Earlier this summer, a pastor called me because someone experiencing homelessness had set up a tent in the church’s parking lot. He wanted to know what to do. I understood why he was asking. When someone makes a place to sleep on church property, the question becomes personal very quickly. There is a person in front of you who needs help, and there is a congregation looking to you for an answer.
We have faced something similar at Tree of Life Open Bible Church. We do not have a parking lot, but a few years ago we had a season with four separate incidents of people sleeping on our church grounds. That was complicated by the fact that we operate Brookline Sprouts, our daily child-care program. Children, parents, and staff are coming and going. We have a responsibility to keep that environment secure. We cannot turn the grounds into an unsupervised place to stay overnight, even when we deeply want to help the person who is there.
The most important advice I gave him was about the direction of the conversation. I told him to think of it this way:
We are not turning someone away from the church; we are helping them turn toward a place equipped to care for them.
The pastor was very specific with me: that sentence changed his life in how he addressed this situation. That stayed with me. He still had a difficult situation to handle, but he had a different way to approach the person in front of him. He could explain the boundary while helping someone move toward care.
We might have to say no to sleeping on the property, but we could still say yes to helping them find support. That is the difference I wanted him to carry into the conversation.
Compassion has to become practical
In almost any church, someone will point to Scripture and say we need to help. I agree. In Matthew 25:35–40, Jesus identifies himself with people who are hungry, strangers, and in need of care. I do not want our concern for a building to make us forget the person outside it. But quoting a passage does not tell us whether our property is a safe place to sleep, whether we have the right staffing, or whether someone needs care we are not equipped to provide.
I think about the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30–37. He stopped. He attended to the injured man. Then he brought him somewhere he could receive ongoing care and committed resources to that care. I see something useful there for a pastor: helping does not require becoming the entire support system yourself. It does require taking responsibility for more than getting the person out of your sight.
Turn toward care, not away from the church
Here is how I put it to the pastor: instead of only telling someone where they cannot stay, help them find out where they can stay and receive care. “You need to leave” gives a person a boundary. “Let me help you connect with a place that can care for you” gives them a direction. I wanted the direction to be the heart of his response.
That distinction matters for the person sleeping outside, and it matters for the people in the congregation watching how we respond. We are not saying, “There is no place for you in the life of this church.” We are saying, “We cannot provide overnight shelter here, and we want to help you reach people who can offer the support you need.” The sleeping arrangement and the relationship with the church are two different things. I do not want us to end the relationship because we cannot allow the arrangement.
I might say something like this: “I want to help you find a safe place to stay and people who can support you. We have children here each day, and this property is not set up for overnight shelter, so we cannot have you sleep here. But I do not want that to be the end of our conversation. Would you be willing to call with me so we can find out what is available?”
Then I want us to put some work behind those words. Make the call together if the person agrees. Ask which shelter or program can receive them, what the entry process requires, and how they can get there. Help with the next step where you can. We are trying to turn someone toward actual care, not simply point in a direction and hope they disappear.
Do not tell someone a shelter has room unless you have checked. If there is no appropriate bed available, the next step may be connecting with outreach workers rather than promising somewhere to sleep. If someone declines the referral, listen to why. We can keep the property boundary clear while continuing to offer help. “Turn toward” has to mean a real effort to connect a person with support, even when that connection takes more than one conversation.
I serve as a chaplain and leader in our city’s homeless shelters. I have visited shelters, spoken at rallies supporting more housing, worked with local government to bring attention to these needs, and raised concerns about the ethical and humane treatment of people when encampments are moved. I am frustrated by how difficult it can be to find help. That is why I do not want a church’s answer to stop at asking someone to leave. I want us to stay engaged in helping them reach care.
Do not underestimate the needs—or assume you know them
One of the things I told the pastor was that a person sleeping outside may need much more than a sympathetic conversation. I am talking here about people sleeping on streets, on church grounds, or in vehicles, rather than someone temporarily staying with a friend. Mental-health needs, trauma, physical illness, and substance use can complicate the help someone needs. A small church may have caring volunteers and still lack the training, clinical support, and overnight staffing the situation requires.
I also need to be careful about what I claim. Mental illness is more common among people experiencing homelessness, but that does not establish it as the most common reason people lose housing. Federal guidance on behavioral health and homelessness describes these needs as disproportionately represented while explaining that they are not the primary causes of homelessness. Housing costs, income loss, and gaps in support also matter.
The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness, conducted by UCSF, helps explain that complexity. It documents both pressures that lead to housing loss and the mental-health symptoms people experience while homeless. It is a California study, not a diagnosis of the person outside a Pittsburgh church. Living without a safe place to sleep can itself worsen someone’s health.
