Looking at Responsible Land Use

Because Homeless is Unnecessary. There are enough buildings in the world.



A lot of abandoned warehouses lining the Detroit Amtrak route to Dearborne could be shipped East for homeless housing.
How "big" is the Shrine? How much square footage? How big is part of the Shrine that can be converted into housing? Have you noticed that the Attorneys Generals have gone after mortgage lenders (who were just after getting as many people signed up for mortgages that they could then bundle and sell to the mortgage- backed securities guys so they certainly knew they made in many cases fraudulent misrepresentations, and then more mistakes on foreclosure documentation that is now getting a few hauled into court.) Have you noticed that this Foreclosure Crisis is not just due to a bunch of deadbeat or out of work people not paying their bills (one in 8 houses it is estimated)-there was, it is highly suspected now by lawyers looking at class actions, real fraud involved in some part of the industry-not just negligence-. The industry is scared to death that the ruling in New York will stand where a judge just totally wrote off the note and dissolved the mortgage obligation of one family subjected to abusive practices involving false and/or fraudulent foreclosure documentation. They will take your equity and your house, thank you very much. You get to live with aunt Sally or haul your kiddies to the Salvation Army. This has happened to an enormous amount of people across the country.
And these are in some cases good hardworking folks with jobs who pay their bills. What should happen to them when they are rendered homeless. Entire families. And priests are living three to a Palace.



Look at the church properties that are associated with huge rectories, huge schools and the like. It is very likely that some of these 'scandal' suits and settlements are inspired by the fact that people are just really offended that clergy should live so high off the hog when this is an economic melt down of historic depression proportions and the people going to mass are homeless and penniless in some parishes-and they don't mind seeing these get sold to people who will use them more responsibly. This is the stuff of the French Revolution where the Bastille was full more with clergy than nobility. It has to do with economic disparity and desperation more than a 'secularization' bemoaned by some. It is not a philosophical disagreement causing this so much as economic desperation conditions.
I find not so much ironic as tragic that an order like the Dominicans has a property of that magnitude when they are ostensibly pledged to "poverty" when collectively their New York Trust Account and Real Estate is not counted in their collective asset profile. Some 'poverty.' A long way off from Saint Dominic finding boat passage in the mouth of a fish.

The church has to start looking harder at responsible land use issues and really hard at its hypocrisy. Not a bad idea to convert a convent in northeast DC a few years ago into housing for lower income people. There should be more projects like it for renovations to convert into affordable housing buildings not used well or at maximum capacity.
Jesus said insofar as you Do to the least of these of you do me- I don't read 'lecture them' as one of those Matthew 25 mandates. I don't even read "preach to them" in Matthew 25. Insofar as you preach to these the least of my brethren you do it to me. No.

Feed the Hungry. Clothe the Naked. House the Homeless. Even if you have to convert some of your office space and turn a chapel into a makeshift dorm room.