I know the frustrations with that. My previous job being in a group home for drug and alcohol addicted teens sent to us by the courts. It's tough to see and to work with because rarely do you see any immediate success. But, recovery is like trial and error for many. They need to have seeds planted that alternate lifestyles exist. Sometiems they slip back, but the hope is that eventually they get it. Sometimes, many times, they don't. I don't know that there was one single success story in my two years there of kids I worked with. The only kid that left by graduating our program an on a good note all around I just found out murdered someone. Sometimes it feels like a waste of two years, but my coworkers who have worked there for many many years have said they have had multiple times where a decade later a kid in the program who even may have gotten discharged will call and say thank you that their life is much better because of what they learned at our program. It's like other people planting seeds gives more volume to the angel on the other shoulder. At least that's my hope.

the other night i bought a homeless woman a candy bar. i think she would rather i gave her money

Maybe if it wasn't a Zagnut, Ryan...

An old scruffy guy asked me for some money for food and when I gave it to him he said, "I'm gonna buy booze with it you know."

I laughed and was tempted to give him more to reward him for his honesty.

homeless people are awesome.

In Chicago, the downtown homeless are pretty annoying. I'd rather not see people living in the street, but I don't really feel sorry for them. There are shelters and churches, but certainly pride must be an issue.

I've only seen one homeless person/panhandler in my neighborhood and he caught me on my way home from the unemployment office. I stopped and talked to him for a minute, explaining that I don't have a job either and in about a month or so, if I'm not working, I'll have to join him on the street. He just gave me an odd look and said, "Oh. Okay." as if he's the only person in the world with money problems.

When I was in Denver, however, totally different story. One guy walked up to me and asked for money. I laughed right in his face. He was a bit younger than I (early 20's), had on a spotless North Face jacket and what looked like Banana Republic clothing and some nice hiking boots and was carrying a ratty bag. I said, "Your outfit might cost more than what I've got in the bank at this point. Why are you asking for money?" He said, "I'm just trying to get back to Colorado Springs." What the fuck?! Call up mom and dad and get a train ticket, jerkoff.

hey this is mcdonald's, here's some handiwipes to clean yourself off with since you're homeless and don't have a shower. also, do you want us to send your paycheck to the 3rd cardboard box in the alley behind the liquor store?

Didn't you get the notice? It's not COOL AND AWESOME to disagree with me anymore. Even Dalen gave it up. How about, from now on, you post what you REALLY think on issues instead of saying the OPPOSITE of what I think.

The fact of the matter is genuine homeless people don't live very long. As someone how likes to walk around Glasgow, I know my city a lot better than most people do.

The guys who sit around on the main streets are all con artists. They have a 'master' and they split their daily takings with them and make as much money as a decent job pays. Fact.

The real homeless are rarely seen because they have underground lives. Almost all of them are mentally ill. In the early ninties when goverment spending cuts closed most of the mental health hospitals in favour of 'care in the community' most of those people were just turfed out into the street.

At the time a cardboard city sprung up underneath the Partick Expressway with upwards of a hundred homeless people living there.

Recently I passed that way again and noticed the cardboard city was gone. I asked a friend who works with the homeless and he said "They're all dead". He says they find an average of two dead homeless people every week.

Basically there are few homeless people, not because we live in a decent society that takes care of them, but because once you're on the street your life expectancy is virtually nil.

Re: People that just lay around and "do nothing"

Mental illness, man. There are exceptions to every rule, but in general you can bet that a homeless person who doesn't panhandle is mentally ill, and that's something you should feel sorry for. Some people can't afford treatment, or their parents couldn't, or they just plain never entered the system. Some of the veterans my dad counseled before he retired from the VA ended up homeless because they just couldn't deal with PTSD and their families/significant others/whoever deserted them. The worst thing to do regarding a homeless person is assume that you know anything about him or his situation.

I heard i statistic once. I have no idea if it is anywhere near true. But, it said that more than 80% of homeless men in New York City were Vietnam veterans. You think there is any validity to that? That's a crazy statistic if it is true.

I'm raeally kinda surprised at how many people don't feel sympathy and who tie their ability to be sympathetic to their opinion of the person's perceived abilities to actively change their situation.

I mean, I can understand wanting people to take steps to improve their lot in life, but getting back on your feet from being homeless is extremely difficult and not too many people out there are willing to give you a shot to start over once you drop down that far.

If you end up homeless, yeah, you probably made some bad choices along the way. But, however you got there, being homeless is a very difficult life and maybe I'm a sucker, but I feel a lot of sympathy for them. I have friends who have problems that are basically a result of their poor life choices, but I don't tell them to fuck-off and refuse to be sympathetic just because I think they caused the problem themselves.

Of course, since I'm not really all that good of a person and have a sick sense of humor, I did laugh when I was in DC and saw a couple guys making a homeless dude do push-ups for money.

