As for leeches such as these "Let them eat cake!".

They are parasites by choice. These deadbeats think, "Why work when I can find plenty of suckers to give me money?"

First and foremost thank you for helping. At one time, I was working with spanish speaking in PA who either lived on the streets or close to it, and since in Florida have spent some time on the streets of Tampa, ALTHOUGH in no way close to the dedication you are giving.

I am of the opinion that it is part of our ever growing mental health crisis in this country, and to those who simply are posting here to JUDGE and LECTURE, I pray to God that you or yours are never in such a state as some of these folks.

God bless anyone who helps another human being as we are all God's creatures and thus deserve more than "get a job" or such emotions.

YES, lots of "con artists" playing us and use this situation, but we are, and have been in the past, but the rich, banks, etc also "play" us but they dress nice and will never fail in our society.

Keep up your good work because the divide between rich and poor continues to widen and the number at the bottom just grows.

Somehow these people are thought of as worse than rich and powerful who take advantage, and we make that judgement with zero knowledge or how they got where they are.

Again, God bless you

We all judge. It's in our nature to do so. But some of us judge out of a sense of privileged superiority, and some judge out of just "I'm a human, therefore I judge."

There but for the grace of god go I. And when someone says they've met a lot of homeless who only want to rip people off, they usually mean they've seen this one guy who rips people off, do so regularly, therefore he represents a lot of them.

Yes there are some who choose the homeless life, but that is usually because they have to choose between that or something even worse. I've sat with young women who left their homes and chose to be homeless rather than live in a home where they and their siblings were physically assaulted by their parents, or sold into prostitution. If those are the only choices you have when you're 16 - accept being physically abused, or become someone's whore - the "choice" to be homeless looks pretty damned attractive.

If the "choice" is being overmedicated because the judge says you're disabled and need to be put away in a "safe place" where you get no visitors, have nothing to do, nowhere to go, and nothing but other insane people to talk to all day - OR living on the streets hoping for a moment of kindness from a stranger...then sure, that's a "choice."

Feel bad when you stub your toe. And then remember there are people who have no feet.

Or sit tight and confident with your righteous indignation about how all those smelly infected sick dirty homeless people dare to look you in the eye. Because that's your choice.

I believe lecturing people is a turnoff. It’s really quite simple, give hand outs or don’t. I would never give a hand out to people begging on street corners. I do, as suggested earlier, support homeless shelters and food pantries.

Panhandling should be banned because of the danger of the situation for people traveling in those areas and the fact that it primarily funds illegal drugs.

Wasn’t too many years ago up north where a woman who was known to assist and help the homeless was murdered by one of the men she was assisting. I don’t like to see anyone guilted into opening their car window and handing out cash.

.......... and that, Jazuela, is an excellent post - thank you. There, but for the grace of God, go I. Yes, we were raised on that. No, we were not holy rollers or on our knees every Sunday, but we were raised to care for those who cannot care for themselves.

Does anyone remember when the powers that be decided to close down all the insane infirmaries and send all those poor souls out onto the streets?, well I do and many of them ended up living on the streets and under bridges, and the "sane" homeless people took care of the "insane" homeless people. Most of the insane were actually medically diagnosable; i.e. people who had had severe nervous breakdowns, people who were "hearing voices" - actually schizophrenic, people with bi-polar which was not diagnosed fully until quite recently, and so many other mental illnesses.

It is so easy for us who have been fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to get through life with a good living and to be able to retire with grace, but what about the people who cannot get through life, who are totally addicted to pills, who do suffer with mental problems and nobody cares, not even their families.

In countries like ours where the wealthy are filthy rich couldn't we make group homes for people so that they could have a bed and a shower before they have to face their hellish days just trying to get through until they can come back to the home at night for a decent meal and a clean bed?

You can label me whatever you like ........ a bleeding heart liberal or some other name, but I would rather you label me with being a caring person who bleeds when they see the injustices in this world.

