Help the Homeless

[Katzndogz]

When my shop in Torrance was open, we had a lot of homeless hanging around. They would stop in and offer to work for food or money. But never at that moment. They had to make appointment with their parole officers, social workers, meal call at the soup kitchen. But if we would give them an advance, they would show up the next day. I would throw them out. My husband gave them a $10.00 advance. I asked him why he did that since they were not going to come back. He said he knew that, they wouldn't come back the next day, or EVER. Mostly he was right. But they did come back, offering to sell me pets they had stolen out of people's yards, out of cars, or even through the odd unlocked door. If I knew the pet, I would give them the money to take the dog knowing the owner would pay it back when they came to get their pet. Some of the dogs I bought from the "homeless" had been stolen more than once. Everytime the owner thought they had secured the pet, the homeless got more inventive about stealing it. One guy's dog was asleep on the sofa and one of the resident homeless guys smashed through the window, grabbed the dog and ended up at my door saying he found it, would I give him a $20.00. I could swallow my bile and pay only because I knew I was helping the animal.

 

[Valerie]

Your attitude in this thread is what's clap-trap Allie. You are the one who feels the need to "lecture", I guess.


Glad you got all your fantasies off your chest though...

 

[koshergrl]

Uh huh, ding dong. Go ahead and post some more sappy music, and carry on with romanticizing the homeless.

 

[koshergrl]

I suspect you believe Indians are noble based upon their genetics, too.

 

[Valerie]

Uh huh, ding dong. Go ahead and post some more sappy music, and carry on with romanticizing the homeless.

Oh, is that how you took it..? Romanticizing..?

 

[Valerie]

I suspect you believe Indians are noble based upon their genetics, too.

Make up whatever you want, nutjob...very Christian of you.

 

[koshergrl]

Band Aid - Do They Know its Christmas 1984 HD - YouTube

Very helpful.

 

[koshergrl]

I suspect you believe Indians are noble based upon their genetics, too.

Make up whatever you want, nutjob...very Christian of you.

Yes, everybody knows that the epitome of Christianity is to approve all useless claptrap.

 

[Katzndogz]

That's the difference between having actually lived among them, and just seeing them as an *idea*.

I would help anyone...but I'm not a goo-goo eyed romantic when it comes to the homeless. I don't see it as anyone's *fault* that people are homeless...having been around them a lot I realize that 99.9 percent of the time, the *fault* for their homelessness lies with them and the piss poor choices they've made.

That isn't to say we shouldn't help them. But I won't support gov't mandated assistance; the churches do more now and have historically done more for that population than ANYONE, yet jackasses sneer at the churches and Christians every day, demanding that they *do more* (i.e., let the government take their money and distribute it as the government sees fit). Loons who have never spent any but the most nominal time/money on these people assume a condescending attitude based on their fantasies about who is homeless, and how they came to be there, and how everybody would loooove to work and pay a mortgage and take care of their kids if they were only given the OPPORTUNITY. Which of course is hogwash. People are homeless because they're drug addicted and/or mentally ill. Once in a blue moon, you come across someone who really just got handed some supremely horrible luck, who have absolutely no resources or relatives...but honestly, I don't think in all my time working with people I've ever run across even one person who could lay the blame for their homelessness at anyone else's door....unless you go back in time to their childhood, when their alcoholic father sold them as a sex slave or something.

In fact...even that case....a girl whose drug addled mother (not her father) first prostituted her out (starting at the age of two...those were her earliest memories) then outright sold her to some old man....who eventually died leaving the 16 year old alone in the hospital...THAT girl became completely self sufficient. The last I knew she was working as a checker at WalMart, where she'd worked for years, was in a long-term relationship and was doing quite well.

The point is, yes they have issues and there's nothing wrong with helping people out. But I get tired of hearing dewy-eyed elitists lecturing other people on how much more they should be doing, and how it's everybody else's fault that people are homeless. That's just claptrap.

Likely that one girl who shows up in a blue moon could be helped because she was so young. I was reading an article not long ago about a youth homeless shelter where the greatest danger was the kids killing one another.

My parents didn't drink. They didn't take drugs. They were simply thieves. If someone helped us by giving us a dollar, that meant they had two and mom and dad would lead pipe them and take the rest. There wasn't ever, a single person, that helped us and didn't pay dearly for it. And people did help. BOY did they help. All that Christian charity. Some actually took my destitute family into their homes. I don't know of giving well meaning people a concussion killed anyone. I hope not. It pleases me to think that all that happened was a bad headache and some lost possessions. I was so little then, there was nothing I could have done anyway.

When someone gets all dewey eyed and self righteous about helping the homeless, they make the world a far more dangerous place. They create many more victims. Yes, there might be that one in a blue moon that can actually be helped. Finding that person means hundreds of innocent victims.

