I hate seeing homeless people on the streets-it’s so depressing.
But I make it a policy never EVER to take out my wallet on the streets. My father warned me about that years ago.
I occasionally give money to homeless people in one of two circumstances:
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They have a believable and good reason for it. e.g. A cold night and they tell me they want money to get a hot drink. (has happened at least once that I recall). Sure, it may be false, but I can spare some change and they need it more than I.
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They are persistent and annoying enough that I can’t get rid of them without giving them money (has happened once before).
The problem is where I live there are a large number of homeless people. In the town center it’s almost impossible to walk 50 meters without someone selling the big issue or begging for money. It’s really depressing, but I’ve basically got to the stage where I have to refuse them. Mostly I just walk by, refuse to make eye contact and ignore them. I feel really guilty, but if I didn’t and gave money every time I was asked it would end up being a huge financial drain.
Guin: I second that. It’s incredibly depressing…
And all the above being said…alot of these so called “homeless” people CHOOSE to be just that. They have chosen this life, they have chosen to be a statistic…VietNam and all that…“oh, he won’t talk about The War” give me a break. There was a “homeless” guy that staked his claim near my apartment…Vietnam Vet and all that…he sat there everyday at a heavily used exit ramp rain or shine…and raked in the bucks. I worked 2 jobs at that time, the second one being the nearby liquor store…he would come in with his huge wad of cash and purchase whatever he was in the mood for. I would not wait on him…I simply refused.
I am not insensitive, and I do have empathy for the truly suffering and mentally ill, etc. But for most it is a way of life and making a damn good tax free living while the rest of us are sweating out the tortuous 40 PLUS hours a week and stressing ourselves to the max…sadly, I believe there are more out there raking it in than there are those that truly need our nickel and dime…
give you a break? spare fucking me. The vet reps I work with can tell you of Viet Nam vets who are living out in the wild 'cause of ‘what they can’t talk about’. I’d suggest that you refrain from slamming people who’ve become disabled (physically or mentally) during service to their country.
Are some homeless by ‘choice’, well, depending on how wide of a definition of choice you use, some are. Of course, you should think about the ramifications of what that choice means. What other situation would make homelessness the preferred option?
Whether or not you are being scammed is not the point. If you feel moved to give someone money or food because they say they are down on their luck, then do it. If they truly used the money for food, great. If they didn’t, it does not change the charity of your act. Do it because it makes you feel good, and helps you to be the kind of person you want to be. It doesn’t matter what they do with the money, you have still been a generous person.
donnat-I suppose you’re just an asshole by choice?
Well, if somebody became disabled in any way because he or she served his or country, that truly is a tragedy.
But every time I come across a beggar who claimed military service was responsible for his problemes, he was a Seal or a Green Beret.
Call me an evil, skeptical bastard, but I don’t necessarily believe that a homeless guy used to be a Seal on his say so. Real Seals, not to mention Special Forces and Rangers, have too much pride to end up on the streets. Sure, there may be guys on the streets who once served, but I’ll guarantee that they were scrubs. Buying into the Vietnam Vet=drug-addicted, violent homeless guy is a grave insult to the guys who actually served, came back, and now lead normal lives.
The homeless dudes who say, “I killed women and children, man. on secret orders, which is why you can’t find my service records, 'cos I was a black ops agent.” are liars.
Don’t be a mark.
Bullshit.
Bullshit.
Bullshit.
Eat a bag of hell. Liar.
I just hope to hell that I am NEVER in a life position/mental state where I get to consider whether or not to be homeless.
Homelessness IS NOT A FUCKING CHOICE AN INDIVIDUAL MAKES when they are presented with decent alternatives.
Homelessness and rough-sleeping are the only ‘choices’ left for these folk.
I am so fucking sick of the ‘I made it in life, so you can too. It’s your own fault if you’re homeless/addicted/mentally ill etc’ mentality. There are all sorts of reasons why people end up on the streets, mostly because the community doesn’t give a flying-fuck about people who are struggling.
