Mark Colville is something of an expert on homeless encampments. He and his wife, Luz Catarineau, have spent the last three years operating one in their backyard.
Housing
Posted inFeatures
How the Sisters of Mercy are fighting homelessness from coast to coast
“I feel like I meet Jesus in those people that I meet on the street every day,” said Luz Eugenia Alvarez, R.S.M.
Posted inDispatches
At Christmas, a reminder of Ireland’s persistent homelessness crisis
“I know many homeless people who tell me they would love to fall asleep on the first of December and wake up on the first of January. Christmas is the most miserable time for them.”
Posted inEditorials
The editors: How the church can advocate for affordable housing
The failure to build enough affordable housing is symptomatic of a low-expectations society hoping for problems to go away instead of solving them.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
L.A. and the sacred dream of suburbia, captured by D. J. Waldie
D. J. Waldie’s strikingly beautiful book in 1996 about what it was like to grow up in Lakewood, Calif., “Holy Land,” is one of many writings by this chronicler of Los Angeles’s past and future.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
I’ve been homeless and served the homeless. Real help starts with listening.
In my 40 years being homeless and working with the unhoused, I have learned that there is no one major reason why people become homeless.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
When the suburban American dream conflicts with Catholic social teaching
As Catholics, we must seriously consider where and how we live, and try to build sustainable communities with accountability to each other.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Criminalizing homelessness is just one more way to ignore the homeless
There is no one solution, including the best-intentioned right-to-shelter policies, that can address the multitude of issues that drive people into homelessness on a daily basis.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Landlords should be required to legally justify every eviction.
“Just cause” eviction laws can add a measure of security and predictability to housing markets. They can also correct the power imbalance between large landlords and tenants.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Why Catholics should resist NIMBYism
Housing is an extension of people and of the family, and we can’t ignore the need for more housing simply because we don’t want our neighborhoods to change.