Those Beggars...

[Kanamori]

What do you think of them?

The ones that seem to make a career out of it bother me. Obviously, this topic was inspired by an annoying one. I was walking down the street to the grocery store, and there's a guy peeking his head over the top of a newspaper. Whatever, I can handle saying no to someone, especially when I just have a credit card. On the way back, he's still there and I try to call my mom. I'm not going to hold off calling so that this guy can rest easy that I'm not trying to shove him off, he expected me to hold off though, and starts ranting about not treating people like humans and to show basic decency, while I'm trying to talk to my mom. Being me, I cannot just let it slide, and I give him a piece of my mind -- the least I can do for him is offer him some of my enormous intellect so that he can get off the street. Honestly, I'm the one walking down the street, he is the one bothering me, and then he tries to tell me I'm wrong. Ye' bastards, leave me be.

[Keba]

There's a lot of them in the city I'm living in. They're mostly the quiet sort.

Either way, most people ignore them.

[Duke Malcolm]

There aren't too many here, a couple in the city centre. One has decided to set up camp here in the West End (the more affluent area of the city). The Community Council was somewhat displeased...

[whyidie]

The city I live in imported a bunch so that the city would be more city-like. Its a tough proposition because it gets so cold during the winter that the bumbs want hazard pay.

[Devastatin Dave]

I drive through East St louis every weekday morning and there's one that I buy an extra McD's breakfast burrito for. I don't give him money but I give him some breakfast. On day's he's not there, I just eat the extra one myself. He's not pushy, he just waits for the cars to stop at the light and goes to as many as he can while they're waiting for green. I drop the burrito in his can and we both always have a good laugh about it. I'm sure he'd rather have money, but I don't carry money. I should ask him if he likes bacon egg and cheese biscuits from Hardee's, they've got them 2 for 2 bucks!!!

[King Henry V]

There are a few of them here too, mostly dishevelled punks hanging around the train station surrounded by dogs and immigrants sitting in front of the supermarket. I can't believe that they have the nerve to ask for money as they're sitting there smoking cigarettes and downing cans of beer.

[Scurvy]

There are quite a few in london, some are slightly crazy, but most are okay, mostly i just feel sympathetic - having said that i rarely give them change as i dont usually have any...

@Henry, It's really easy to get cigs and beer as opposed to anything else, and if your that down it must be very nice to drink yourself out of it...

[King Henry V]

Cigarettes are expensive, and I don't how they can afford them and still stay "I'm hungry please give me money to buy food". What a load of rubbish.

[Scurvy]

if i had a choice between food and cigerettes, and i knew i was gonna be stuck there, I would go for the ciggerettes. --> food is surely second on the list of priorities

[Beirut]

Several years ago I spent a few days interviewing street beggars for a newspaper article. Of all I spoke to, only one was truly homeless. The rest had apartments that they often shared with others street beggars.

Most made between $20 and $60 a day. $40 being the average. Most worked at least five days a week. Add this to their monthly welfare check, and many of these guys were pulling in $1200 to $1400 a month. That's what I made working back then with a real job.

One guy had it down pat, he dressed very nicely and impersonated a college student with no bus fare. He had the backpack and books, the whole deal. He worked the bus stops near the downtown colleges. He could ask for and get money from people who wouldn't give money to the average street person. He had a nice jacket, nice shoes, combed hair, he was a good looking guy about twenty-five.

I caught him when he asked two other people for bus fare after me. In the end, he admitted he was a street beggar, except he was pulling in from $80 to $120 a day. And, by the way, he was also shooting heroin five times a day or more. Until then I didn't know you could buy a $10 shot of heroin. He'd get his ten or twenty bucks, score, and go right back to it. Quite the lad. His girlfriend knew nothing about it.

Made for a good article.

[Scurvy]

I caught him when he asked two other people for bus fare after me. In the end, he admitted he was a street beggar, except he was pulling in from $80 to $120 a day. And, by the way, he was also shooting heroin five times a day or more. Until then I didn't know you could buy a $10 shot of heroin. He'd get his ten or twenty bucks, score, and go right back to it. Quite the lad. His girlfriend knew nothing about it.

Made for a good article.

damn, why didnt i think of that --> my future career

[King Henry V]

if i had a choice between food and cigerettes, and i knew i was gonna be stuck there, I would go for the ciggerettes. --> food is surely second on the list of priorities

Yes, I'm sorry I forgot that ordinary people should finance the addictions of others.

[Scurvy]

they are'nt forcing you to give them money --> i can't see how you can object to them trying

[King Henry V]

The point is that they are lazy good for nothings who should be thrown off the streets and taught how to do a proper day's work.

