Supporting the homeless is so complicated these days. Honestly here in America its not quite as simple as we wish it could be. It seems like there should be a seminar or some sort of basic education on how to help the homeless.
As some people have mentioned there are some people who simply pretend to be homeless to make a quick buck. There are some homeless who live in homeless shelters with all the basic necessities and a few luxuries (like cable), they even offer programs to help get people back on their feet. Yet some of those in the shelters are very selfish and just take advantage of the system (I have heard a few real bad stories, such as getting angry and destroying some of the shelter property over the simple fact of a drier not working). Offenders are naturally booted from the homeless shelter.
Though sadly in itself, homeless shelters can be difficult to get into because of various requirements. If I were to support the homeless I would support the shelters and let them filter which ones actually need and deserve the help.Though unfortunately enough there are also many who need and deserve the help of a homeless shelter who cant get into one. Truly such depressing times.
Still ... did you know that in this day and time, people mostly just pass by the homeless? If you were to support them, like most say, just offer them food, or a "Survival pack" to help get them through their hard times (basically an emergency kit; probably coupled with some first aid, food, rations, maybe some water, etc. ). What makes this especially sad is that, homeless CHILDREN are even ignored. I have seen various youtube experiments (which i take with a grain of salt; considering its questionable validity.) where people's parents are disguised as homeless, and the passerby's do not even recognize them, or more specifically, did not bother to pay attention to them. These are adults by the way. There was that one youtube video experiment when a child was pretending to be homeless ... even over 2+ hours no one offered their support or even acknowledged his existence!.
I do not even like thinking about this anymore, its too depressing.
Moral of the story: Support the homeless! But learn on how to properly and effectively help them!