Our Faith Matters Initiative Asks: Can 500,000 People End Homelessness?

May 2010

Can 500,000 people of faith end homelessness in Los Angeles? On Tuesday, May 11, faith, community and government leaders came together at the California Endowment to address that very question. More importantly, they asked another question: How?

250 people attended the 2010 Our Faith Matters Symposium to share how their faith organizations can help end homelessness in Los Angeles. Participants came from 81 faith organizations from 26 cities in Southern California, representing diverse traditions including Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Together, the faith groups in attendance represented more than 500,000 constituents.

“500,000 is a lot of people,” Joel John Roberts, CEO of PATH Partners, said. “Now we need these half a million people to convince the other ten million people in the county that no one should have to live on our streets.”

Faith leaders engaged throughout the day about how to mobilize the half a million people potentially represented in the room. As part of these efforts, attendees were provided with ten concrete ideas their congregations could implement immediately to start fighting homelessness.

At the symposium, the newly-formed Interfaith Leadership Council (IFLC), which will head future endeavors of the Our Faith Matters initiative, publicly signed a Covenant to End Homelessness. The 20 IFLC members signing the Covenant included Hussam Ayloush (Council on American Islamic Relations, Southern California), Rev. Dr. Ken Fong (Evergreen Baptist Church), Rabbi Jonathan Klein (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice) and Rev. Dr. Cecil Murray (University of Southern California). Symposium attendees were also asked to pledge their support. By the end of the day, the document was covered in signatures.

“Half a million people rallying around the common goal to end homelessness can make a difference,” Roberts said. “If 500,000 people are all saying, ‘Enough is enough, we need to stop the scourge of homelessness in our society,’ then political, business and influential stakeholders in our community will listen.”

Our Faith Matters is an alliance of faith groups working together to inspire the community to end homelessness. It is an initiative of PATH Partners, a family of agencies helping people in need throughout Southern California. For more information, please visit www.ourfaithmatters.org.