LDS Church and Homelessness

[BabyPeterzz]

I have a question for the LDS members. What is your take on the LDS Church’s role in addressing homelessness in Salt Lake City, and Utah in general?

Here’s mine. The LDS Church is headquartered in SLC, the heart of the homeless issue in Utah. This is the case because most of the homeless resources and services are located in downtown SLC. Since the pandemic, homelessness has grown throughout the country, a large portion of which are older people. What is the LDS churches role in addressing this?

Honestly, it disgusts me that a trillion dollar, tax-exempt, organization, with a temple surrounded by the sick and dying people right outside their gates, doesn’t use that money to end homelessness nationwide, at least. It baffles me. I think it’s evil. They are certainly not doing what they say Jesus did. It’s literally Christianity’s mission to help the poor.

They have more money than god, and they watch people starve from their lofty towers.

I think it shameful. Your thoughts?


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[fishonjazz]

I have a question for the LDS members. What is your take on the LDS Church’s role in addressing homelessness in Salt Lake City, and Utah in general?

Here’s mine. The LDS Church is headquartered in SLC, the heart of the homeless issue in Utah. This is the case because most of the homeless resources and services are located in downtown SLC. Since the pandemic, homelessness has grown throughout the country, a large portion of which are older people. What is the LDS churches role in addressing this?

Honestly, it disgusts me that a trillion dollar, tax-exempt, organization, with a temple surrounded by the sick and dying people right outside their gates, doesn’t use that money to end homelessness nationwide, at least. It baffles me. I think it’s evil. They are certainly not doing what they say Jesus did. It’s literally Christianity’s mission to help the poor.

They have more money than god, and they watch people starve from their lofty towers.

I think it shameful. Your thoughts?


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My thoughts are that most church members are like most of society and think the homeless are lazy gross icky drug addicted mooches that they don't like. I also think that most people think that homeless people are homeless by their own bad decisions and thems the consequences. That making bad decisions has consequences and you have to be responsible for those bad decisions.

That's my guess

I also think that the church believes that the money they have would be better spent and should be spent on their own. Probably some greed and selfishness sprinkled in there too.

I think that religious people and religions by and large are the same good and bad as the rest of society. Despite the perception and the teachings in their books.

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[Sardines]

I have always been a little confused by the lack of support the LDS church does for the community as a whole. I know they do significant work through direct support to individuals and other things like their pantry or whatever that is. But why don't they run soup kitchens, shelters, hand out coats/blankets to homeless, etc.? From my outside looking in perspective it seems that there are strings attached to their help, like more or less pressuring the recipients of help to become more active in the church, not to mention that you sort of have to be part of the church to begin with to receive any help. Maybe I'm wrong about that and someone can point me towards work they do in the SLC area that is not related to its members.

The bigger one for me, however, is public school funding. I mean our religislature isn't committed to funding our public schools well. The LDS church also doesn't seem to do anything to boost our school system, which I find kind of shameful. The church is the largest property holder in the state and I'm sure that goes for SLC/SLV as well. School funding comes from property taxes yet the church, while owning the most property, is exempt from taxes on that property. If a non-church organization owned all their property we'd have a lot more money for our schools. Maybe the church could throw their community a bone and donate significant money to our public school system.

 

[BabyPeterzz]

My thoughts are that most church members are like most of society and think the homeless are lazy gross icky drug addicted mooches that they don't like. I also think that most people think that homeless people are homeless by their own bad decisions and thems the consequences. That making bad decisions has consequences and you have to be responsible for those bad decisions.

That's my guess

I also think that the church believes that the money they have would be better spent and should be spent on their own. Probably some greed and selfishness sprinkled in there too.

I think that religious people and religions by and large are the same good and bad as the rest of society. Despite the perception and the teachings in their books.

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Oh I’m not criticizing members. I think religion as a general practice and faith are good things. It’s the institutions that are dangerous imo. Exploring faith, god or whatever you call it, love, kindness, service is all beautiful with kind intentions. Love my good, non-homophobic LDS homies.

Church organizations take that kindness, monetize it, and horde. I don’t even criticize them for attracting pedophiles anymore, I just wish they would really help them get better instead of moving them around and let them rape more kids. Everyone deserves help and love, not enablement. But I digress, church orgs have jumped the shark and there’s a reason they’re losing members and the population is becoming more secular. No ones buying their ******** anymore.

