Ever give donations to street people?
skel
You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
What's your policy?
skel
You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
Comments
Fake-ass punk street kids in Berkeley can get a cigarette or two from me, but no money evar.
There is/was a great homeless guy in Detroit, named Larry, who used to hang around the Magic Stick and play a bucket. I used to bring him drums sticks about once a month -- sometime hook him up with whatever I could. Before I moved out to California, I gave him $40 dollars! He was great -- I have no regrets about dropping some money on him.
This morning, I gave some cash to a guy living rough in a subway (no ayo).
We chatted. He takes no funds from the state. He doesn't do begging per se, but relies on the local sandwich shops running a charity end-of-day giveaway service.
There were no beer cans or wine bottles around, but I only realised that after the donation. So I think the donation was impulsive, but based on subliminal/unconscious appraisal of whether this guy was going to blow the loot on some Thunderbird or whatever.
Then I'm thinking, even if he does blow it, who am I to impose moral judgement on how he should spend whatever meagre funds come his way. And that my donation might just be some guilt-ridden sop to having access to stuff that this bloke doesn't. Then I thought, who gives a toss? But on the other hand....
Then I'm thinking, I'm overthinking this, let the SS social scientists school me about the ramifications of handing a fist full of shrapnel to a vagrant.
please give me your minty OG Embalo
Thanks
Much obliged.
This is what I tell myself on a daily basis.
Although never the kind of fella who was predisposed to random acts of charity I fear any goodwill has been battered out of me by the daily adventure of avoiding the hordes of physical spammers who block the pavement desperately urging me to spend a day paintballing, go-karting or leching at some underfed eastern european women.
These days it's head down, shoulders squared and headphones in.
Still I admire all those who do take the time and give a little.
Big Issue folk, well I might buy one or two a year. It's not a great read. One seller at Liverpool Street was idly chatting on a mobile yesterday. GTFOOH fella.
People aggressively offloading free newspapers and tutting if you don't take one, well they are lucky not to get the full icy blast of a Kinnear-style rap.
Sometimes they don't recognize me and ask me for money because (they say) they need a place to stay for the night. Usually this means they need money so they can score. I just say "Come on, I know you live in a hostel that's all paid for". In that case I certainly won't give anything. When I don't know them I do most of the time.
I have been homeless myself, but i never relied upon handouts, i worked for my money, shit: i ate outta dumpsters, but i have no mental health problems either, so any mass comparison or generalization is worthless.
we have all seen scammers and fake 'homeless' but we have , i am sure all seen folks who legitimately need a helping hand, and giving some money to those folks is an honorable thing to do.
Agreed, but I wonder what the consensus is within the community of professionals in this field; is there a feeling that all handouts delay the need to address the root causes, for example by allowing an individual achoholic just to carry on as usual? How can the general public ever truly know who 'legitimately needs a helping hand' and who is fake? Certainly not on visual impact alone. Do handouts simply take the onus from the State to Do Something?
"You ever get those bums that turn mental on you? "Sorry, I don't got any money."
"MOTHERFUCKER!" "Wo wo, where's my checkbook? Hold on. Is that Mr. Bum? How do I make it out? Is that Capital Vagrant? I didn't know you were psycho, definitely wasn't your personality that put you on the street was it?"
With another guy, he said, "Thanks a lot, buddy. You don't know what it's like to be broke!" I said, "Yeah I do, that's why I work. I know exactly what it's like. You sleep on the pavement, you dig through the garbage for food and you bum money from strangers. Am I right?"
It actually pisses me off when I see people handing out money in my neighborhood. If these fuckers keep getting handouts they'll never go away! That means they'll continue to piss on my back steps, harass my girl, and steal shit from my porch.
If I could help these folks I would, but all they want is cash.
GTFOOHWTBS.
Disclaimer: this is Richmond, and we're "unique" you could say. It's very likely you've had different experiences in your city, but in Richmond the number of actual "down-on-my-luck" homeless are few and far between. Most here are just drunks, drunk addicts, sexual predators, and/or general lazy pieces of shit.