Here's a woman who wanted to help someone displaced by Sandy.
Pa. Woman Helps Sandy Victim, Gets Robbed: Cops | NBC 10 Philadelphia

How did her exhibition of charity work out for her?

 

[Katzndogz]

Uh huh, ding dong. Go ahead and post some more sappy music, and carry on with romanticizing the homeless.

Oh, is that how you took it..? Romanticizing..?

Unfortunately it is romanticizing. It's taken right out of Roadhouse with Patrick Swayze. Unlike movies that end with closing credits, your notions of helping the homeless creates real victims. If you really wanted to help the homeless, you would be advocating for getting them off the streets permanently and into lock down residential facilities.

 

[Valerie]

You know Allie, I'm sure it's hard for someone like you to imagine, but some of us don't go around yammering all day long as if every topic is all about them just because they love to hear the sound of their own horn tooting. We all have a lifetime of experiences, yet some of us never feel the need to "lecture" just for being knowledgeable... Sadly, the world is full of blowhards, so forgive me for not being impressed.

 

[koshergrl]

Exactly...there's a difference between giving a helping hand, and enabling.

I would never in a million years take a homeless person into my home. I will give them money in a parking lot, if they ask me for it and I have it. I will give people with kids money. I will help them navigate the system, and go out of my way to get them shelter and food and clothing. I will give to charities I believe in (Salvation Army, for example. My church. ) because I know and see what they do.

But I'm not going to put myself and my children at risk by inviting them home to my house to share a meal, giving them a ride in our car, whatever. I will contribute to the mission, I will provide labor at the meal sites, etc.

 

[Valerie]

Uh huh, ding dong. Go ahead and post some more sappy music, and carry on with romanticizing the homeless.

Oh, is that how you took it..? Romanticizing..?

Unfortunately it is romanticizing. It's taken right out of Roadhouse with Patrick Swayze. Unlike movies that end with closing credits, your notions of helping the homeless creates real victims. If you really wanted to help the homeless, you would be advocating for getting them off the streets permanently and into lock down residential facilities.

You know nothing of my notions, actions or intentions. Congrats for making my sigline, asshole...

 

[Katzndogz]

Oh, is that how you took it..? Romanticizing..?

Unfortunately it is romanticizing. It's taken right out of Roadhouse with Patrick Swayze. Unlike movies that end with closing credits, your notions of helping the homeless creates real victims. If you really wanted to help the homeless, you would be advocating for getting them off the streets permanently and into lock down residential facilities.

You know nothing of my notions, actions or intentions. Congrats for making my sigline, asshole...

You have made your notions, actions and intentions quite clear. Many times, over and over again. When you pick a sig line, always pick something that the person you are quoting is proud of. You only advertise the obvious and true.

 

[Bill Angel]

Homeless in Baltimore (Closeup)
This fellow was not only homeless, he was also bewildered and confused about how to deal with his situation.
There was probably elements of mental illness present as well, but not malevolence.​

 

[koshergrl]

Of course they're not all malevolent.

But I get tired of constantly being told that if I don't support this particular legislation or that particular program I am contributing to the problem. It's hogwash. As is the lie that most homeless people are just ordinary people who have fallen on hard times, and need nothing more than a job to once again become fully functioning members of society. I believe it is everybody's responsibility to help the unfortunate but I each in his or her own way, and not at the point of a gun. Don't contribute to my church if you don't like; likewise I'm not going to vote for fewer restrictions on welfare, or give the sex offender who wanders our streets a job taking the trash out at my house.

 

[Katzndogz]

Once in a blue moon there is someone who can be helped. But, face facts, before Adam Lanza killed 27 people he wasn't a bit malevolent. The homeless man who pushed a passenger into the path of an oncoming train wasn't malevolent. If someone is mentally ill, they are not malevolent until they are and then it is too late.

 

[Katzndogz]

Of course they're not all malevolent.

But I get tired of constantly being told that if I don't support this particular legislation or that particular program I am contributing to the problem. It's hogwash. As is the lie that most homeless people are just ordinary people who have fallen on hard times, and need nothing more than a job to once again become fully functioning members of society. I believe it is everybody's responsibility to help the unfortunate but I each in his or her own way, and not at the point of a gun. Don't contribute to my church if you don't like; likewise I'm not going to vote for fewer restrictions on welfare, or give the sex offender who wanders our streets a job taking the trash out at my house.

Many of the homeless don't want help. They might want some sympathetic benefits but not help.

Shame of the city - SFGate

The more able of the homeless find their way into shelters, counseling and housing programs. But the most chronically indigent, called the hard core, steadfastly refuse most help and stay outside.

 

[LittleNipper]

Some people are homeless because of catastrophic events, but others are homeless because of the choices they make.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

Our local grocers have a program with Harvesters here in KC. At the register they have barcodes they can scan that are donations of 1, 2, 5, 10 and twenty dollars. I try to buy a ticket everytime I shop. Im not sure where all the money goes but I know its mostly for food.