Do you give money to homeless folls?

dayday 9,612 Posts
edited September 2005 in Off Topic (NRR)
This morning I went by 7-11 to get some smokes and there's always this same dude chillin outside. He rarely asks for money but I gave him a couple bucks. I always give folls some money if I have it to give, but I notice alot of people are like "it's not my problem" and just ignore people when they hit them up.
I don't get that.

The way I see it is that could be any of us. If they want to use it on booze, whatever, if they want to smoke it up, whatever. If that helps get them through whatever they're going through so be it. I don't just go giving money to baseheads but you can usually tell who needs it and who's cracked out.

I used to go kick it and drink with them after work and bring this one cat into my house and give him food.
I've got love for my bum homies .
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  Comments


  • DocBeezyDocBeezy 1,918 Posts
    I dont give money. But its not because I dont care. I just dont want to be an enabler.

  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts
    yeah, I do.

  • Yeah, pretty much always. As to whether it's an 'enabling' gesture i just think that if i was in that situation who's to say I wouldn't be sipping or smoking something to blur the reality.

  • I dont give money. But its not because I dont care. I just dont want to be an enabler.

    You may be enabling that shit in many other ways. ie, we all enable it by taking part in Tha System. A bit of wealth re-distribution never hurt anybody. Plus sometimes they have records.

  • I give money to community organized animal shelters and charities of this nature.

  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts
    I don't buy "the enabler" bit. We don't know what has led these people down their present paths. It's not like they just woke up one morning, quit their job, stopped paying their rent & said "I'm gonna try this bum life on!" And then, by not giving them a few bucks we are gonna discourage them & make them think it's too hard to be a bum. these people often have mental illness, etc.

  • dayday 9,612 Posts
    I dont give money. But its not because I dont care. I just dont want to be an enabler.

    See, that's what alot of people say and my opinion is, I give them some money and they can do what they want with it. How do I know if their gonna buy food or booze with it? I don't.

  • DocBeezyDocBeezy 1,918 Posts
    I dont give money. But its not because I dont care. I just dont want to be an enabler.

    You may be enabling that shit in many other ways. ie, we all enable it by taking part in Tha System. A bit of wealth re-distribution never hurt anybody. Plus sometimes they have records.

    thats soo off dude.

    Instead of giving them the money it should go to shelters and programs to help them with their life.

    You dont enable by taking part in THA SYSTEM. come on now.

  • DocBeezyDocBeezy 1,918 Posts
    I dont give money. But its not because I dont care. I just dont want to be an enabler.

    See, that's what alot of people say and my opinion is, I give them some money and they can do what they want with it. How do I know if their gonna buy food or booze with it? I don't.

    chances are that it is booze. They can get free food from charities etc..

    giving them themoney does not help their situation. Its not like they are saving up to get an apartment, get cleaned up and lead productive lives.

  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts


    The way I see it is that could be any of us. If they want to use it on booze, whatever, if they want to smoke it up, whatever. If that helps get them through whatever they're going through so be it. I don't just go giving money to baseheads but you can usually tell who needs it and who's cracked out.


    It???s funny you ask that today of all days. There is one guy I always give to and have been for the past three years when he first appeared in the neighbourhood. I don???t give every time, but usually. But then again, he doesn???t ask every time. Always says hello and how???s your day and all that. He calls me Michelle (not my name) and has asked me for a kiss a few times (he was high as a kite those times). I was in the mall with my mom during Christmas last year and he was walking around window shopping. We had a nice conversation and my mom asked if he was my boyfriend (ha ha) after we walked away.

    I know he spends the money on food and crack. If I give money, I???m giving money. I don???t want people to tell me how I spend the money I get, so???

    Anyway, it???s funny you ask because I dreamt about him a lot last night. I don???t even know why, I haven???t seen him a week or so. I dreamt he was trying to chop my legs off with a butcher knife and then later I dreamt he showed up at a restaurant I was eating at, all cleaned up, wearing all white, and he asked me what I liked there (I said the miso soup) and he apologized for attacking me and he began to tell me how he got each scar on his body.

    ???

  • I don't buy "the enabler" bit. We don't know what has led these people down their present paths. It's not like they just woke up one morning, quit their job, stopped paying their rent & said "I'm gonna try this bum life on!" And then, by not giving them a few bucks we are gonna discourage them & make them think it's too hard to be a bum. these people often have mental illness, etc.

    Yeah that must be it, bum life is just too attractive.

    This country is full of bums of all income levels! Just some people get money, blow it on drugs, and then get their own reality show.


  • giving them themoney does not help their situation. Its not like they are saving up to get an apartment, get cleaned up and lead productive lives.