I think they’re heading towards a coming to Jesus moment. How ironic.

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[Mongoose]

For the amount of money the government has sent to Ukraine they could have solved homelessness in the US a number of times over.

 

[fishonjazz]

For the amount of money the government has sent to Ukraine they could have solved homelessness in the US a number of times over.

I know right. ****ing russia

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[BabyPeterzz]

For the amount of money the government has sent to Ukraine they could have solved homelessness in the US a number of times over.

Would you support the Fed using your tax dollars to solve homelessness? Cause you’re right!


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[Sardines]

Would you support the Fed using your tax dollars to solve homelessness? Cause you’re right!


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I would. All day every day.

 

[Mongoose]

Would you support the Fed using your tax dollars to solve homelessness? Cause you’re right!


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Yes of course… many of those homeless are American war veterans as well. Unfortunately there’s really only two types of Americans anymore. Those that have fought in the pointless forever wars for the bloodthirsty military industrial war machine and those that haven’t fought yet.

 

[Mongoose]

Did you know the majority of homeless Americans have jobs? Many of them more than one job?
When you factor in how many of those others that have physical or mental disabilities as well it’s unacceptable that we don’t take better care of our fellow Americans.

Employed and Experiencing Homelessness: What the Numbers Show

The truth is that many do – in fact, a 2021 study from the University of Chicago estimates that 53% of people living in homeless shelters and 40% of unsheltered people were employed, either full or part-time, in the year […]

endhomelessness.org

 

[Sardines]

Did you know the majority of homeless Americans have jobs? Many of them more than one job?
When you factor in how many of those others that have physical or mental disabilities as well it’s unacceptable that we don’t take better care of our fellow Americans.

Employed and Experiencing Homelessness: What the Numbers Show

The truth is that many do – in fact, a 2021 study from the University of Chicago estimates that 53% of people living in homeless shelters and 40% of unsheltered people were employed, either full or part-time, in the year […]

endhomelessness.org

Yeah the cost of housing is the biggest problem. You cannot work a minimum wage job and exist in our society in the normal way. You would never be able to afford housing, food, car, insurance, work attire, etc.. $15/hr is the bare minimum to actually live at the lowest level independently.

This is an actual crisis.

 

[BabyPeterzz]

Record number of Americans are homeless amid nationwide surge in rent, report finds

Rents over the last two decades have risen much faster than employee pay, contributing to an escalating homelessness crisis in the U.S.

www.cbsnews.com

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[Mongoose]

Yeah the cost of housing is the biggest problem. You cannot work a minimum wage job and exist in our society in the normal way. You would never be able to afford housing, food, car, insurance, work attire, etc.. $15/hr is the bare minimum to actually live at the lowest level independently.

This is an actual crisis.

There’s no reason for billionaire oligarchs to raise wages when you have millions of illegals flooding into the country.

 

[Sardines]

There’s no reason for billionaire oligarchs to raise wages when you have millions of illegals flooding into the country.

Then why have wages gone up over the last 40 years?

 

[Mongoose]

Then why have wages gone up over the last 40 years?

Have they? Wages aren’t keeping up with living costs. Workers can still use leverage and what unions haven’t been killed can help, but minimum wage hast been raise for quite some time. I’m not sure we’ve had the border issues for forty years at least not to the current level. The pay gap has expanded dramatically between productivity and pay since 1979. In fact it looks like the last 40 years have been the slowest wage growth maybe in American history.

The Productivity–Pay Gap

The huge gap between rising incomes at the top and stagnating pay for the rest of us shows that workers are no longer benefiting from their rising productivity. Before 1979, worker pay and productivity grew in tandem. But since 1979, productivity has grown eight times faster than typical worker...

www.epi.org

 

[The Thriller]

As a tithe paying member of the LDS church, I don’t believe the church does nearly enough to alleviate poverty and homelessness in Utah. I’d love to see the church commit far more to alleviate suffering. Just a few simple tweaks would do a lot.

