I truly cannot fathom it.
I, (18m) grew up with my dad (61m) constantly telling stories about how he was homeless by 16 and barely getting by back in the late 70s/early 80s, and was generally raised with the value of being kind to all people from all paths of life.
We’re currently on vacation out west, and ive noticed we’ve seen a lot more homeless people.
The first one we encountered asked for money to buy a hot meal while my stepmom ran to the bathroom at a gas station. I was sitting in the backseat while he spoke to my dad, and he was trying to wave him off with some loose change. I got out and handed the man 5$, and i saw his eyes light up as he walked into the gas station.
My dad scolded me saying he was handling it, and that the guy was just a panhandler trying to get money from us. But I saw him sitting on the pavement with his food. He looked happy.
The next encounter was just 20 minutes ago. We were getting ready to leave our current motel, packing up the car and whatnot. Another homeless man was asking for anything. food, money, whatever we could offer. My dad gave him some snacks we bought, but said he didnt have any money.
As we were going to leave, the man came over to the car saying he found a loose room key, and asked if he was okay to try it on our door so he could shower. my dad told him by all means he could try. As we checked out and drove off,hwe saw the homeless man walking away, looking somewhat defeated. My dad said he was grateful it didnt work, because he probably would’ve trashed the room. He also made quite a few comments about drugs for both men.
I just cant comprehend how people can be so cruel to those going through a rough time in life. I saw those men and all i felt was remorse and the need to help, but I dont have a job. the 5$ i gave the first man was the only cash I had. My dad told me I was just young and naive, and that the world would harden me and make me less compassionate, but that just makes me… sad, I guess.
Comments
Humans are shit
> I just cant comprehend how people can be so cruel to those going through a rough time in life.
Both things are true: these people are going through a rough time and deserve empathy and help.
Also, that $5 you gave the guy probably went to liquor. The guy very well might have squatted in or recked your room.
Homelessness is often symptomatic of mental illness or drug addiction, not just a guy who lost his job. Lots of people see giving them $5 an act of enabling those addictions
>My dad told me that I was just young and naive, and that the world would harden me and make me less compassionate
First, it’s quite telling that he thinks it’s natural to lose compassion, because it’s absolutely not. If anything, most people learn to be more compassionate as they age. It’s also not great that your dad seems to want the world to harden you.
Second, aging does not inherently mean you’ll stop caring about homelessness. The more educated you become on the matter, the more you’re likely to care. Don’t let your dad turn you into a NIMBY.
People are terrified of a person getting something they might not deserve.
You are naíve.
It will stay like that until you burn yourself, several times.
People are shit
They need someone to feel better than
They lack empathy
They assume they are homeless by choice
They do not realize they are also 1-2 pay cheque’s away from being homeless
For some reason, it’s easy to pick on the poor and homeless, what possible argument can they counter?
They don’t understand there is usually mental health issues, substance abuse issues, and even severe trauma they are escaping from.
It’s easy to look down at homeless people because they are considered the lowest of society by some.
Don’t change who you are, be kind always regardless of what others do.
Instead of giving money, I like to offer to buy them food. Usually, whatever they order I’ll tell the cashier to make it 2 orders so they have some for later.
Many times they don’t accept food given, people purposefully put shit or garbage in their food so they eat that. Some folks are very cruel. In contrast, I’ve seen people drop off sleeping homeless folks clothes or other gently used items they can utilize.
Growing up, my mom would always buy homeless people food or give them spare change if in a hurry. Maybe if even 1 person sees you doing this they’ll change their perspective.
Cheers
Homeless tend to be drug or alcohol addicted. Not all but many. They also leave a lot of filth behind because they have nowhere to put their trash. They lower people’s property values. I know all this because I’m born and raised in Los Angeles and currently live in an area afflicted with homeless. Now it’s not even socially acceptable to use that term as now it’s “unhoused”. Many unhoused prefer to be this way because they do not have to answer to the landlord, gasman, water, electricity, etc etc etc. They are free to use whatever money they have for drugs, alcohol etc. Sad but true.
Where?
Living in a capitalist setting makes us feel more accomplished to not be poor. If you’ve reached any of your own defined success, you have disdain for people who refuse to work and you just see them beg. Considering 1/3 of homeless are drug addicts, it also doesn’t give a good reflection.
I think the “system” has made us hate people who are just people. Everyone deserves a human connection.
You don’t have to be less compassionate, but you do have to decide boundaries for yourself about when/if you want to give money away and if you feel comfortable putting yourself at risk.
Many people become victims of homeless people. Many these days are not bums who are just down and out. They are drug addicted and often times violent. They will break into your car or home to get money.
I myself have been a victim of a homeless person who broke into my garage. They stole so much from me. They stole two high end bicycles, tent, clothing from my car, tools, and scratched my car to get the bikes out of the garage.