    Them, they, these people, etc etc. This not a good look. It's what led to NoLa.

  • dayday 9,612 Posts


    The way I see it is that could be any of us. If they want to use it on booze, whatever, if they want to smoke it up, whatever. If that helps get them through whatever they're going through so be it. I don't just go giving money to baseheads but you can usually tell who needs it and who's cracked out.


    It???s funny you ask that today of all days. There is one guy I always give to and have been for the past three years when he first appeared in the neighbourhood. I don???t give every time, but usually. But then again, he doesn???t ask every time. Always says hello and how???s your day and all that. He calls me Michelle (not my name) and has asked me for a kiss a few times (he was high as a kite those times). I was in the mall with my mom during Christmas last year and he was walking around window shopping. We had a nice conversation and my mom asked if he was my boyfriend (ha ha) after we walked away.

    I know he spends the money on food and crack. If I give money, I???m giving money. I don???t want people to tell me how I spend the money I get, so???

    Anyway, it???s funny you ask because I dreamt about him a lot last night. I don???t even know why, I haven???t seen him a week or so. I dreamt he was trying to chop my legs off with a butcher knife and then later I dreamt he showed up at a restaurant I was eating at, all cleaned up, wearing all white, and he asked me what I liked there (I said the miso soup) and he apologized for attacking me and he began to tell me how he got each scar on his body.

    ???


  • no, but i do throw empty beer cans and bottles etc in my recyclables and let folls sort through it... gotta work for the chedder.

    -rich

  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts

    giving them themoney does not help their situation. Its not like they are saving up to get an apartment, get cleaned up and lead productive lives.

    Them, they, these people, etc etc. This not a good look. It's what led to NoLa.

    fine. we'll reffer to all bums as "Victor" from now on.

  • DelayDelay 4,530 Posts
    if i gave money to everyone that asked, i'd be a broke motherfucker. I generally encounter about 5-10 of them a day, so call me jaded or cynical, but the gauntlet of dudes trying to seperate me from my money is getting old.

  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,896 Posts
    I never give money...

    But I try as much as possible to ask them if they are hungry and buy them something to eat.

    The thing I'm not liking lately tho, is some of these guys are getting pretty pushy. In the same week I was with someone and they asked him for change and was all "Anything man... a penny, nickle.. whatever you have." Well, my friend didn't have any change, but saw a dime on the ground and pointed it out. The guy looked at my friend like he was a dick.

    The same week (at the same place) a guy asked for money. My friend asked if he was hungry. The guy said yes, so there was a hot dog stand right next to them and my friend was like "I'll buy you a hot dog" the guy looked at him and was like "Can you make it McDonalds???" which was down the street.... My friend said no and the guy was pushing him to go get him McDonalds... My friend said no again and asked if he wanted the hot dog. The guy turned it down.

    Mind you, these were both young guys, so whatever...

    But I always try to keep it at food and never give money.

  • I dont give money. But its not because I dont care. I just dont want to be an enabler.

    You may be enabling that shit in many other ways. ie, we all enable it by taking part in Tha System. A bit of wealth re-distribution never hurt anybody. Plus sometimes they have records.

    i def give money if there is some 45s involved.

  • I mostly give something if the person who's asking is brief and to the point. I have no patience for more than one or two sentences. I assume in 90% of the time they'll spend it on drugs because most of these bums are on something. I hope my tax money is good for the shelter and food these people need.



    I don't give to "urban nomads". Get a job.

  • DocBeezyDocBeezy 1,918 Posts

    giving them themoney does not help their situation. Its not like they are saving up to get an apartment, get cleaned up and lead productive lives.

    Them, they, these people, etc etc. This not a good look. It's what led to NoLa.

    oh come on. it is a specific group of people THEY THEM is PROPER.

    I cant refer to them as Homeless in every sentance. it is they.

    lighten the fuck up.

    nouns led to NOLA.

  • Birdman9Birdman9 5,417 Posts
    I dont give money. But its not because I dont care. I just dont want to be an enabler.

    See, that's what alot of people say and my opinion is, I give them some money and they can do what they want with it. How do I know if their gonna buy food or booze with it? I don't.

    chances are that it is booze. They can get free food from charities etc..

    giving them themoney does not help their situation. Its not like they are saving up to get an apartment, get cleaned up and lead productive lives.

    I hear what folks are saying, but I am with Doc on this one....I mean you could drive around non-stop just handing out $$, doesn't solve anything and what happens when you're broke?

    I tend to give to folks I see on the regular, and the ones that seem to have it together enough to stake out a corner or spot, and seem to work it regular. These folls don't seem to have the severity of issues(at least the one dude I am thinking of in DC, I see this guy in stores and places that you don't see the mental cases in and around, and if he uses, he is pretty controlled). I really don't wanna be the dollar that enabled dude to cop rocks or their morning gin, sorry.

