Old Testament
Lamentations 5:2-5
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to aliens.
3 We are orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are as widows.
4 We must pay for water to drink. Our wood is sold to us.
5 Our pursuers are on our necks. We are weary, and have no rest.
New Testament
Matthew 8:18-22
18 Now when Jesus saw great multitudes around him, he gave the order to depart to the other side.
19 A scribe came and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20 Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
21 Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
Lamentations does not speak of housing as an “issue”. It speaks of houses taken, inheritance turned over, people pushed to the edge of breath. It is a prayer from the rubble: the shock of losing what felt ordinary, the ache of being unhomed.
Shelter is not luxury. It is one of the ways dignity is protected: a place to sleep safely, to wash, to keep medicine, to shut out the weather, to be ill without fear. When homes become scarce or unaffordable, anxiety spreads through families like damp through walls.
Matthew shows Jesus walking into the same vulnerability. A would-be disciple promises quick loyalty, and Jesus replies with a sentence that refuses romanticism: foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. The King enters our world without property, without security, without a locked door at night.
Lord Jesus, who knew homelessness, draw near to those living in cars, hostels, temporary rooms, and overcrowded flats. Give protection to those at risk of exploitation. Bless those who provide housing and support, and those planning long reforms with honesty and patience. And make your Church a people who notice: ready to welcome, to advocate, and to treat each neighbour as someone for whom you would gladly make room.