Most people we find begging on the streets are not always homeless in the sense that they have a roof over their heads. In most cases these people suffer from a psychiatric disease (schizofrenia mostly) often combined with an alcohol or drugaddiction. This makes it especially difficult to treat these people properly.
I don't think it will speed up the proces of them seeking or getting help by stopping donations or handouts.
I have seen people who simply don't want help or allow caregivers to reach them because of their disease or they have been dissapointed too many times in the past.
One day the local TV News did a story on him and followed him home after his shift at a 4 way intersection....he went to the bank, deposited money and then got on a bus to Shreveport where he gambled a few hundred bucks at the Casino.
True homeless folk have usually come from homes where they were abused or kicked out for being addicts already, usually after they have stolen from every last one of their friends and family. They have to get their fix.
It's like being able to stick your head in the sand while the stark reality of life passes you by. The long-term plan is to repeat this short-term plan daily until you die. Taking the bull by the horns is not an option in a lot of their circumstances. It's heartbreaking and unfair. Life can be like that.
My own thoughts are actually NOT to get them off Heroin first. It's to give them something constructive to do in the day, and let them fix around it. Then work on reducing the need for the fix. A surprising amount of addicts are professionals who can hold down long-hour jobs, because they don't need to go out and steal to afford their habit. But it will eventually hammer your health.
I don't encounter beggars on the reg anymore but I've given a few ??20's away if they are lucid enough. Rather they don't have to mug my mum for it (she's been mugged before, she didn't like it).
It always divides opinion.
We went to Marrakech in 2008 for my 40th. 8 of us. We were eating in the square at night, and basically you get a mountain of food for about ??2. It's edible, reasonably tasty, but you'd struggle to neck half of it, such are the portions. Old woman with nipper, true street folk, are hovering around the end of the table where we are, looking for scraps. Wife gives her plate to them. They start to put the food into carrier bags. It's obvious they are actually going to eat it.
Bloke who owns the stall is telling them to stop hassling us, but Mrs says "I don't mind, they can have it." Then my mate pipes up. "NO. Don't have them dirty [email]b@stards[/email] near me or my food!" he says to my Mrs. She tells him it's her food and she can do what she wants with it. They ice-grill each other for a few seconds, then we get up and leave. Urchin and urchin pile into our seats to grab the leftovers.
Old woman sends little girl over, who hugs my Mrs. Old woman blows my Mrs a kiss; little girl is beautiful and has a smile that would melt the devil's heart. It was truly humbling.
Mrs has a go at my mate. Talmbout he's never seen true poverty and that considering *his* Mrs was preggers at the time, he might feel differently when he sees little kids starving and he's got a plateful of food he doesn't need. Mate comes with the smug villain-face "You don't know me very well, then." line. Seems I didn't either.
We don't have much to do with them now, it kind of ruined the trip for the Mrs.
LOL
^^^^^^^^
REAL TALK
I used to give to "real" homelsess people all the time but these f*cking kids get me mad. Especially those fucks here in NYC with their boutique "punk" clothes. I should buy gloves so I can punch them without the fear of herpes.
One thing that qualifies you as a total douche is saying some smart-ass shit to an old/disabled/drug addled panhandler. Save that shit for the teenagers bumming beer change. Guys that feel it necessary to yell "get a job!" (or some of the other wisecracks in this thread) at broken down dope fiends surely possess immeasurably small penises.
I get people asking me for gas money at the pump all the time, like "I'm driving to South Carolina and ran out of gas money." Well you probably shouldn't be taking a long road trip without money for gas.
I even get people trying to run game at my front door with stories about needing gas money so their neighbor can drive them to the hospital to see their dying wife. WTF kind of convoluted bullshit is that.
there was a tired kid on the 2 train one morning two weeks ago. she was leaning on her luggage asleep. not until some lady slipped a dollar in her coat did i realize that she had been riding trains all night with only some pork rinds for dinner. i slipped a twenty in her coat pocket.
the only other time i can recall giving was '99 or '00. on the J train. this woman with a huge black eye comes on with two kids and announces how she left her man and has nowhere to go, just needs fleabag hotel money. she must have got $200-$300 everyone opened up for her, it was a real struggle for her to ask. she jumped directly off after one stop. really heartbreaking, but amazing to see people react so swiftly.