# Feeding the Homeless is Against the Law **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 25, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-the-homeless-is-against-the-law/667152 "2013-08-25T20:27:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-the-homeless-is-against-the-law/667152/81 "2013-08-30T17:31:03Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > I agree that the Police probably felt they had no choice but to start enforcing after enough people complained. Where “enough people” = a developer who has a vested interest in getting rid of homeless people from an area so he can make more profit from his gentrification project. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-the-homeless-is-against-the-law/667152/82 "2013-08-30T18:02:03Z")
Re: Columbia, SC > [@](#): > > According to ThinkProgress, clients at the shelter will not be allowed to leave the premises without permission and a police officer will stand guard at the road leading to the building. Is this a shelter or a prison? Not that this remote shelter will do much good-it holds 240 people, and there are an estimated 1600 homeless in the area. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-the-homeless-is-against-the-law/667152/83 "2013-08-30T18:59:03Z")
Oh, quite a few more can be admitted, their needs are modest, as befits their station in life. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-the-homeless-is-against-the-law/667152/84 "2013-08-30T19:56:23Z")
So, they gather up all these homeless people, some significant proportion of whom are mentally ill. Then they propose to add into that mix of the vulnerable and hopeless an infusion of recently released prison inmates. What could possibly go right? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-the-homeless-is-against-the-law/667152/85 "2013-08-31T03:23:37Z")
> [@armedmonkey](#): > > Many people enjoy feeding the homeless because they believe they are helping the homeless survive. However, providing the homeless with a steady, human-supplied food source nearly always leads to problems for both the homeless and humans. > > Homeless who are used to being fed by humans commonly lose their fear of people. Homeless who are unafraid of people will approach them for food, and are sometimes mistaken as rabid, aggressive or mean. They also become easy targets for kids with BB guns and others who mean them harm. An instinctive wariness of people is important to homeless survival. > > A constant, human-provided food source may attract many more homeless to the area than would normally be found there. Who doesn’t like a free meal? When food is readily available, homeless will gather in abnormally large numbers. This means that if a homeless in the group has an illness or disease, it can spread throughout the group. This is one way to limit diseases among a wild population. By gathering these homeless together in unnatural groups, these diseases can spread much more quickly. > > Reproduction rates may also be affected when an artificial food source is readily available. In the wild, the number of homeless being born is often directly related to the amount of natural food available. The number of homeless surviving will also depend on how much food is available. This is nature’s way of keeping a balance. When an unnatural food supply becomes available, homeless may produce more young and soon there may be more homeless living in the area than what the natural food sources can support. > > It is an unfortunate fact of modern life that humans are encroaching into the habitats homeless have traditionally called home, but with thoughtful conservation, humans and the homeless can peacefully co-exist. As a (formerly Malthusian) zoology nut, I find this interesting, but sadly its conclusions are useless. The homeless and the humans are the same population. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-the-homeless-is-against-the-law/667152/86 "2013-08-31T03:50:48Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > As a (formerly Malthusian) zoology nut, I find this interesting, but sadly its conclusions are useless. The homeless and the humans are the same population. Snerts. Now that my panties aren’t in a wad, I agree with you. I’m big into spaying/neutoring feral cats. It really works. Sadly, it won’t work so well for humans. Most government health services consider voluntary steralization to be optional surgery, and its impossible to buy havahart traps big enough for humans. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-the-homeless-is-against-the-law/667152/87 "2013-08-31T20:17:59Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > On some boards that would result in instant perma-banning so fast it would make you blink. :blink: :blink: Really? Wow. I don’t even know how many times I’ve hidden something small in platinum grey letters. Not a lot, admittedly. I think it can be useful to have a small remark that is visible to the person responding to you, even if it’s just, “Yes, of course I’m kidding.” But maybe that’s a different & less offensive use. :shrug: Made you look! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-the-homeless-is-against-the-law/667152/88 "2013-08-31T20:45:55Z")
> [@](#): > > …think it can be useful to have a small remark that is visible to the person responding to you… I don’t get it. The “white” remark was entirely invisible on my end, I only saw it when I used the quote function, and I frequently don’t, just cut and paste the money quote and go from there. I hate it when I don’t understand stuff, it sort of implies there is something I don’t know. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeding-the-homeless-is-against-the-law/667152.md?page=4)