There was a woman in front of us at the grocery store who was struggling to buy food. She had a cute toddler with her. The woman couldn’t pay for everything she needed with her WIC stuff (I assume that was it – she had tickets of some kind?) and was pulling out things that she couldn’t buy. I guess some things didn’t qualify and she was new to this. There was some baby food and a couple of gallons of milk on the ‘did not qualify/put on debit’ section right by me and after some quick calculations in my head, I told the clerk to put it on my tab. There were several other things that went into the ‘cannot get at all’ section.
The thing is, we’re tight at the moment as I have to shell out $1000+ for a crown on Tuesday and I had literally just come from the clothing shop where I had returned a dress so I could get my son lunch food and not bounce any checks in the process. But I looked in my basket - fruit, cheese, veggies, milk, coffee creamer - and thought about what it was for (my son’s lunch since he goes to private school on a scholarship, eg, someone else’s kindness) and thought about what I could spare and I just felt bad that anyone had to be in that position at all (hers or mine).
She wasn’t even homeless and you could tell she was sorely embarrassed and degraded when she realized she couldn’t get all the food in her cart. No one should have to be in that position.
I know that if I’m stressed over money, it’s a lot harder for me to enjoy parenting or focus on work or whatever. I just think that moms should be able to enjoy being moms instead of stressing about how to feed their kids or trying to keep their heads up high when they pay for their food with vouchers.
If a quarter makes a homeless guy feel better about life, then why not? Kindness isn’t something you should be stingy with imho.
You’ll be happy to know that I’ve been laid off twice in the last 5 years. Just came off 3 1/2 straight years of unemployment. I’m in my 50’s. My current income is a fraction of what it use to be.
The list of shit jobs I did to survive is long and undistinguished. I did work that was way beyond my physical abilities. Imagine laying on the side of the road in 90 degree heat because you threw your back out cutting a hedge of trees. The jobs I did sucked by anyone’s standard. It was mentally and physically crippling to do it. I had nightmares about my future. I’d list all the crap jobs but you’d think it egotistical. It was nothing but survival which was helped by the lessons passed down by my parents.
Your comments have no debate value. Giving money to the homeless is better applied through a 3rd party where you can gauge how well it’s spent and also avoid enabling dangerous behavior.
Are there studies that show that encouraging people to contribute money to third parties instead of directly to the homeless works? That they do indeed give the money to the charitable third party instead of the homeless, and not just quit giving directly to the homeless?
From my experience local social organizations draw money from churches and clubs. So again, I truly don’t understand your question. Local news stations will promote charities from time to time.
I don’t think I can make it any plainer, but let’s take this one step at a time.
Step 1. Have you ever heard the phrase “Give a hand up, not a hand out”, when it comes to giving money to the homeless?
It is a campaign many cities use to discourage giving money directly to the homeless, much like you and others are doing in this thread. I am asking if this campaign actually causes people to give to charities instead of directly to the homeless(which might be better in the long run), or does it just discourage people from giving either way(much to the detriment of the homeless)?
I give money to the guy on the street, that is, when I have money to give - I’m usually cashless.
Drives my wife crazy: she thinks they’re panhandling for drugs or something. :rolleyes: My view is regardless of what they’ll use it for, they need the $.37 in my change/cup holder more than I do.
I have heard of it, but not in connection to what you’re speaking of. I’ve heard of it, in reference to, giving people grants to go be retrained instead of just 12 more months of welfare or assistance. Sorry, I know that’s not much help.
But I really came in to mention that, as far as I know, people who are homeless, addicts, alcoholics, regardless of their issues, also need to eat. As they don’t have kitchens, they must buy prepared food. And I figure they might like a brake from soup kitchen fare.
So when I give them money, I don’t know if they will use it to get a burger, or buy a bottle. And neither do you.
I give sometimes, and other times I don’t. I don’t care if they spend it on drugs, alcohol, cigs, etc. If my dollar makes their day a little easier, I consider it money well spent.
FWIW, it seemed a fairly straightforward question to me. Do people tend to react to the notion that direct donations to the homeless may be abused in either of the following ways:
“See, that’s why I never give money to the homeless”
or
“See, that’s why I donate to homeless support charities instead”