Praying for the Housing Crisis in Our City

We prayed for landlords and homeless folks and the city commissioner yesterday in church. While we often include prayers for the homeless in our worship services, I’m not sure we’ve ever devoted a specific, public, prayer time to it. Here’s what we did and why.

Our City’s Current Situation

It’s a seller’s market these days. This is great for sellers and real estate developers. It’s great for landlords who can now become more particular in who they lease to. It’s great for property owners who can now charge increased rents. Of course it’s harder for the buyers, but these are regular ebbs and flows in the housing market.

How we’re seeing this play out in our core city church, though, is that while it’s a challenge and in some cases a hardship for the middle and upper classes, this housing market can be downright devastating to the lower economic classes.

·         Section 8 recipients are coming to the end of their leases and are being told they have to move. Apartment complexes are deciding that they are no longer going to accept Section 8. There are now enough non-Section 8 applicants, and they can make more money this way. A very sweet married couple from my church who struggle with some development disabilities are currently being forced out for this reason. They have three more weeks to find a new apartment that accepts Section 8, and while our church has been helping people like them in this situation, there simply aren’t options out there.

·         Another young mom’s landlord decided that he didn’t want to renew his lease with her (she complained too much about his lack of maintenance). She and her children were sleeping in her car. They’re currently “couch surfing” (the term for “sleeping at the house of whoever will let them to stay”). I encouraged her to check out the emergency family shelter in town. I soon discovered that our emergency homeless shelter is full for families. The shelter told me that a few months ago they had over 100 families on their waiting list. They’re getting about 50 families per month into housing, but they cannot keep up with the demand.

·         And then, of course, there are the multiple people in our church who are going through various rehab programs. Part of the rehab programs involve helping the client transition into permanent housing. But there aren’t options available. So…the newly sober, newly clean people in addiction recovery end up going back to the friends and family who they’re trying to stay away from, but who will provide housing for them.

·         And there is always the concern for homeless young women. Prostitution guarantees a night off the street. It’s just a hard way to go.

So anyway, we decided to pray about the housing problem yesterday. I reached out to a few housing-aware leaders in our community to gather their suggestions. Here’s what we did.

Ahead of Time

We printed out fliers with emergency assistance that is offered at a local mission. This info included: times that women and men could show up for shelter, times that meals were served, how they could call ahead to find out if the youth shelter is full, etc.

Setting Up the Prayer Time:

                I gave a brief 2-3 minute background on the housing situation. While some were aware, others weren’t.

                I didn’t use the phrase “housing crisis.” I said “housing situation.” I was concerned about instilling fear and increasing anxiety among a population that already has a lot of fear and anxiety. But I did want them to have an awareness of the seriousness of the problem.

                We invited everybody personally investing in the housing situation to come forward to the altar for prayer. (We invite people forward for intercessory prayer weekly in our services.) We said those with other requests were more than welcome to come as usual, but we particularly wanted to pray for housing needs at a particular place at the altar.

                We specifically invited: those currently homeless, those soon to be homeless, landlords, property owners, property managers, and anyone else connected with the housing scene in Grand Rapids.

Prayer Points

We prayed for these people:

·         The homeless

·         Those soon to be homeless/those in housing transitions

·         Landlords

·         Apartment complex managers

We prayed for city leaders:

·         Developers

·         Inspectors

·         Planning Commissioners

·         City Planning Department

·         Funding Sources

We prayed for non-profits

·         3:11 (a homeless youth program that originated out of our church a few years ago)

·         Mel Trotter Ministries (an excellent local mission)

·         ICCF (a housing organization that focuses on “gentrification with justice” and has done incredible things to restore some of our residential urban areas)

·         LINC (a newer non-profit that is redeveloping mixed-use space for mixed income)

And then we remembered:

·         The infant Jesus who was homeless and slept in a barn

·         The grown Son of Man who had no place to lay his head

And we thanked the Lord for being:

·         The God who Hears

·         The God who makes ways where there seems to be no way

·         The God who is all-powerful and can do the impossible

This was a very meaningful and moving time in our services. Our altar was lined with homeless people, people who have been trying to find a better place to live that is away from drug-dealing family members, people soon to transition out of rehab, property managers and landlords seeking wisdom, non-profit workers interceding for their clients and for their own ministries, among others. We are praying for a break-through!