The cardboard sign at the intersection tells a story in three words: “Homeless. Please help.” You’ve seen it a hundred times, and each time you’re faced with a choice that feels both simple and impossibly complicated. Do you roll down the window? Look away? Wonder if your dollar will actually help or enable? If you’ve ever wrestled with guilt, compassion, and confusion when encountering homelessness, you’re grappling with questions that cut to the heart of what it means to follow Jesus.
Scripture doesn’t offer easy answers about complex social issues, but it speaks with startling consistency about God’s heart for the poor and displaced. From the gleaning laws that ensured hungry people could find food in harvest fields to Jesus’ identification with those who have no place to lay their heads, the Bible presents poverty and homelessness not as distant social problems but as litmus tests of our love for God and neighbor.
These verses won’t solve housing crises or eliminate systemic poverty overnight, but they reveal what God prioritizes and challenge us to see the homeless not as statistics or problems to be managed, but as image-bearers deserving of dignity, care, and justice.
Bible Verses About Homelessness and Poverty Action
1. Matthew 25:35 – I Was a Stranger and You Invited Me In
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.
New International Version (NIV)
2. Luke 6:20 – Blessed Are You Who Are Poor
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
English Standard Version (ESV)
3. Proverbs 19:17 – Whoever Is Kind to the Poor Lends to the Lord
He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given.
New King James Version (NKJV)
4. Isaiah 58:7 – Is It Not to Share Your Food with the Hungry?
Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
New Living Translation (NLT)
5. Luke 14:13-14 – When You Give a Banquet
But when you give a banquet, invite those who are poor, maimed, lame, or blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
6. Deuteronomy 15:11 – There Will Always Be Poor People in the Land
For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
7. Proverbs 31:8-9 – Speak Up for Those Who Cannot Speak
Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.
King James Version (KJV)
8. Luke 4:18 – He Has Anointed Me to Proclaim Good News to the Poor
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
9. Deuteronomy 24:19-21 – When You Are Harvesting in Your Field
When you harvest your grain and forget a sheaf back in the field, don’t go back and get it—leave it for immigrants, orphans, and widows. Then God, your God, will bless you in all your work. When you shake the olives off your trees, don’t go back over the branches and strip them bare—leave them for immigrants, orphans, and widows. And when you cut the grapes in your vineyard, don’t take every last grape—leave a few for immigrants, orphans, and widows.
The Message (MSG)
10. James 2:15-16 – Suppose a Brother or a Sister Is Without Clothes
If a brother or sister is without [adequate] clothing and lacks [enough food for each] day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace [with my blessing], [keep] warm and feed yourselves,” but he does not give them the necessities for the body, what good does that do?
Amplified Bible (AMP)
11. 1 John 3:17 – If Anyone Has Material Possessions
But whoever has this world’s possessions and sees his brother in need and shuts off his compassion from him, how can the love of God reside in such a person?
New English Translation (NET)
12. Matthew 19:21 – If You Want to Be Perfect
Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
13. Psalm 41:1 – Blessed Are Those Who Have Regard for the Weak
God blesses those people who care about the poor, and he rescues them in times of trouble.
Contemporary English Version (CEV)
14. Luke 3:11 – Anyone Who Has Two Shirts Should Share
John answered, “Whoever has two shirts should give one to the person who has none, and whoever has food should do the same.”
Good News Translation (GNT)
15. Leviticus 23:22 – When You Reap the Harvest of Your Land
When you harvest your crops, don’t harvest all the way to the corners of your fields. If grain falls to the ground, don’t gather it up. Leave it for poor people and foreigners living in your country. I am the Lord your God.
New Century Version (NCV)
16. Psalm 140:12 – I Know That the Lord Secures Justice for the Poor
I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy.
International Standard Version (ISV)
17. Matthew 8:20 – Foxes Have Dens and Birds Have Nests
Yeshua said to him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Tree of Life Version (TLV)
18. Hebrews 13:2 – Do Not Forget to Show Hospitality to Strangers
Do not neglect hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.
Lexham English Bible (LEB)
19. Job 31:16-22 – If I Have Denied the Desires of the Poor
If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it (no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, her have I guided from my mother’s womb); if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering; if his loins have not blessed me, and if he has not been warmed with my sheep’s fleece; if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate: then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone.
World English Bible (WEB)
20. Ecclesiastes 11:1 – Ship Your Grain Across the Sea
Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days.
American Standard Version (ASV)
21. 2 Corinthians 9:9 – As It Is Written: They Have Freely Scattered Their Gifts
As it is written, “He scattered abroad, he gave to the poor; his righteousness abides for ever.”
