’t want the burden of rent, mortgage, or utilities payments, and they prefer the freedom that camping outside gives them. A few told us that they had been offered jobs but refused them, because they could get more money by panhandling and not having to pay taxes.

Others are homeless because they are mentally ill and unable to function in any group setting or to maintain a home. Greg, a fixture for decades in several Atlanta suburbs, is an example: He had mental-health issues that would make him aggressive when off his meds. Greg received SSI money through his family nearby, who were otherwise unable to take care of him, and he preferred to camp out in the woods. He refused help, and there was no law on the books that would allow us to force him into a program. Only when his aggression got out of hand and he committed a crime was Greg ever taken off the streets — only for him to be right back out there again once he had done his time behind bars.

For many, drug addiction and homelessness go hand in hand. Either due to underlying issues of mental and emotional health, or as a means of coping with a sudden downturn of fortune rendering them homeless, many turn to illegal drugs such as heroin, and now the deadly fentanyl. That, in turn, worsens their condition and decreases their chances of ever breaking the cycle.

Many are difficult to help. Almost all the programs I know, especially the faith-based ones, require an entrant to be off drugs, willing to abide by house rules, and desirous to turn their life around. Those who ended up on the streets because of bad decisions or sudden adversity but who are otherwise free of drug addiction or mental-health problems usually do well in those programs. But they comprise only a small percentage of the total homeless population.

The Solutions Are Few

Solutions for an end to the homeless crisis are not easy to come by. Many cities are passing urban camping ordinances which prohibit improper use of public spaces including erecting tents in an effort to keep homeless people off the streets and out of their parks. Critics say that it simply moves them, often to jail, but does not help end their homelessness or break their cycle of poverty. Portland’s proposed ban on urban camping at least includes outreach workers to direct homeless people to approved campsites that include treatment and services, as well as the building of 20,000 affordable housing units over the next decade.

We are a nation that champions individual freedom. That makes it difficult to force anyone into housing, programs, or treatment. An individual must be willing to do that and, as most program directors will tell you, have significant willpower and perseverance to see the program through. Many are so severely addicted or affected by mental health problems that they lack the minimum amount of executive function to take care of themselves. Even if they are willing to submit to treatment, it generally takes years of whole-life change for them to become productive members of society again.

It seems as if the American dream has turned into a nightmare for some, even as I watch mentally unstable, drug-addicted young people camp out in a patch of forest adjacent to multi-million-dollar neighborhoods down the street from where I live.

An Out-of-the-Box Approach

Does a solution exist? According to a World Economic Forum article, Finland is one of the few countries that have been able to drastically reduce the homeless population. Finland did so by turning the traditional approach — first solve your problems, then you can get housing — on its head. The Finns found that offering affordable housing, to which a tenant has to contribute according to his or her ability first, before the government will subsidize the rest, provided people sufficient incentive to seek help so that they could keep that roof over their head. Once they were housed, they could get treatment, counseling, social services, and help with job training and placement. This model is now being exported to other countries, such as the United Kingdom, where it also seems to be having more success than the traditional models do.

But this approach is still predicated on the individual’s desire to get off drugs, receive mental-health treatment, and get a job. It is also expensive, because all of that, including most of the housing, has to be subsidized. The Finns argue that spending money this way saves money in the long run, as cycles of poverty and addiction get broken and people are brought back into society as productive contributors. Finland is, of course, much smaller than the U.S. Here, individual states and counties would have to buy into this approach and enlist the help of churches and nonprofits to provide housing and programs to turn deeply broken lives around.

Some churches have begun building tiny homes for the homeless. Others open their doors as warming shelters during cold winter nights. But such programs only provide a place for some to sleep as an emergency measure, and not as a path toward a whole-life turnaround.

The Spiritual Aspects

I believe that the growing multipronged crisis of mental illness, self-medicating drug addiction, and homelessness is a wakeup call for us to realize that America has lost its way and that human means cannot provide adequate solutions.

What lies at the root of most cases is not misfortune, but a hole in the soul: darkness, a soul wound, a loss of identity and personal worth, all leading to deep depression, anxiety, and all kinds of disorders. People then turn to drugs to self-medicate, instead of turning to God, the Healer. This problem ranges from marijuana and pills, to methamphetamines, heroin, and now fentanyl — all readily available everywhere and eagerly supplied by well-organized criminal networks. The compounding of these mental and emotional wounds through the effects of hard drugs destroys any individual ability to function. The easiest thing the sufferers can think of is to keep camping, keep availing themselves of whatever charity is offered, and to keep taking drugs to numb the pain.

I sometimes find myself praying for some sort of powerful move of God to end all this misery and rescue all these lives. But I have come under conviction lately that He does not intend to work that way. He works through His people.

In the words of Jesus: “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’ ” (Matthew 25:34–40).

God’s people, in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, also have His love dwelling in them. And that love is expressed by the very actions Jesus mentions in that passage. This is the nature of God in us put into action, and it makes us recognizable as His sheep. As a pastor friend once told me, “We have to stop going to church, and start being the Church.”

And we must do this not only to feed, clothe, and give shelter, but also to introduce people to the One Who desires to fill the hole in their souls, forgive their sins, and heal their wounds.

For this reason, I have begun to pray for an awakening of godly love in the Church, a love that expresses itself in generous, wise, consistent ministry to the lost, the last, the least, the left behind, and the left out — many of whom are even now out on our streets, hurting and strung out on drugs.

What if we were to cry out together to God, that He would awaken that in us? And what if we, in His power and provision, were to put the resources of more than 38 million evangelicals to use to change the lives of half a million for eternity?

That’s a God-sized prayer. A mountain to move. But it takes a faith only the size of a mustard seed to make happen. I have faith that it will happen, as we unite our voices and ask God to awaken the Church to release its wealth (billions in personal assets according to one major Christian foundation) and do the work to which the Church is called. After all, reaching the homeless in our backyard is as much a part of the Great Commission as is evangelizing an unreached tribe on the other side of the world.

Father, we pray that You would raise up laborers and resources in Your Church throughout America to do what the government can’t do: bring whole-life change to the homeless, and to shelter, clothe, and feed them — and above all, to introduce them to You, Who alone have the power to heal hearts and change lives. Enable and empower the churches and ministries already at work among this population. Ignite the hearts of many throughout our land to join them in this work. Forgive us where we have forgotten to be the Church and have instead only “gone to church,” and awaken us to this great mission field. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Let’s pray that God would begin using us to help the poorest of the poor. Share your prayers below.

Remco Brommet is a pastor, spiritual-growth teacher, and prayer leader with over 40 years of experience in Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the U.S. Born and raised in the Netherlands and having pastored his first church in Amsterdam, Remco moved to the U.S. in 1986. He and his wife, Jennifer, live north of Atlanta. When not writing books, he blogs and assists his wife as a content developer and prayer coordinator for True Identity Ministries. Jennifer and Remco are passionate about bringing people into a deeper relationship with Christ. Photo Credit: Steve Knutson on Unsplash.