  • dayday 9,612 Posts
    I never give money...

    But I try as much as possible to ask them if they are hungry and buy them something to eat.

    The thing I'm not liking lately tho, is some of these guys are getting pretty pushy. In the same week I was with someone and they asked him for change and was all "Anything man... a penny, nickle.. whatever you have." Well, my friend didn't have any change, but saw a dime on the ground and pointed it out. The guy looked at my friend like he was a dick.

    The same week (at the same place) a guy asked for money. My friend asked if he was hungry. The guy said yes, so there was a hot dog stand right next to them and my friend was like "I'll buy you a hot dog" the guy looked at him and was like "Can you make it McDonalds???" which was down the street.... My friend said no and the guy was pushing him to go get him McDonalds... My friend said no again and asked if he wanted the hot dog. The guy turned it down.

    Mind you, these were both young guys, so whatever...

    But I always try to keep it at food and never give money.

    Yeah, some people whether homeless or not, are dicks.

    You gotta judge for yourself. I've had that happen too where people are like "ahh come on that's all you got?" man, fuck that mess.

    And if I lived in NY or another major city there's no way in hell I could give to everybody that needed it. So I can understand it like New Birth.

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Only to cats I've seen on the train for mad years.

  • Man I hate the BS. The only person I have given money to in the past 6 years was a guy who straight up told me, "I wont lie I am trying to get a beer can you help me out?"

    This lady stands on the corner near my house with a sign everyday from 8am till 8pm and the sign says, "family in crisis need help kids at grandmoms". She has been there for 5 months. Now this is either a scam or she isn't trying very hard to get her shit together.

  • One of my good friends works at a bakery and at the end of the night they have tons of left over bread and pastries that they have to throw out.

    On more than one occasion I've had two grocery bags full of food and offered it to beggars only to be turned down!?

    They just want money...

  • I CANT STAND folls who look down on homeless people. Shit pisses me off more then just about anything. If i can spend 60 bucks in an evening on some DVDS (or a hundred and fifty! on a USED record) then its damn near my duty to give what i can to people less fortunate. Really, a buck here and their isnt even enough, imo. I try to kick it with "bums" sometimes too, even if its just smoking a cig with them and talking for 20 mins. The lack of human contact that they get, and the way that people refuse to even look at them is sad. Plus, alot of homeless people have some real interesting shit to say.

    BUMFIGHTS really pisses me off. If i even so much as see someone watching and enjoying that shit, i hope i can have the restraint needed to avoiding kicking their fuckin ass.


    PS

    there is a homeless dude on my block who controls pigeons. He points at any pigeon, and it flys to his hand. Then he will try to push the pigeon off, it will keep flying back to his hand no matter what. Then he points to where he wants the pigeon to fly, and off it goes. He then points at another pigeon and the same shit happens. NEXT LEVEL.

  • no, but i do throw empty beer cans and bottles etc in my recyclables and let folls sort through it... gotta work for the chedder.

    -rich

    This is basically the US's safety net. It's cool and all, but so many of "these bums" are on the streets because they have been seriously fucked by the govt. Never mind all the Vietnam vets, Gulf I vets, and soon Gulf II vets, in Williamsburg there are a lot of Puerto Rican oldtimers who are messed up and live in people's basements and shit, no jobs, basically homeless. And what's their story? Some of these guys were intellectuals and radicals in the Puerto Rican independence movement in the 70s. Many of them were jailed by the govt and completely fucked with. Then if they eventually get out, they come back to a hood that has been ravaged by drugs, gangs and mafia, and the young kids think they are nuts for their views. Basically outcasts in their own world, no longer needed, but thanks for the fashion cues.

    There are some amazingly humbling stories out there that really make you question US history, or at least the official version.

  • Sometimes I do. I've been using the "does this dude have nicer kicks than me?" philosphy lately. Seems to weed out a number of potential "business partners."

  • DocBeezyDocBeezy 1,918 Posts
    If i can spend 60 bucks in an evening on some DVDS (or a hundred and fifty! on a USED record) then its damn near my duty to give what i can to people less fortunate. Really, a buck here and their isnt even enough, imo.

    yeah that makes sense. But giving it to the person doesnt help. You need to save that dollar or 2 and give it to an organization that can help them with their alcoholism, mental problems, drug abuse etc..

    Giving it to them hurts them.

  • Sometimes I do. I've been using the "does this dude have nicer kicks than me?" philosphy lately. Seems to weed out a number of potential "business partners."

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