The Religion section of the Aug. 16 edition of The Times-Picayune featured an Associated Press story titled “Haven from Harassment”.  The article tells the story of a church in Baltimore which has opened up its property for homeless people to stay in.St. Vincent De Paul Church is a 167-year old Roman Catholic institution.  Its main property is located in a neighborhood that is rapidly growing in both affluence and architectural beauty.  In 2000, the Church took over a nearby park that homeless individuals had frequented since the mid-1980s and officially opened the property for those without a place to live to stay permanently.  This move continues an ongoing church policy of protecting such individuals from harassment from the public at large and from the government itself.Homelessness is an ugly and unfortunate evil of modern urban society, and sadly the government has a poor track record of dealing with the problem.  In many cases, city governments simply shoo away displaced citizens to prevent the ugly side of their jurisdiction from coming to light.In response to a general lack of action in the hallowed halls of government, religious institutions have often stepped up to minister to those without a place to live.  Nationwide, church-run institutions provide food, clothing and shelter for homeless people.  Even St. Vincent De Paul’s outdoor property strategy isn’t entirely new —  a Presbyterian church in New York City won a lawsuit allowing homeless citizens to stay on its doorstep. Seattle suffers from an atrocious homelessness rate and churches and synagogues take turns hosting tent cities in their parking lots.I was exposed first-hand to the life of a homeless person in one of these tent cities when I participated in a spring break mission trip.  I also heard directly from church workers and homeless people exactly how they have been repeatedly spurned by their city government.Now Baltimore officials, continuing this lamentable trend, are criticizing the church’s effort.  “I don’t believe that anybody should be sleeping in the streets, wherever it is, so I personally don’t believe that sleeping outside can ever be a sanctuary.  From a public health perspective, we don’t believe we’re meeting the needs of people by encouraging them to sleep on the streets,” said Diane Glauber, president of Baltimore Homeless services.To Glauber’s credit, the grounds provided by the church aren’t exactly pristine.  To quote the article, “though tall oaks shade the nearly half-acre space, the almost-bare ground sports cigarette butts and wrappers, as well as the occasional 11-inch dead rat or puddle of vomit.”Although the situation is far from ideal, the church has hired a dedicated manager to organize funds and coordinate efforts to clean the area.But even if the area is less than idyllic, what other recourse do these unfortunate individuals have? The reason they began congregating in the park in the first place was a curfew the city began enforcing in the area they had previously slept in, because of its proximity to City Hall.The underlying motives behind the city’s actions are likely the same ones that are common among city officials — homeless people make residents of the area uncomfortable. What would the response be if a campus ministry at LSU opened it’s grounds to the homeless?  Would students, staff and faculty respond with kindness, or outrage?I hope we would not try to stop the effort.  I hope that we as a campus would put aside our inevitable discomfort and endorse the effort.  It is a powerful characteristic of faith-based organization that they can provide aid when government is too inert to do so; perhaps the most poignant recent example is the response to Hurricane Katrina.  I applaud the church for its effort and hope we can follow its example a little closer to home.—-contact Matthew Albright at [email protected]