The debate over where to place the homeless in Salt Lake continues. The Mormon Bretheren within the last year have exhorted members to be generous to refugees, extend civil rights for lgbtq, and to be kind to everyone. They applaud the efforts of local governments in trying to work out these issues and help people. In a rare public statement they reportedly contributed 42 million over the past 10 years to the homeless in Salt Lake County in the form of cash and supplies. That seems impressive?

And they are willing to sell off one of their DI's to the city for a homeless resource center. What does everyone think?

http://www.sltrib.com/home/5148183-155/mormon-church-weighs-in-on-salt
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/responding-needs-homeless-communities

That's ~$0.25 per claimed member per year. I don't think TSCC is that generous. They've probably donated a million dollars worth of food and leftover DI crap that they valued at $42 million.

I would check the receipts before believing this tall tale.

When they start inviting the homeless to sit with them in church, take shelter in the church, and offering improvement programs that are run at the church, by church members, etc.....then I might be impressed.

"cash and supplies"...hmmmm. My tax person told me that donated items can be marked way up...like retail values....and be fully legal claims. I would imagine the "supplies" side is like that...its the value the church put on them, not what they are truly worth.

I volunteered at the kitchen a few times. They do several thousand meals a day. A noticeable chunk of the food came from LDS Inc. I don't know how to judge whether it is enough, whatever that means. But yes, LDS welfare services food shows up at the shelter, and the kitchen is a big operation. I was impressed at the scale of what they do.

Which kitchen was that?

I've always wondered if the church calculates in its donation numbers what members donate on their own, or if it assigns a dollar amount to volunteer hours.

For example, in my past ward there was an entrance fee to go to the ward Christmas party every year. The fee consisted of new, donated items that were later given to local charities. It wasn't cheap stuff either. I remember one year spending over $100 on new blankets that were later donated to a women's shelter.

I wonder if wards are required to tally up volunteer hours or what members donate and inform church headquarters of the number. Then when the church throws out numbers like $42 million, the $100 I spent on blankets is actually included in that.

42 million over 10 years?

That equals 4.2 million each year.

That equals .3 cents per member per year approximately (Actually less than that) from what I've heard on these boards (that there are around 15 million members?).

If people are right that the LDS church brings in somewhere between 5 Billion to 15 billion (or more) that would be less than 1% of what they bring in each year spent on charity.

That means 99% to overhead?

If we go with the LDS church itself in Utah only, or SLC, isn't there around 2 million members in the area?

That equals a whooping 2 cents per member each year.

42 million over 10 years is only 4.2 million a year. TSCC bring in somewhere around 7 billion a year in tithing or something like that. Also as others have said, the price is marked up from their cost. So the 42 million is probably double what it actually cost TSCC. Now they do do some good things and that's great. It's just very low amount compared to what they bring in. The thing is, they are often doing little things that cost very little and get a lot from members just as want2bx stated. Then make a statement like they did and all the members just get all gooey inside.

So this all looks like they are doing a whole lot of helping those in need. When they really are not doing a 1/4 of what they could be doing.

Well of course the homeless population is difficult to track down to verify any of this...ya know because their homeless. One wonders how much 42million was in cash or those hygiene packets that that the RS gives in "emergencies." Are we talking homeless in the US? Worldwide? Cash? Gifts? etc. So many questions and so little transparency.

Pardon me..I see now the location is SLC area and cash/supplies? Supplies eh.

I'm surprised that there are homeless in the glorious city of Salt Lake. I'd think that poverty would have been solved by now since it's suppose to be Zion, and all that?

This debate is really an unfortunate thing the whole pass it off to some other community. The the LDS Church approach of quietly not wanting to get too involved, praising local governments instead of taking the lead (in a Polly Harrington sort of way).

I could be wrong but ideally relief to the destitute and lost souls should be the most important work of any Religion to administer to (especially one collecting tithing), homeless shelters are not the primary responsibility of civil governments.

poopstone Wrote:
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> I'm surprised that there are homeless in the
> glorious city of Salt Lake. I'd think that poverty
> would have been solved by now since it's suppose
> to be Zion, and all that?

Thanks for the laugh. I needed it.

The mormon church is world-wide. They collect tithing globally. How much did they spend to feed hungry children in India or Uganda? How impressed should we be that the church spends some money to clean up their own back yard?