Disrupting Homelessness by Laura Stivers

Disrupting Homelessness by Laura Stivers

Disrupting Homelessnessunmasks the futile assumptions of our present approaches to homelessness and suggests ways in which Christians and Christian communities can create a prophetic social movement to end poverty and homelessness.

The American dream, as conveyed by the media, includes owning a home. Increasingly, people are homeless or precariously housed because of joblessness, foreclosure, or dislocation. Ecclesial responses to homelessness and housing vary. Some Christian organizations focus on fixing the person and the behaviors that contribute to homelessness. Others promote home ownership for lowincome households.

Employing a disruptive Christian ethics, Laura Stiverscriticizes both approaches, outlines an advocacy approach for churches to address the multiple causes of homelessness, and calls us to make a home for all in God's just and compassionate community.

Laura Stivers is Full Professor of Social Ethics and Director of the Graduate Humanities program at Dominican University of California. She is the author of Disrupting Homelessness: Alternative Christian Approaches; Co-author of Christian Ethics: A Case Method Approach; and Co-editor of Justice in a Global Economy: Strategies for Home, Community, and World. She serves on the leadership team of the Marin Interfaith Homeless Chaplaincy and works with Standup for Neighborly Novato to promote affordable housing in Marin County, CA. She also gets students involved in the community through service-learning classes. In her academic discipline Laura serves on the Board of the Society of Christian Ethics and was a past President of the Southeast Commission for the Study of Religion.