Do You Give To The Homeless?

[Guest]

The most common "homeless" I see around is the bottle-collecting kind, y'know the ones that look in the trashcans and fish for bottles, etc. 

 

Well, we have a lot of spoiled kids in Copenhagen - the kind of kids born with a silver spoon up their ass, and they usually treat these bottle-collectors like shit. It makes me so fucking furious when I see stuff like that happening.

 

So yes, I do give homeless bottles or some spare change if I have any.

[Ochre_Dust 329]

Actually that's one thing we can boast. Our prisons, by and large and by no means universal, are pretty clean and have fully staffed medical wards.

 

Our biggest problem is wrongful conviction and acquittal.

Oh, sorry, I meant mental health, not health in general.

[Tao 7,843]

I;ll buy em food and water and such but thats bout it unless  i know them.  Also I've been homeless for six months so i can relate..

[Steel Accord 6,660]

Oh, sorry, I meant mental health, not health in general.

 

Ah, well that I can't really speak to. Not really an expert on the institutions for those not mentally sound of mind.

[Sugar Cube 4,843]

More often than not, I don't just because I'm usually fairly sure that the money I loan them goes straight to their next drug fix or sip of alcohol, and that isn't something I want to support. I would have no problem buying them a sandwich or some kind of food if they were really hungry and would appreciate such a gesture, but when they just want money in their palms, then it's unlikely that their intentions are genuine.

[BlueBrony 388]

Showing kindness is a lot more complicated in this world than in Equestria

More often than not I give money, yet I also know that they could be lying to me.

I would rather risk feeding an addiction than become completely closed off to my fellow human being.

But I know there are other ways that people try to help rather than just give money-ways that are less suceptible to fraud

Fear ultimately paralyzes me from probing too deep into those who ask for money.

The internal conflict is strong within me, especaily after i give money

[Thunderstreak 136]

It really depends, for example, one time after a movie in the parking lot, an old man in a wheelchair and an oxygen tank approached me saying his insurance wouldn't pay for him to stay in a hospital anymore, he'd been stuck outside in the heat all day with no where to go, with people ignoring his cries for help. I gave him a lot more money then I ever would to a beggar. This guy was on the verge of tears and it just punched a giant hole in my heart. After three years I still think about him..

[Kierkegaard 8]

Nope. I've been homeless once. It was the worst experience in my life. I lived off of scraps but I never asked for spare change. I washed my clothes in public gyms, took my bath there aswell. Slept in corners of libraries. I got a job at a junkshop and worked my way up from there until I got to where I am.

 

However, things have not been too kind on my end lately. I might be homeless again anytime soon.

[Rainboom Dash 1,056]

There are a lot of homeless people in the city I live, and a lot of them tend to do art in the streets. I try to give to them as much as I can.

[catnet 9,357]

I don't go out very often, so I don't often see homeless, or any kind of people... I used to give money to them, but I've come to prefer donating to a charity I trust instead, since I feel that some- not all- of the beggars in my area are more than a little dubious. =/

[Somepony42 20]

I try what I can, giving what I can to a homeless person. If I see someone on the street, I'll be sure to give them what I can if I feel that they actually need it. Honestly, I prefer to give in person as I know that it will help the person I see, as opposed to a charity where said person may not see the benefits of the charity for various reasons. 

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

You know, it's a very hard thing nowadays. You can't really tell if it's a real homeless person or a panhandler. The one thing I know is, if you see one on one curve and another on the curve after...then you can tell. 

 

In the end...I do give to the homeless. It's an act of generosity. After all, generosity is an element of harmony. 

[Jeric 46,852]

Yes I do, both directly to the person who asks and indirectly through charitable organizations. My wife sat on the board of a local shelter that focuses on providing long and short term housing to families and veterans. She also focused of the mental health care of said people as she volunteered there.

 

Do I recognize that there are those that take advantage of the generosity of others? Yes. Does that factor in my decision to give a person asking to money $10? No. I usually have the means. I also look at the local homeless situation instead of the larger issue. It is far easier to understand the impact of the local elements than the State or National level.

 

For example, locally most of our homeless are battered women, drug addicts, and vets with mental health issues. Though in each case one could surmise that individual choices led them to their situation, I still acknowledge their humanity and do what I can to help.

[I used to be a stranger 7,993]

I give whenever I have change on me. But the overlap between change being in my pocket and me walking past homeless persons is not very large, and I do not go out of my way to seek homeless persons.

 

However, the church I attend has ministries which attend to the need of homeless and impoverished people, and I tithe regularly whenever I have income. ~10% of all I make is non-negotiable given to charities in this way.

[Scootaloo Is Best Filly 578]

Being from New Jersey, and being as close to NYC as I am, there are quite a few homeless people there. Back in the day, I used to give money to just about every homeless person I saw, Now, I have been trying to stop doing that entirely. If I feel the need to make myself feel good, I donate money to the ASPCA.

[Professor Annabella 330]

Yesterday I was in my car with a few friends. We saw a homeless guy at a stoplight with a sign, begging. We rolled down the windows and we all gave him a dollar

Being from New Jersey, and being as close to NYC as I am, there are quite a few homeless people there. Back in the day, I used to give money to just about every homeless person I saw, Now, I have been trying to stop doing that entirely. If I feel the need to make myself feel good, I donate money to the ASPCA.

Oh cool, I live in South Jersey

[Officer Strike 152]

Yeah I would give it to them but i give it to charities instead because you do not know if they are faking.

[I used to be a stranger 7,993]

Yeah I would give it to them but i give it to charities instead because you do not know if they are faking.

The same could be said for many kinds of charities. Lots of charities are ordered in such a way that they have high administrative and management costs, so that proportionately very little of what donations they receive actually are given to helping the poor. One needs to do research and not just give to any Tom-Dick-or-Harry charity as if they're all the same.

[A Joe in the Bush 255]

My Family lives in the country, and has a lot of land to take care of. So if we see someone begging, we usually offer to pay them a few dollars above minimum wage to come do some work for us for a day. Or if we don't have any work that needs to be done. We'll offer to buy them a meal. But we don't just give out money, because we don't know what they're going to do with it.

[zombienixon 330]

I tend not to give money to people who ask for it, since most of the ones who have are drug addicts.  They'll say they're hungry, but if you offer them food, they say they just want some cash.  I know one guy got better with his story and said he needed money to pay the people he was staying with.  It's easy to brush them off and say you don't carry cash on you. I don't even acknowledge the guys holding signs near interstate exits.

[Tinkh_ 239]

I would like to, but it's hard to tell who's actually homeless a lot of the time.

 

Most of the beggars I've seen weren't homeless, usually asking for money for drugs or something. The homeless people that I know don't do things like that for the most part.

[CandyStrike 603]

No, I don't.  I just don't want to.

[The Crimson Cross 7,532]

I had a dream I gave $500 to a homeless guy if that counts?

 

Occasionally if I see them busking or something, and put a few coins in.

But hey! At least those ones are doing something about their circumstances, and that's what I like to see.

 

But, I don't exactly have all that amount of money to spend. 

[ThatOneComrade 1,091]

I used to. Don't do it that much anymore since I can't seem to come across a beggar when I'm out. When I'm at a restaurant and they have a little box for charity or something I always give the change. I hate seeing homeless people and just feeling that sense of uselessness when I can't spare any money for my fellow man. It can ruin my day pretty quickly.

[BoomSparkle 28]

No. There are many things they can be doing instead of begging on the streats for example they can volentere at a soup kitchen and get a job if they are good at it.