This is one of those situations where folks think what they think. It doesn’t mater what you say, they most likely won’t budge from their current opinion. ..Kinda like politics.

If I have singles I was give $2.
If it’s a scammer, I haven’t lost much.
If it’s for real, it can help buy a snack.

Excellent posts by BOTH...you and Jazuela. :thumbup:

As for the underlined above...count me in that camp.

I personally find it telling, that we have this thread whereby a lot of criticism and broad-brush negative painting is going on about homeless people, while simultaneously in another thread...we have some who are not-so-subtly patting themselves on the back about their wealth. :ohdear:

True story about a specific homeless person, because Madelaine Amee expresses the exact situation I was involved in, in Boston (people made homeless as a result of mental hospitals being shut down).

There was a guy everyone called Skip. His real name was Kenny, and he was often referred to as OT, which stood for "Out To..(lunch)."

Kenny had some significant mental illness. This was also when "paranoid schizophrenic" was an actual diagnosis, I believe that has changed since then. He also suffered from delusions and multiple personalities. He would disappear for a month, and show up in the middle of winter in Harvard Square stinking like a hobo, wearing plastic bags over bare feet.

Eventually he'd get help finding his parents' home, and he'd get the medication he needed, change of clothes, food. But he was an adult, and his parents both worked, and couldn't be his keeper 24/7 so they had to let him leave. He HAD been declared mentally incompetent but as I said - the hospital closed and they let him out. Anyone whose illness could be managed via medication was left to their own devices, even if part of the problem was that one of their personalities wasn't aware that the body was in need of medication.

Kenny was actually incredibly smart. He spoke several languages and had, at one point, been granted a full 4-year scholarship to Harvard. By the time I met him for the first time he was in his early 30's.

As a busker, I often had to leave my "spot" to go to the bathroom, but that usually meant having to lose that spot to whoever was waiting for me to leave. One time I was down in the Harvard Square Red Line, playing my guitar, and Kenny showed up. He stood by the wall silent and stoic til I was finished singing, and approached me. He told me he was Secret Service, and that he was sent to protect me and I shouldn't worry because he'd keep me safe.

I'd seen this personality of his before, and it was mostly harmless and always entertaining. So I told him I needed him to guard my guitar and the money in the case while I called the President upstairs about a mission. Of course, he complied. I went up to the coffee shop's bathroom, bought a couple of coffees, came back and he was playing my guitar and singing Case of You by Joni Mitchell. His voice was so soulful and heartfelt I could only just stand there and cry.

Kenny died several years ago, and the majority of the Harvard Square "street community" came together to mourn his passing. This included all the employees of the stores in the Square, the guy at the NewsStand, other street musicians and artists and performers, Harvard University professors, and the church deacon.

He was so well loved. And he was homeless. And it angers me when people assume homeless people mostly "choose" to be that way. He was one of dozens of homeless or near-homeless "street people" I knew, during the early 1980's. They all had a story. Some were grifters. Most were not.

Amen.

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Yes we had one near where I worked, he used to stand on the center island of a main road near the highway exit with his homeless vet sign. He'd been arrested a couple of times and eventually his situation was given local newspaper coverage. Turned out he had a home, was actually fairly well to do, but incredibly eccentric. They didn't say *why* he would go out begging like that. Like, what his own reasoning was for it. Did he forget he wasn't homeless? Was he mentally ill and was living in some past decade when he actually was homeless, maybe?? Was he trying to make a political statement? Was it a social sciences test? I never learned the answer to the why of it.

He didn't make a lot of money at that spot but he had other spots he'd go to during the week as well. Very strange man, but harmless.

There was also a guy who used to come to my job, who everyone assumed was homeless. Turned out he was one of the wealthiest people in town, he was just super grungy and drove a beat-up car because, he said, it worked just fine and there was no reason to replace it yet.

What a beautiful, touching story!

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Moderator, please move to "non Villages' forum Thank you