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do you ever give homeless people money?

hydroazuanacaine

bluelighter
Joined
May 17, 2007
Messages
8,498
i do not. never have. work downtown and don't give homeless people money everyday. i don't second guess myself with the drunks. but the regulars just standing on the sidewalk who say hello as you pass by. it's all principle. and sometimes i feel like i'm fighting really hard to reason why not to give a fellow human being something that means almost nothing to me and will mean so much to them. so much that receiving it would result in them feeling joy and relief. but anyway, i never do.

do you?
 
I give a dollar here and there but not very often. I almost always stop to give food and talk to them to see how they are doing though, especially if they look like they are in pain or not well. Many times, they are extremely grateful that somebody stopped to talk to them at all, as they are often completely ignored.
 
I never give beggars or homeless people money. Often the beggars are only scammers who have a place to live, and begging is how they pay rent (or anything else you can think of like drugs or alcohol that the rest of us have to work to be able to afford). At least here anyway.

At least once a year, I volunteer or make donations to homeless shelters and charities that help the homeless.
 
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I rarely give money, sometimes I'll buy an extra coffee or muffin for beggars outside the coffee shop.
There is a local newspaper entirely written by homeless persons, and they sell it themselves in the streets and metro stations across the city. I buy it every few months.
 
It really depends on the situation for me and changes country to country.

If I get approached with the standard routine for scamming money then I will not give them anything - If however the person approaches me and is genuine then I have no problem with helping them out.

Couple of examples :

*insert elaborate story* can you give me x amount = no

Flip side of this - a guy stopped me outside a liquor store and said, I,m x short for a drink - I gave him the amount.

There used to be a guy that used to be in the neighborhood collecting cans out of the trash - I spotted him a few times per week so I started to keep my cans for him. First time, I called him over and handed him a bag of cans - he was so thankful, as the time progressed I started giving him something to eat, something to drink, clothes and eventually a Christmas card and present :D (I had no idea what his name was, so put to 'My friend' have a great Christmas :D.

If he was desperate he would show up mid week (knowing I wouldn't have many cans for him) - I used to make him something to eat, give him a bottle of water, enough money to buy his next meal and off he would go.

Another story - there used to be a beggar woman that sat in between a well known strip of bars heading towards a club. I spotted her and give her some money - next week she was in the same location so again give her something - next week she recognized me and said hi, are you having a good night. When I actually took the time to sit with her and have a chat she was a really genuine person (the stories she had were worth ever penny I spent on Pizza and tea for her).

If you have no money to spare - spare a few minutes of your time.
 
I buy them juice and snacks. Always give em a cigarette but rarely ever money cuz I don't like to load their crack pipes for em.

I also give them my time when I wanna chat. They're usually very wise and psychotic and that intrigues me
 
When I was at my worst and fried I gave a bum sitting outside the methadone clinic I used to attend $75 which is how much it costs to get started there. Dude was stunned, I started talking to him and he told me "I'm not a junkie, I'm a drunk, I don't fucks wit that bullshit".

Personally I don't care if they buy drugs with it, I only ask for a lil gratitude. Hate it when they act like they deserve it, or don't say thank you.

The worst was almost 20 years ago, I was with my dad and we were driving and this car was parked on an entrance ramp and they were going car to car, my dad only had 20's and when he pulled it out his pocket you could tell he was pissed. Wouldn't of been that bad if I hadn't run into the same car that was "out of gas" 3 more times that year. They had balls.

I generally do give them money as I have a pass it forward type attitude, I'm deathly afraid of being a bum one day and hope if it ever happens that I'll get it back. But like others say, if they are on a game or damn near demand it I'll laugh in their face.
 
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I buy them juice and snacks. Always give em a cigarette but rarely ever money cuz I don't like to load their crack pipes for em.
so you just assume they're crackheads?

if somebody asks you for a couple of bucks, ask yourself if you need it more than they do...

alasdair
 
mostly I don't give money. if I have food to share, I'll do that (which is easy anyway, if you just have been at the dumpster).
 