* It wouldn’t take much to convert every other stake center in the state into a day care center during the day. You think about it, young families often cite child care as one of their biggest concerns. Church buildings sit empty every weekday until the evening. Why not run day care services? You could run free or severely discounted services with trained teachers. No strings would be attached. This would be open to all members of the community. This could be a more effective missionary tool than many proselytizing missions tbh.

* I’d like to see the church go back to having paid professionals clean church buildings. One, because the current system is a failure. You get the same handful of volunteers to do a half *** job of cleaning every week. Two, I think this could be an employment opportunity for members needing employment.

* I’d like to see the church adjust their tithing, as they’ve done in the past. The current 10 percent “flat tax” hits those struggling the hardest. And contrary to what some members say, tithing isn’t voluntary. If you don’t commit to paying tithing, you cannot be baptized. If you’re baptized and aren’t paying tithing, you cannot receive a temple recommend. I’d like to see it become truly voluntary and/or id like to see it change so poorer families or families who have missionaries pay a different rate.

* I’d like to see the church expand its vision for the perpetual edu fund. This is a fund that helps students from foreign and poorer countries receive an education. Such a fund could be useful here in the United States. I’d like to see scholarships offered for seminary graduates, returned missionaries, etc to receive the college or trade school educations they desire. And if you’d like to see more funds spent in K12 edu, the church merely needs to make 3 phone calls, 1 to the House Speaker, 1 to the Senate President, and 1 to the governor. All are lds members and all would easily fund the votes to double edu spending if they so desired.

Unfortunately, a lot of this requires out of the box thinking, something almost completely unheard of with a church leadership that makes the US Senate look like a kindergarten. Why does the church have age limits for the Quorum of the 70 and not for the Quorum of the 12? I guess that’s a topic for another day. I’d like to see greater innovation from the church. More concern for humanity. What’s the point of having a portfolio of billions if you aren’t going to use it to help others?

 

[Al-O-Meter]

$15/hr is the bare minimum to actually live at the lowest level independently.

This is an actual crisis.

All it will do is increase automation. Where I live the minimum wage is already $16.30/hr. In April, about 90 days from now, the minimum wage for fast food will be $20/hr. Near my house is a fast food restaurant that often has a staff of one. He/she takes all counter order, drive-thru orders, and makes all the food or rather the automated kitchen makes the food. Meanwhile California has more homeless than the rest of the nation combined. Those solutions that work in your head don't have quite the outcome you are imagining when implemented in practice.

 

[Sardines]

All it will do is increase automation. Where I live the minimum wage is already $16.30/hr. In April, about 90 days from now, the minimum wage for fast food will be $20/hr. Near my house is a fast food restaurant that often has a staff of one. He/she takes all counter order, drive-thru orders, and makes all the food or rather the automated kitchen makes the food. Meanwhile California has more homeless than the rest of the nation combined. Those solutions that work in your head don't have quite the outcome you are imagining when implemented in practice.

I said that $15/hr is the bare minimum to live independently. I actually don't know if that is an accurate number but that is what I think would be enough to live a sustainable life for one person. I didn't say anything about what the federal minimum wage should be, or what fast food restaurants should do, or if automation is good or bad.

I think that ultimately there is going to need to be a UBI. Not so that poor people can live a sustainable life, but so that our society doesn't completely collapse.

 

[Al-O-Meter]

I think that ultimately there is going to need to be a UBI. Not so that poor people can live a sustainable life, but so that our society doesn't completely collapse.

UBI would be the cause of a complete societal collapse. It would take less than 10 years to either abandon it or for life to look like "you'll work harder with a gun in your back and a bowl of rice a day" as the great Jello Biafra so aptly put it.

 

[Sardines]

UBI would be the cause of a complete societal collapse. It would take less than 10 years to either abandon it or for life to look like "you'll work harder with a gun in your back and a bowl of rice a day" as the great Jello Biafra so aptly put it.

The reason we're going to need UBI is because automation and AI is going to eventually going to mean we don't need most people to work. So I guess we can either kill a bunch of people or we could create a UBI. The entire reason for UBI is because production and productivity will be so incredibly high compared to the amount of workers required to keep it going. Without consumers who have some amount of money there will be no need for production. Capital owners will either have to decide to quit playing their favorite game or will have to give significant portions of their massive profits to create a UBI.