When I was in law school at the University of Texas School of Law, I developed an unconventional friendship with a homeless man named Alphonsus. I first met Alphonsus early in my first year of law school while attending daily Mass at St. Austin’s Catholic Church near campus. As I was walking down the aisle after Mass, I noticed an older man in the back praying. The man looked to me like Moses. He was older, had a long scraggly gray beard, and had a severe look to him. As I recall, he was intently praying the Liturgy of the Hours, which I later found out was part of his daily prayer routine. With his rumpled clothes, unkempt appearance and nearby duffle bag stuffed with his belongings, it was obvious to me that this man lived on the streets.
I do not remember how we struck up a conversation, but the homeless man and I ended up talking together. I decided to invite him to join me for breakfast, which he did. He told me his name was “Alphonsus” after St. Alphonsus Ligouri. Soon our breakfast meetings became regular Saturday morning get-togethers after Mass.
It did not take long for me to learn that Alphonsus suffered from some kind of mental illness. Regularly, he would pull out his Bible and try to show me how many disparate passages were related to each other and “meant something.” He would usually speak excitedly at these discoveries, and his Bible was covered with written notations. I would try hard to follow him, but nothing he said made sense to me. Alphonsus also shared with me recurrent visions he would have at night that terrified him. He told me a group of shadowy people would surround him and scream at him and call him names. At first, I thought they were just nightmares, but I soon realized these horrifying experiences were very real to him. I would do my best to listen and then try to redirect his thoughts to happier things.
Alphonsus was a very devout Catholic. He was a convert to Catholicism and had been baptized and confirmed. He went to daily Mass, faithfully prayed the Liturgy of the Hours throughout the day, read his Bible and often prayed the rosary. Frequently, he told me that he was praying for me to do well in law school and for any intentions I shared with him. Alphonsus did not drink alcohol or do drugs, but did like to smoke cigarettes occasionally. All things considered, I thought he was a very holy man. Because of his deep faith, I tried to interest him in joining a nearby monastic community to get him off the streets, but he had absolutely no interest.
While I knew him, Alphonsus lived in an abandoned shopping mall until another homeless person discovered his hiding place and stole all his things, and later he lived under a bridge. It all seemed so precarious to me. Then one day my friend Alphonsus just plain disappeared. He stopped showing up at St. Austin’s for Mass, and I could not find him at his usual hang-out spots. I looked for him and asked around, but I never saw him again. Even though we had known each other for several years, I never even knew his last name. Looking back, I wish I had done more to help him.
Homelessness is a serious problem in our country. According to the most recent data published by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, in 2024 over 770,000 people in the United States experienced homelessness in an emergency shelter, safe haven, transitional housing program or in unsheltered locations across the country. This is the highest number ever recorded in our country’s history. Overall homelessness, unsheltered homelessness and chronic homelessness have increased every year since 2016. According to the same data source, 865 people experienced homelessness in North Dakota in 2024, and this number has increased almost 60% over just the past four years.
The causes of homelessness are complex and include a lack of affordable housing, joblessness or insufficiently low wages, alcohol and substance abuse disorders and mental health disorders. Some proposed solutions for alleviating the homeless problem include making affordable housing more accessible, lowering property taxes, increasing the minimum wage, expanding support services for those struggling with addiction or mental health problems and providing more safe and dignified shelters for those without a home. North Dakota lawmakers are introducing bills in this session to address some of these issues, and we should pay attention to them.
One important thing to remember is that behind the statistics and proposed solutions there are real people, like my friend Alphonsus. The Church teaches that every person is created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26–27) and therefore has immeasurable dignity and worth. Having adequate shelter is a basic human right that the Church affirms as a key part of respecting human dignity and a demand of the common good. Christ himself teaches that we will ultimately be judged by how we treat the poor and vulnerable in our midst (Matt 25:31-46) and warns against callous indifference toward them in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). Housing the homeless is such a key element of Christian charity that the Church recognizes it as one of the seven corporal works of mercy (Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 2447).
All Christians are therefore called upon by God to care for the most vulnerable among us, including those without a home: “This preferential love for the poor, and the decisions which it inspires in us, cannot but embrace the immense multitudes of the hungry, the needy, the homeless, those without health care and, above all, those without hope of a better future” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church § 182). Pope Francis, who has made advocacy for the homeless a centerpiece of his pontificate, said in a 2015 address to a gathering of homeless people in Washington, D.C., “Let me be clear. There is no social or moral justification, no justification whatsoever, for lack of housing.”
Because housing is a basic human right and concerns the common good, the political community has a duty to ensure that all its citizens have safe and decent housing. North Dakotans, let’s put forward our best efforts in this legislative session to come up with common-sense solutions to alleviate homelessness and its related causes in our state.