Calgary churches link up to fight homelessness
CALGARY, AB - A project involving 130 churches coming alongside members of this city's homeless population could turn out to be as much a blessing for the congregations involved as they hope it will be for the people they are wanting to help.
The churches are members of 10 denominations affiliated with the local branch of the social justice group KAIROS, which initiated the project. The plan is to raise $1.5 million toward reducing by half the mortgage on Acadia Place, an apartment complex the Calgary Homeless Foundation bought in 2009 to provide transitional housing to homeless individuals and families. That in turn would reduce their rents by about $200 a month.
Church members are also being encouraged to get personally involved by befriending and offering support to the people living there.
A 2008 City of Calgary survey found 4,060 people to be without permanent housing, a figure that has likely grown since then. Two years ago, the provincial government launched a 10-year plan to end homelessness in Alberta. Acadia Place is part of that plan.
"The goal is that no one should be in a shelter for longer than a certain period. It should be a situation that gets resolved fairly quickly," says Dave Holmes, pastor of McDougall United Church in southeast Calgary, not far from Acadia Place.
"People know it's a big issue," says Geoff Zakaib, chair of the KAIROS Calgary homelessness working group. "But one of the big questions is, what can I do about it? So the main objective of the project is to provide an answer to how can we help."
But it is also proving to be an eye-opener for the churches as they realize what they can achieve when they join forces, despite their denominational differences. Zakaib says that was clearly evident when they gathered to formally launch the project.
"The energy in the air was phenomenal - the chatter and people talking back and forth," he says. "People can now put faces to names. They know who to call within the different denominations. Those things are subtle, but really incredibly powerful going forward."
For the members of the Lutheran Church of Our Saviour, just a few blocks away from Acadia Place, the project seems especially well-timed.
"It fits in with the direction that we're moving in," says pastor Lee Woolery, "that we need to be more engaged, moving from being an attractional church, where people are invited to come, to sending the people of God out into the neighbourhood."
Last year, people from churches in the area helped build a playground at Acadia Place. In February, they assisted residents who had to evacuate due to a water-main break.
Holmes says churches have cooperated on other projects, but never on one that "requires us to raise money [in the seven figures]. It is a challenge to take on a project of this size."
Woolery knows of two denominations that have asked to participate, even though they are not part of KAIROS.
Zakaib says the decision to limit church involvement was deliberate. "We felt we needed to be pretty focused on this first project to make sure that it was a success," he says. "But in future projects, we would absolutely want to expand out to other faith groups."
"It's about time," says Woolery. "We're focused. We're discovering that God is doing some wonderful things in our community. So why aren't we all joining together and participating in that? I think that's what God wants for us."
Those participating in the Acadia Place project include Anglican, Western Canada Baptist, Christian Reformed, Evangelical Lutheran, Mennonite, Presbyterian, Quaker, Roman Catholic and United churches and church agencies.
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