Show You Care at the Ballot Box

Can you imagine having no safe place to call home? No comfortable place to retreat to at the end of the day. It doesn’t matter if that place is one of opulence or simple necessities…it only matters that the space is YOURS! This experience is either non-existent or fleeting for many of our neighbors. Far too many people work everyday in Charlotte – sometimes two or three jobs – and cannot afford to live here! Further, some of these individuals are the heroes that teach our children, care for the elderly, work as tellers at our local bank branch or provide basic but necessary services to all of us – everyday! They are our neighbors and behind too many of their smiles lies the shame or fear of impending homelessness.

The truth is, Charlotte does not have adequate affordable housing units to meet the housing needs of many poor families. Charlotte’s Housing Neighborhood Services Department recently reported that in spite of Charlotte’s tremendous growth and prosperity, “…The need for more housing options spans households at many income levels, including a total deficit of nearly 24,000 units for households at and below 50 percent of area median income, and one in three households still pay more than one-third of their income on housing each month.

It is incumbent on all of us to fix this! Catholic Social Teaching tells us that we are obligated to care for the life and dignity of every human being…especially the poor and vulnerable among us. We are being called to action. Scripture reminds us that in the end, the King will say us: “… that [what] you did …to one …of mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40)
I hope you will consider “the least of these” that Jesus spoke of and vote your conscience regarding the $50,000,000 Affordable Housing Referendum Bond!
Toni Tupponce, parishioner Our Lady of Consolation Catholic Church