Homelessness, Home, & Hospitality: What Is Our Duty to the Marginalized?

If you live in an American city, you’ve probably noticed the growing presence of people living in tents and bridges. This is true, of course, of New York and LA, but small Midwestern cities are seeing it too. People vary on how they think about this problem. Is it more correct to let homeless people sleep and settle wherever they like, or do they need to be kept off the streets in order to protect publicwelfare?

Passions can run high about these issues, but they raise important questions. What does our community owe those who are most on the periphery? What are the rights of citizens toward public and private places?

Human beings universally exhibit a love for home, a place of welcome that we can, in some way, call our own. The virtue of hospitality has a central role in cultures from east Asia, to the Arab World, to the Mediterranean, and stands for the habit of making others feel at home.

What role does this virtue play in our society, and how does it relate to those who live on the street?

Host or Publisher St. Paul Lyceum