| Photo by Kelvin Han on Unsplash
Part IV of “Socioeconomics Reforms” Series
Last Sunday, November 16, 2025, Vatican News reported that before joining hundreds of people for lunch, Pope Leo XIV celebrated mass for the Jubilee of the Poor. The first American pontiff prayed that all Christians would share “the love of God, which welcomes, binds up wounds, forgives, consoles, and heals.”
Pope Leo XIV assured the faithful that “in the midst of persecution, suffering, struggles and oppression in our personal lives and in society, God does not abandon us. He reveals himself as the one who takes our side.” The pope said in his homily last Sunday, which was the church’s celebration of the World Day of the Poor.
On May 21, 2025, this column began a new series in the month the new pontiff was elected, and it was dubbed “Fourteen Letters to Pope Leo XIV.” Part II of the series, published on May 25, 2025, was entitled “Perhaps the Vatican Can Form a World Consortium to End Homelessness” at this link
This columnist reminded Pope Leo XIV that two American cities (New York and Los Angeles) are among the Top Five most-homeless towns in the world, with the National Capital Region (NCR) of the Philippines being the global capital of homelessness. And implored him to let the Vatican spearhead the formation of a worldwide consortium of public-private partnerships (PPPs). It further, and most respectfully, suggested that the Philippines be chosen also as a beneficiary of a first significant effort to eliminate homelessness globally by 2030, starting in 2026. In five years, some 3.5 million homeless people in the Filipino NCR — along with the metropolitan areas of New York and Los Angeles — may be provided with decent homes or condos with livelihood opportunities. The same methods can then be adopted as templates for worldwide efforts to end homelessness.
After all, the Philippines is the only Catholic country in the Far East, with more than 65% of its 120 million population recognizing the Vatican as its world headquarters. And the archdioceses of New York and Los Angeles are the two most enormous Catholic bastions in the United States. Imagine if just half of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics formed congregational cooperatives and started a second collection at every mass, with the proceeds invested in PPP-driven projects for the homeless?
” … the Philippines be chosen also as a beneficiary of a first significant effort to eliminate homelessness globally by 2030, starting in 2026. In five years, some 3.5 million homeless people in the Filipino NCR — along with the metropolitan areas of New York and Los Angeles
The series of 14 open letters to Pope Leo XIV also informed him of the column’s suggestion to organize church congregations into cooperatives, each with its own juridical personality. Yes, church co-ops may initiate construction of multi-story parking buildings, with the top half of the edifice used for condominiums, in churches with ample parking spaces. And the condominiums for sale or lease to parishioners renting expensive apartments and to homeless veterans and other civilians, irrespective of their creed. It can also be done consistently with assistance and investments from cities, counties, states, and even federal agencies. The parking-condo buildings can be owned by registered cooperatives, thereby preventing criticisms that their construction and operation are alleged violations of the doctrine of separation between church and state.
Pope Leo XIV may recollect the exodus of Filipino teachers to the U.S. that started in 1986 due to teacher shortages in the Catholic archdioceses of New York and New Jersey. And later, in many other cities with Catholic parish schools. Thousands of “imported” Filipino Catholic teachers pursued the American dream, becoming permanent residents, then U.S. citizens, and many of them ended up as lay leaders of Catholic parishes where they had taught and where they retired. Retired teachers can rally their former students, now corporate leaders and executives, to join and invest in cooperatives of their congregations that will invest in PPPs to end, or at least mitigate, the homeless crisis.
Perhaps the mayor-elect of New York City, Zohran Mandani, and the governor-elect of New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill, may look into this suggestion. Then they may also persuade other cities, counties, and state leaders, as well as the policy and decision makers of other religious organizations, to do the same, PPP-built parking and condominium building co-ops, as may be started by Catholic parishioners’ pioneering cooperatives in New York and New Jersey.
Perhaps both leaders may urge, respectively, the Association of City Mayors and of State Governors to team up with the Vatican and the heads of the world’s major religions in calling for a “World Summit to End Homelessness”. It may be held at a suitable venue in the Tri-State area of Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. Or even in Illinois, which is the home state of Pope Leo XIV.