My daughter (14) had such a negative biased towards homeless people it made me sad. She’s lived a pretty privileged life and when I gave a man change one day she said oh good he can go buy drugs now.
I was furious. Since that day we usually spend an hour every week or two making sandwiches and handing them out in our downtown area. There are lots of homeless people. We drive up and she puts her window down and hands them out. She hated it the first day. Now she sees the difference it makes. She sees how happy and grateful they are she has learned some just legit fell on hard times.
Everyone that makes the argument they will just buy drugs or alcohol I urge you to make a difference with food then. Go buy a no name container of peanut butter and no name loaf of bread. So like $7 worth of supplies and make a bunch of sandwiches and hand them out. Maybe your perception of homeless people will change.
an alarming number of our fellow humans are barely restrained monsters. just look at how readily half of america turned violent against transgender people once the dummy king signalled it was ok.
There’s never a good reason to be cruel to anyone, but there are a lot of good reasons to avoid handouts to the homeless.
The first is potentially being robbed or worse, killed. Homeless people can be desperate, and might try to take advantage of a naive person willing to help. Unfortunately some may not even ask for help and just take advantage of you stopping for them in the street.
The second is supporting activity that got them there to begin with. A lot of homeless struggle with addiction. Drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, etc. just because they say they need a meal, doesn’t mean they’re being honest. The last thing you need is your hard earned money going towards someone else’s vices.
The third is if you aren’t wealthy. In order to really help people, you have to help yourself first. You’re fresh into adulthood, and for the sake of this point I’ll assume still rely on your parents for a bit. You shouldn’t be handing money out if you’re not established and don’t have much of it yourself.
The fourth is, the real reason you want to help. Is it really about them, or is it just to make you feel better about yourself? Often when people hand out money to the homeless, it’s the latter, and evidence of this includes when we see it on social media. Some do it for a morale boost, some for attention online, and some out of genuine concern. Just be aware of your true intention.
The fifth is, there are more effective ways to help the homeless then handing out a few bucks. Look into charities and donate to one you trust and support.
The sixth, unfortunately, is some will not be grateful. The last time I helped a homeless person was outside of a McDonald’s where I just picked up food to deliver working Uber Eats. A homeless woman approached me in my car asking for anything to put towards a meal. I gave her 5 dollars, all the cash I had on me. As soon as she got it, her sweet voice changed immediately, she starts berating me asking if that’s all I got, calling me bitch lol I wanted to snatch that five from her but she already pocketed it. At that point I just shook my head and got out of there. Maybe she was just really struggling, maybe she was ungrateful, or maybe she was stalling to keep me there to set me up with a friend. That’s when I realized I wasn’t even in a position to help her out. I had a place to sleep, but I was technically homeless myself!
Because it makes people feel a lot more secure to assume that being homeless is a fault of the person and it couldn’t happen to them because they are better people.
Part of the problem too, is that many of the people we see panhandling are not homeless at all. They go home to their houses or apartments at the end of their “shift”. This is kind of like their job.
People have the attitude that if these beggars can stand panhandling all day, they can stand behind a counter and work retail or food service, so why should we give our hard earned money?
There are often enough that giving 5$ is a real burden for some people.
Some are scammers. But a lot are real. I don’t know if there’s an easy way to figure it out.
Many people who are homeless have secondary issues like drug abuse or mental illness. This percentage decreases by the year.
Homelessness is often the result of mental instability and/or substance abuse. People suffering from such problems are equally as often dangerous. The compassion isn’t worth the risk of putting yourself in a potentially dangerous circumstance.
Some people feel the need to be “better” than someone else. You can tell exactly how Little that person is by how low they have to stoop to be better than someone else.
The scammer’s, the aggressive beggars and the ungrateful ones have soured many people.
I feel really bad about how the homeless are treated. They usually need psychiatric and drug addiction treatment and I think that should be mandatory
The most cruel laws affecting the homeless are:
The Federal Patriot Act requires a residential address to open a bank account. This prevents the homeless from doing many essential things. An exception to this act must be made to help homeless people!
NIMBY policies in many towns result in housing shortages and building too many homes but not enough apartments
Dark money algorithms that allow vacant units to be removed from the market
They have been brainwashed to look at homeless people as criminals. In fact it is illegal to be homeless in many states and counties with jail time for those just trying to sleep. Also even churches have closed their doors to the homeless. America and most Americans are brainwashed and heartless to victimize those in the lowest class. Homelessness increased every year and their solution instead of helping is attacking them.
The funny thing is that the self righteous people who claim to want to help homeless people are putting on an act. You put a homeless shelter anywhere within a 10 mile radius of their home and it’s a different story.