I'm deathly afraid of being a bum one day and hope if it ever happens that I'll get it back.

Yip, same here. I come from a decent background but sometimes I'm totally incapable of looking after myself. Like I'd just rather avoid things like bills than deal with them, which can easily get out of control. If it wasn't for my parents I'd be total homeless material at the moment.

I took a homeless bloke for a few pints and gave him a tenner a few years ago. He said it was the most anybody had ever done for him, and was genuinely grateful.

He actually used to be a footballer for a famous football team in the UK, and gave me his name as evidence.

I googled him and it turns out he beat some bloke up (badly) in the street for not sorting him some baccy for a rollie, then served a few years in prison. Wildly contrasting with the stories he told me. I've got no idea if he knew I'd read all that, but it was good to show some basic humanity and hear his stories. Part of me couldn't let go of a feeling of being conned though. I guess it turned out to be somewhat right.

I was full to the brim of xanax when I met him. Generally I ignore people, unless it's at night, for some reason.
 
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The situation with homeless people/beggars has become quite bad here recently so I feel if I gave money to everyone who asked me then I would be the one on the streets.

Sometimes I do still give money but most of the time now I reply that I simply don't have enough to spare.
 
Sometimes... Most of the time I just drive by them. I ask them for their name as payment.
 
My family were in Rome, Italy touring an old church and one beggar was holding a cup out looking pitiful. We all felt sorry for him and also a bit afraid to approach him. After we came out of the church tour the same beggar obviously was on his begging break. He was on his cell phone chatting looking as normal as ever. He was event chucking while enjoying his cell call. I know some beggars are dead broke and live on the streets, but obviously some are a fake.
 
My family were in Rome, Italy touring an old church and one beggar was holding a cup out looking pitiful. We all felt sorry for him and also a bit afraid to approach him. After we came out of the church tour the same beggar obviously was on his begging break. He was on his cell phone chatting looking as normal as ever. He was event chucking while enjoying his cell call. I know some beggars are dead broke and live on the streets, but obviously some are a fake.


Not sure how it is where you are but here in the US, there are many families that are one paycheck away from being homeless. Many families living in shelters here are there simply because they make enough to eat, clothe their children etc.. but not enough for an apartment on top of that. There was a warehouse worker at my old job that lived in a homeless shelter, the office required him to have phone number for contact so he had to have a cell phone in order to keep the job. That dude was really sad, didn't even know what town he was born in or who his parents were. Can't imagine what that must be like.
 
My family were in Rome, Italy touring an old church and one beggar was holding a cup out looking pitiful. We all felt sorry for him and also a bit afraid to approach him. After we came out of the church tour the same beggar obviously was on his begging break. He was on his cell phone chatting looking as normal as ever. He was event chucking while enjoying his cell call. I know some beggars are dead broke and live on the streets, but obviously some are a fake.
solid approach. just assume they're all on the make (or, like potatoman, that they are all crackheads) and you never have to give away another penny. you need that $2 or $3 a lot more than they do...

file under: "i don't tip either - it's not my fault if the system works like that, they get paid. if they don't like it, they should just get another job."

alasdair
 
so you just assume they're crackheads?

if somebody asks you for a couple of bucks, ask yourself if you need it more than they do...

alasdair
money isn't a need for humans, we existed just fine without it.

I clearly want money more than a bum because I toil to acquire it.

The bums are welcome to go live in the woods and eat moss and squirrels and live without things bought and sold with currency if they choose not to get jobs.
 
^ yep. all bums are just lazy slackers. they're all in that position for exactly the same reason.

maybe, if you come back in another life and you're on death row in bali or you're a little down on your luck for any one of a hundred reasons, the people from whom you seek help won't be, well, like you.

spend that $2 wisely.

alasdair
 
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