[Scurvy]

nooo. The majority are there through no fault of their own (unless you count lack of education and upbringing)

given a choice between living on the street and "doing a proper days work" im sure they would choose the latter

some of them are not able to work due to mental health or personality problems -ie. what they were born with --> its unfair to call them lazy through a complete chance.

[Blodrast]

The point is that they are lazy good for nothings who should be thrown off the streets and taught how to do a proper day's work.

You don't know they're all like that, though, do you ? How about innocent until proven guilty, eh? Not to mention the humanity thingie.
No, I have no sympathy for the ones that can afford cigarettes, and who are asking for coffee money, instead of food. Nor would I ever give anything to the ones who are better dressed than me.

That being said, however, I DO have a lot of sympathy for one dude I see dressed in more-or-less spring/autumn clothes when the temperature outside is -25 Celsius, in the middle of the winter, and he looks like he's almost frozen to death.
I also have a lot of sympathy for the teenagers (or not just teenagers, but it's them I usually see in these situations) that are sleeping in a sleeping bag, again, outdoors, when it's below -20 Celsius in the winter.

How would you feel if, 15 years from now, you had kids and your daughter/son ran away from home, for whatever reason (age gap differences with her parents, whatever), and was among these people ? Would you still have no sympathy for them ? Or maybe you just haven't thought that far in advance yet, because you're too young, and you think that life will always give you everything you're striving for ?

I think some of them definitely deserve our sympathy, and our help, if we can give it, and most of all, the benefit of the doubt (unless, again, they are better dressed than you, and similar cases).

[The_Doctor]

I don't see many in Liverpool. There are a few people selling the Big Issue though.

[doc_bean]

I want to start my own charity Booze For The Homeless. Instead of giving them money I'd just give them booze, that's what they'd spend it on anyway, and if you buy it in large quantities you can get it cheaper, so more booze for the poor

[IrishArmenian]

It is a perpetual problem. No one will employ a homeless person, and thus said homeless person cannot get a home because he has no money.

[Justiciar]

There aren't many in Stockport and fewer in this little suburb. I've befriended quite a few of them.

[Papewaio]

They can't all be politicians, someone has to lose at the elections.

[Kanamori]

It's mostly that this guy launched a tirade at me for calling my mom as I was walking towards and past him. Sorry bruv, I'm not going to comfort your mind and wait 'til I pass, you're seeing something that isn't there, and that is not my fault.

[Samurai Waki]

The Homeless aren't so bad out here, it's a bit of a ways from LA. I feel bad for them, it's rather Catch .22 they do have services though in the City for people going through that sort of trauma. For the most part the ones that aren't shooting up, don't hang around for very long, as they get the services needed to better themselves. The Ones that don't seek employment, or help from city services, are either drug addicts, have untreated mental disorders, or are con-artists.

Generally when I'm going to class in the morning at UCLA, there is the usual hang-out for the homeless that I pass by. Its ALWAYS the same people, but on occasion, there is someone on the other side of Campus near the Business Center that is just really down on his luck I might give him whatever spare change I have in my pocket. Which is generally a fairly good amount of cash for a homeless person. However, you rarely see any homeless there, as they get evicted by the cops, and if they show up the next day, it can lead to being arrested. I guess it was a pretty popular spot a few years back for the homeless to hang out, but some girl got beaten and raped by one of em' and the Cops put an end to that trouble.

[Major Robert Dump]

A news station in OKC used hidden cameras and had mororists go up to "will work for food" people and the like, and offer them food and offer them jobs. About 90% of the homeless people refused the jobs, and took the food angrily.

As a former employer who has denied what I suspected to be homeless people jobs (mainly because their resumes and job history didn't add up, and when asked about this they displayed mental issues), I often wonder how exactly a homeless person is supposed to find work without an address. Assuming one can read, in most larger cities you can find a shelter that will -- even if you dont want to stay there -- let you use their address as a mailer.

Of course, this takes will and action. I don't get many of those folk in Norman because we zoned them out, but when I go up to OKC I see a lot of regulars. always tempted to pull over to the ones who say they are "veterans" and ask them when, where, their MOS etc just out of sheer curiosity.

My favorite has always been a guy who was out M-F during high traffic times on Flamingo in Las Vegas. He wore a leg cast. He always took the weekends off, and sometimes the cast would be on a different leg.

[yesdachi]

There are more here than I would expect (it gets fricking cold, why not be homeless in a warm city?), probably a result of our double digit unemployment rate for the 5th (or more) consecutive year.

I think most are lazy people who are accepting of their status because they don’t have to do much to maintain it; we have surprisingly nice halfway houses and soup kitchens (I think we make it too easy to be a bum). The ones that are mentally ill I do feel for and think we as a society need to take better care of, but the others I would just as soon see punished for their lack of contributing to society. No one, here especially, can say they can’t find a job (a good one is another story).