So I would not look at someone’s tent and decide I know their story. I would listen. I would also recognize that the help they need might extend well beyond what our congregation can safely offer. Their housing situation or a mental-health condition does not, by itself, make them dangerous. The responsibility to manage access to a child-care property exists regardless of who is there.
Summer makes the need more visible
In my experience, we tend to notice more people sleeping outside around the church in the warmer months. Being outdoors can feel more feasible than it does during a Pittsburgh winter. Cold weather can also lead people to seek shelter, and Allegheny County adds seasonal winter shelter capacity. That is my observation, not a claim that homelessness disappears in winter or that everyone can use the available shelters.
Summer has dangers of its own. Heat can become a serious health risk, especially without dependable water or somewhere to cool down. The county’s shelter and cooling-center resources are worth knowing. I want churches to learn the available routes to help before the next person arrives on their grounds.
Learn the network before you need it
Over the years, I have worked with United Way and 211, Allegheny Link, the Department of Human Services, Community Human Services, the Fair Housing Partnership, and Light of Life Rescue Mission. Those relationships help me give someone a next step I understand and help them make the connection. Knowing the network is part of what makes “turn toward” possible.
For pastors outside Pittsburgh, I would start by learning your community’s coordinated-entry process—the route through which people are assessed and connected with housing and shelter services. Here are some of the connections I want churches in our area to know:
- United Way’s 211 network and PA 211 connect people with local resources for housing, food, health care, and other needs. In Pennsylvania, call 211 or text your ZIP code to 898-211.
- Allegheny Link, part of the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, is the local point of contact for housing assistance and coordinated entry. Call 866-730-2368, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Advocates can call alongside someone seeking help.
- Community Human Services provides housing, shelter, and other support. Its shelter services page explains that shelter referrals are assigned through Allegheny Link. CHS describes its approach as trauma-informed, Housing First, and harm reduction.
- Fair Housing Partnership of Greater Pittsburgh helps address housing discrimination and access, including disability-related accommodations. It has a different role from an emergency shelter, but housing rights are an important part of this work.
- Light of Life Rescue Mission provides meals, emergency shelter, and recovery programs. Its services page and Get Help page explain the available options.
Housing First is an approach that prioritizes access to stable housing alongside support, rather than requiring someone to resolve every other difficulty before being housed. It does not mean a home is available immediately. Established providers know the assessments, referral routes, and ongoing services that a small church usually does not. Those connections can help us avoid trying to invent a housing program in the middle of a crisis.
Good intentions still need coordination
At another point, local government came to me for help navigating a situation involving a church that regularly visited an encampment to witness to the people there. The concern brought to me was that some of the things being brought into the camp were being misused and, overall, were making conditions worse rather than helping. I had to help navigate that tension.
I am not sharing that to criticize a congregation for wanting to serve. I am sharing it because wanting to help and knowing what helps are different steps. We need to ask the people living there what they need. We also need to listen to outreach workers and service providers who understand the situation. Working with local government can help churches understand needs and consequences we might otherwise miss. It also gives us an opportunity to speak up when a proposed response is not humane.
Before bringing supplies, ask what is useful, how it will be distributed, and whether someone can follow through. Churches can provide meals, help with transportation, support a shelter, volunteer through an established program, or advocate for more housing. We can offer pastoral care without making every act of practical assistance depend on someone listening to us preach.
Always have Narcan handy
One more practical thing I tell churches: always have Narcan handy, and make sure your team knows how to use it. Naloxone, the medication in Narcan, can reverse an opioid overdose. I see that as basic emergency preparedness for a church serving its community. It is not a conclusion about whether the person sleeping on your grounds uses drugs.
Keep supplies where trained adults can reach them quickly, store them safely around children according to the package directions, and check expiration dates. Learn how to recognize a suspected overdose before an emergency happens. The CDC’s overdose response guidance says to administer naloxone if available, call 911, and stay with the person until emergency help arrives. Follow the product instructions for additional doses and the dispatcher’s directions. Someone waking up does not remove the need for emergency medical help.
What are we helping them turn toward?
When someone is sleeping on church property, I want the question in our leadership conversation to be, “What are we helping this person turn toward?” We need to know more than how to ask someone to leave. We need relationships with people who can help, a willingness to make a call, and enough follow-through to make the invitation meaningful.
We can be clear about our responsibility to children and staff. We can say that our grounds cannot serve as overnight shelter. And we can keep offering a meal, pastoral care, help with transportation, or support in making the next connection. The boundary does not have to close the door on the person.
That was the heart of my advice to the pastor that summer: help the person understand that you are not turning them away from the church. You are helping them turn toward a place that can better meet their needs, and you are willing to help them take that next step.