Revised Standard Version (RSV)
22. Acts 20:35 – It Is More Blessed to Give Than to Receive
In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
New American Bible (NAB)
23. Proverbs 14:31 – Whoever Oppresses the Poor Shows Contempt
He that oppresseth the poor, reproacheth his maker: but he that hath mercy on the poor, honoureth him.
Douay-Rheims Bible (DRB)
24. Mark 12:42-44 – But a Poor Widow Came and Put In Two Very Small Copper Coins
And there came a poor widow, and she cast in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, This poor widow hath cast in more than all they which have cast into the treasury: for they all did cast in of their superfluity; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.
English Revised Version (ERV)
25. Psalm 112:9 – They Have Freely Scattered Their Gifts to the Poor
He hath scattered — he hath given to the needy, His righteousness is standing for ever, His horn is exalted with honour.
Young’s Literal Translation (YLT)
26. Galatians 2:10 – All They Asked Was That We Should Continue
Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.
Darby Translation (DARBY)
27. Romans 12:13 – Share with the Lord’s People Who Are in Need
Always be ready to help needy Christians, and open your homes to strangers.
Weymouth New Testament (WNT)
28. Deuteronomy 26:12 – When You Have Finished Setting Aside a Tenth
Whanne thou hast fillid the tithe of alle thi fruytis, in the thridde yeer of tithis, thou schalt yyue to the dekene, and to the comelyng, and to the fadirles, ether modirles child, and to the widewe, that thei ete with ynne thi yatis, and be fillid.
Wycliffe Bible (WYC)
29. Isaiah 1:17 – Learn to Do Right; Seek Justice
Learne to doe well: seeke iudgement, relieue the oppressed: iudge the fatherlesse and defend the widowe.
Geneva Bible (GNV)
30. Psalm 82:3-4 – Defend the Weak and the Fatherless
Defend the poore and fatherlesse: doe iustice to the afflicted and destitute. Deliuer the poore and needye: saue them from the hande of the wicked.
Bishop’s Bible
31. Luke 12:33 – Sell Your Possessions and Give to the Poor
Sell that ye have and geve almes. And make you bagges which wexe not olde and treasure that fayleth not in heven where no these cometh nether moth corrupteth.
Tyndale Bible
32. Acts 2:44-47 – All the Believers Were Together
All the believers lived together and shared everything they had. They sold their possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity.
The Living Bible (TLB)
33. Proverbs 22:9 – The Generous Will Themselves Be Blessed
A generous person will be enriched, and the one who gives a drink of water will receive water in return.
The Passion Translation (TPT)
34. Matthew 6:2-4 – So When You Give to the Needy
So when you give to the poor, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
The Voice Bible (VOICE)
35. Jeremiah 22:16 – He Defended the Cause of the Poor and Needy
He stood up for the poor and helpless, and everything went well for him. Isn’t that what it means to know me?” says the Lord.
New International Reader’s Version (NIrV)
Our Thoughts On What the Bible Says About Homelessness and Poverty Action
Scripture doesn’t treat poverty and homelessness as unfortunate side effects of broken economic systems but as litmus tests of our relationship with God. The Bible consistently presents care for the poor not as optional charity but as a defining characteristic of those who truly know God. When Jeremiah describes a righteous king, he doesn’t mention his military victories or economic policies first; he says, “he defended the cause of the poor and needy.”
What strikes me most about biblical poverty passages is how personal and practical they are. These aren’t abstract calls to “care about social justice” but specific commands to share food, provide shelter, and ensure that vulnerable people have access to basic necessities. The gleaning laws weren’t welfare programs administered by religious institutions; they were requirements for individual landowners to leave food accessible to hungry people.
Jesus’ identification with the homeless and poor goes beyond sympathy to actual solidarity. When he says “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,” he’s not just describing his circumstances but revealing God’s heart for all who lack safe shelter. Our response to homelessness becomes a direct reflection of how we would treat Jesus himself if he showed up at our door needing a place to stay.
Say This Prayer
Heavenly Father, I confess that I’ve often passed by homeless individuals without seeing them as You see them: precious image-bearers deserving of dignity and care. Forgive me for the times I’ve made assumptions about how people became homeless or convinced myself that my small actions wouldn’t make a difference. Help me to see beyond the surface to the human being behind the circumstances.
Give me wisdom to know how to help in ways that truly serve rather than just ease my conscience. Whether it’s supporting organizations that provide housing and services, advocating for policies that address root causes, or simply treating homeless individuals with respect and kindness, show me practical ways to be Your hands and feet to those who need shelter and hope.
Break my heart for what breaks Yours, especially for those sleeping on the streets tonight while I have a warm bed. Help me to use my resources generously and to remember that everything I have is a gift from You to be shared with others. Transform my perspective so I see caring for the homeless and poor not as a burden but as a privilege and pathway to knowing You better.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.