Panhandler gets caught in a new ride

[GilpinGuy]

I remember one of those "investigative reporting" shows once, where they repeatedly drove up to several different street people with "will work for food" signs. They offered them a giant meal for raking leaves, mowing a lawn, etc. Not once did one of them actually take them up on the offer.

If someone is juggling. doing magic or palying some decent music, they might get a buck. Just sitting there with your hand out? Zero.

[hurley842002]

I would have a friend or family that would shelter me and I would bust ass finding a new job and would take whatever I could get to get me back on my feet.

Wife and I were just talking about this last night. How many bridges did you burn, to where nobody will give you a roof to help get on your feet, and how did you burn them?

[Danimal]

Deleted

[cstone]

I would have a friend or family that would shelter me and I would bust ass finding a new job and would take whatever I could get to get me back on my feet.

Eventually friends and family gets worn out or wise to the enabling part of the addiction cycle. Those closest eventually understand that there is nothing they can do to help someone who is on their ride to the bottom.

Mental illness with self medication are major factors, but ultimately, the individual either finds their bottom they can live with or seek appropriate intervention and works to overcome their demons.

Then there are the con-people (so much easier to say con men). They have always been there and they always will be.

The USA will never be like Singapore

[buffalobo]

An overwhelming majority of homeless have major addiction or serious mental illness and will never improve with handouts. Every handout some one gives them is another hammer stroke on the nails of their coffin.

With the assorted govt and charitable programs out there for homeless people, there is no excuse for healthy(no mental or addiction issues) people to be homeless for long.

The primary reason govt programs for the homeless are generally failures is the govt refusal to force homeless to deal with major addiction or get help for mental illness. "Bunks for drunks" (term coined by Bob Cote founder of Step 13) is an utter failure and waste of public money.

[HoneyBadger]

I will occasionally give a dollar or few to a talented street musician because I appreciate musical talent. I haven't done it in a while, but it used to work at the Marian House soup kitchen in a Colorado Springs. It's very clear that most of the homeless have drug addictions or mental health problems. There are very few that simply choose to be homeless. Unfortunately, there are also relatively few who will jump at an opportunity to get off the streets. If you want to help these people, a soup kitchen is a good and humbling place to start. Beyond that, there are many outreach charities that offer opportunities to clean them up and get them on their feet. Here in Colorado Springs, there is a "Veteran Stand Up" day (in November, I think) that is basically a job fair. Volunteers lead homeless vets around the fair and get to know them while getting them cleaned up and leading them around to stations that help get them going again.

[ZERO THEORY]

I would have a friend or family that would shelter me and I would bust ass finding a new job and would take whatever I could get to get me back on my feet.

This is my exact thought process. What exactly are they doing that they don't have a SINGLE friend or relative that will let them sleep on a couch until they have the money to rent a room? How many bridges have they burned that there is NO ONE who cares about them enough to ensure they don't sleep in an alley?

The one and only scenario I feel for are vets who are so emotionally and mentally scarred that they sleepwalk/lash out/have psychological episodes that make it too dangerous for them to stay in a relative's home. And the disposable nature of vets in the govt's eyes means the VA will do next to nothing about it. Unfortunately, a lot of the drug-addicted street cretins will buy some BDUs at the Goodwill and claim to be a vet to cash in on that sympathy. At which point I'm left to a default of no.

[KS63]

Hell, if I lost my job I'd be embarrassed to say I was on unemployment and welfare. I grew up in a single parent home and was quite poor. Didn't have shit. Had to work for everything I had because there was no money. That's a good, hard lesson to learn right there about working hard for what you have. I have too much pride in myself to stoop to begging. In an insensitive prick so fuck them.

[Tim K]

I carry gallon ziplock bags of prepackaged food in the truck. I hand them out every chance I get. If they're really hungry, they get fed. If they're scamming, I'm only out some food items that were close to expiring in the pantry.

[kidicarus13]

As Michael Jordan says, "If they can ask you for spare change they can say 'Welcome to McDonalds, can I help you please?'"