Homelessness is an issue and an affront to human dignity in many places in the world. In recent years, people around the globe have been moving from rural areas to cities looking for work; people are on the move because of conflict, famine and poverty, and climate change disasters. In 2021, the World Economic Forum reported that 150 million people were homeless worldwide. Pope Francis has emphasized that the right to decent housing is a human right in church teaching and has urged people of faith to support efforts to minister to homeless people and efforts to build affordable housing for all.
Ireland has thousands of homeless people — the figures for 2023 are more than 13,000 people who did not have housing. Ireland is one country among many impacted by changing economics, inflation and changing populations. As in many countries, Catholic sisters in Ireland not only help homeless individuals but also are taking a lead in working to transform structures and systems to ensure that the dignity of every human being is respected and the right to decent housing is upheld.
Needed: A large world map, small Post-its for students.
Students need access to computers.
Assign each student one of these countries:
| Italy | Germany | India |
| Spain | China | Indonesia |
| France | Brazil | Nigeria |
| United States | Peru | Democratic Republic of Congo |
| Ukraine | Colombia | Philippines |
| Australia | Pakistan | Ethiopia |
| Argentina | Egypt | Yemen |
| Chile | Sudan | Afghanistan |
| South Africa | South Sudan | Iraq |
Have them go to https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/homelessness-by-country and scroll down to the list of countries to find the number of homeless in their assigned country.
Have them put the statistics on a small Post-it and place it on their country's location on the map. After all students are finished, ask them as a group to take a few minutes to look over the entire map.
Ask students to share what conclusions they draw when they see the entire map. What have they learned about homelessness? What was surprising to them? What was not surprising?
Share the fact that a few countries, such as Finland and Norway, have made housing for everyone in their country a priority and so have almost eliminated homelessness.
How do citizens influence governments to make decent and adequate housing a priority in government spending? How can young adults support efforts to create more low-cost, decent housing in the U.S.?
Students will create a litany for homeless people around the world.
Each student will take a turn saying:
We pray for the homeless people in _________(mention country they researched).
All students will respond to each country mention by saying:
Hear our prayers, O Lord, and through our efforts, grant all your children a decent home.
Instructor at the end:
In Christ's name, we pray. Hear our prayers. Amen.
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