I wouldn't be surprised, although I'd guess that that's an older statistic (ie - no longer true.) They certainly made up a large chunk of Memphis' homeless population (prolly at least a quarter.) I'd be interested to see some numbers on that.

I gave a homeless man potatoes one day, and for the obviously mentally handicapped one I went out of my way to buy him a cheeseburger from McDonalds and I was almost late to school because I drove opposite of the direction heading to school to give him the burger because he said he'd show up for it but he wasn't there when I came around.
I've bought burgers and shrimp for the guy who sits outside of the record store I go to.
He let me take pictures of him last year for a project so I used to owe him but i've paid him back in full byfar, but I still want to somehow help him.. which means try to motivate him to do something else with his life or rekindle what he has with his family.
He has someone looking out for him because every year he gets a new bag to put his stuff in, but apparently there is still something severely wrong if someone will do that but not take him in.

i've been wanting to interview some of the homeless people around austin to learn how they got where they are, i think a lot of people would be surprised.

but i'm afraid they'll eat me

I want to do that too.
Just don't do it alone, as long as you have someone with you and it's out in public where people are constantly walking around I think you'll be okay. Don't talk to them in some secluded area.

I determine if sympathy is given on a bum by bum basis.

As a relative of a mentally ill, once homeless, now dead, person, I'll throw a "yeah, that's it" out to the homeless mentally ill argument.

Much of the time it's not so much about choice as the ability to make a rational choice.

Very workable axiom applicable to lotsa stuff.

my favorite homeless story of late has to do with when i was walking to the subway after school. i had stopped and sort of spaced out because i was trying to decide where i was going to go, and i only half realized that i was looking at this homeless guy about 20 yards away, on the busy sidewalk of 6th avenue. the guy was holding his pet cat, and i watch half-comprehending as he stretched the collar of his dirty tshirt (which was tucked in) and slowly lowered the cat inside. i guess that's where he keeps it. i didn't think about how weird it was until he hurling filthy language at me for staring.

Fourth, you only know they're homeless because they're panhandling. For all you know, you're walking past dozens of other homeless people daily who make every effort to look like they aren't living out of their car while struggling to get a job that will let them feed their kids or rent a crappy apartment.

I'll admit I get irritated when I am approached by homeless people for $$$ because I don't like feeling obligated to help someone I don't know when I have a hard enough time helping people I do know. But I guess I tend to feel sorry for them. I know somebody who'd be homeless right now if people didn't step in for him. I think sometimes people are homeless for more circumstantial reasons than shitty decision making. When things are consistently subtracted from you and it's out of your control, it's gotta be the shittiest feeling in the world. And I've seen it happen to at least one person.

whatever, dude. maybe when you actually have to live on your own and not with your parents you'll realize how hard it is to do. you really think if a homeless person comes into a workplace with the image they're putting out that the manager is actually going to just give them a job? do you think they go "oh wait, i should wear my army jacket with the holes in it so people give me more sympathy"? i'm sure they'd take whatever clothes they can find. and after they get turned down when applying for a job for the umpteenth time, maybe their confidence might be a bit shaken and they'll just give up? yeah so that's what i fucking really think.

also, you should watch the movie dark days.

There are lots of homeless (or at least job-less panhandlers) in Athens, and they tend to take up residence on the benches right outside my workplace's front door. I used to feel bad for them, but no longer do because these people (the same ones) are there day-in, day-out and have been for years. We have given some of them jobs, and they work for 3 days, get their first paycheck, and we don't see them again. Well, we do, but they don't come back to work. Once a guy got off of work, went outside, and immediately started asking people for money, while still in uniform. These are the people who are capable of getting a job, but they just don't want to work.
There are also many homeless that are mentally ill, usually schizophrenic, and I do feel more sympathy for them because they are stuck in a vicious cycle. They can't get jobs without controlling their illness, but without money they can't get a steady supply of their meds, so they can never get on the even keel they need to hold a job. But, these people aren't the ones on the street asking for money, they just try to make it on what they can find.
The other thing is that some of the panhandlers (the gutter-punk varieties, mostly) get really hostile if you don't have anything to give them. What makes you think I'm going to give you the money I just spent 6 hours kissing ass to make when you start calling me all sorts of foul names??

i like the homeless cuz they make me laugh on "Bumfights."

in all seriousness though, if the homeless try to make all resources available to them to help them, and to aid them to a better life, then i would certainly help a bit by giving out clothes, or giving out soup cans, or giving a dollar or two.

but if a homeless guy continues to panhandle on the street, knowing that that money is going towards drugs or booze, then fuck him. let him freeze to death out there. that dude for whatever reason got himself homeless, not me or anyone else who's supposed to have an "obligation" towards helping him. ill have an obligation if that dude can show me he's definitely willing to change himself for the better, and not throwing me some bullshit sign, which will just help him towards his next fix.