And I’d rather see a beggar making $300 bucks a week than the fat-cats making millions by sitting on their arses playing the stock-market. At least the beggar is putting in some effort.
Guinastasia
I’m not an asshole at all, but thanks for asking.
I simply shared MY opinion, which I have every right to do.
No one asked you to agree with me…feel free to attack what
I said, but there is no reason to attack me personally.
I can’t really empathize, I suppose, because I don’t run into a lot of beggers around here. Occasionally I’ll see homeless folk, but generally they don’t ask for money.
If I have a few bucks, and the guy with the “Homeless Vet Rent Due” sign is around, I’ll try to help him out…but that is an entirely different situation than someone in a business who has to turn away a dozen beggers a day, some of whom become verbally abusive. That would get old FAST, and I don’t blame the OP for being frustrated.
It’s scary when I really think about it…I feel like my husband and I are finally getting on our feet financially, but if he lost his job, we would be deep shit very quickly. I used to believe we were one check away from homelessness; now I guess we might be two or three.
~karol
gobear
go back and read the fucking post.
I said the ‘VET REPS’ told me of them. As in the fucking people who work with the vets and fucking certify that they’re vets.
Condescend to some one else.
Don’t be so hasty, there. Our beloved SD comrade Diane, who earns her pay working with homeless veterans, can tell you about a great many of them who do, in fact, prefer to be homeless.
the key here is prefer to what?
Prefer to living in a veterans home or homeless shelter?
prefer to living in a basement apartment with relatives?
The key question is ‘are there financial resources available to these people to allow them to live elsewhere’. If there is, then yes, then they’re opting/choosing to live a homeless existence.
But I’d suggest that accounts for damn few.
I only knew one person who ‘preferred’ a subsistent existence - he lived at a YMCA, paying weekly small amount of rent for a room, no phone, no cable, no kitchen, shared bathroom facilities. After he died they discovered he was a millionaire several times over.
.
Is the person preforming, like telling jokes, singing, or playing a musical instrument? Hell, do they just have a funny sign? I’d give 'em a buck or two as a way of supporting the arts, but if they are sitting around, I just walk on by. Ya gotta work for the bucks, and if you make me smile, you get some money.
Just to be insanely nitpicky, it was my understanding that she earned her pay working for the VA, with veterans who were usually not homeless, and merely volunteered at the homeless veterans’ shelter. But of course your point is exactly correct, although I wonder about the capacity of many of those who prefer being homeless to actually make rational choices.
Being that I spend my days all over the streets of downtown Boston, I think I’d probably recognize many of the people the OP sees. Many of them appear to have become rather resigned to their way of life, and I’m not sure if they would choose to try to adjust to being a more productive member of society at this point. But I can’t imagine that initially they would have started sleeping in random doorways and alcoves out of choice.
(well, yes, PLD, but the difference is that Diane actually had valid anecdotal evidence to share, and has. Donnat, OTOH, is just full of shit and guesswork. IMO, of course. :))
Why is it so hard to believe there are people who prefer to be homeless? Growing up in a rural area, I knew a lot of people who prefered to live without water, gas, electricity, or any other modern conveniences just so they could do whatever they wanted. I would bet there are a lot of “homeless” people that are the urban counterparts of those rural folks. They’ve staked out a corner that’s theirs, they have their neighborhood they know, they make a living (meager as it is), and they don’t have to answer to anybody except the local cop hassling them every once in a while. Some people don’t give a shit about modern life with all it’s conveniences.
It isn’t in the slightest hard to believe that some people prefer homelessness.
However, it is extremely hard to believe that any but a very tiny percentage do.
I find it hard to believe that anyone not suffering from mental illness would be completely ambivalent about sleeping outdoors in a doorway reeking of urine during the middle of a Boston winter with no pretection from the elements other than a couple blankets. Especially with the added feature of knowing that the next day’s dinner would depend on the hope that enough others would actually be on the streets in such miserable weather to actually afford food.