This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Thousands of residents have mobilized in opposition to nine proposed locations for new homeless shelters, pitting communities against one another.

There is, however, another perspective. What follows very well could be a transcript of an interview with a scraggly homeless-looking guy in his early 30s who may well be living in Pioneer Park.

Q. We're good people here and we would like to help the homeless, but why is this our problem? Aren't we doing enough already?

A. I get that, but, look — if I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in. … If you've done that for the least among us, you've done it for me.

Q. Right. And I'm all for homeless shelters. I just don't want them anywhere near my neighborhood. Can't they just build them somewhere else?

A. You will always have poor among you. But you won't always have me among you.

Q. Well, yeah, you can leave, but there have always been homeless people down in this park. How come my neighbors and I are the ones who have to make the sacrifice?

A. Look, if you go and sell what you own and give it to the poor, I promise you'll have treasure in heaven.

Q. Heaven, huh? That's OK, I guess. But a shelter in my neighborhood could really hurt my property value, with all those dirty people wandering around.

A. No, no, no. You don't get it. Give and it shall be given unto you … for the same measure that you give, it shall be measured to you again.

Q. What comes around goes around?

A. Something like that.

Q. But how does that benefit me now?

A. It's not about you. Look, when you throw a dinner party, don't invite your friends or rich neighbors hoping to get something in return. Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. And you will be blessed. They can't repay you, but you'll be repaid in heaven.

Q. My church helps the poor, though. Why do I have to be stuck with these shelters?

A. Ugh. You are missing the point. What good does it do to have faith and not works? If a brother or sister is naked and without food and you say, go and don't be hungry, but you don't feed them or clothe them, what good is faith? Faith by itself, without works, is dead.

Q. That's pretty profound. You should write some of this down.

A. Some people did, in a book. It was quite popular.

Q. So, you know, when nearly 1,000 people turned out to a town hall in Draper to stop a shelter for women and children and booed a homeless man? What did you think of that?

A. They did that?

Q. Yeah.

A. That's just totally unbelievable. Let me put it this way: Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who hunger, for they shall be filled.

Q. Kingdom of God, huh? Pretty sweet.

A. Yeah.

Q. So if the poor get all that, we don't really have to do anything now.

A. You make me want to take my name in vain.