Homelessness

[Parts]

Sometimes I have a very hard time with this many are truly in need of need psychosocial help but not all. Today I dove through an are where they all hang out to pickup my nephew it's the same one with the sign s saying they will work for food or need a chance at a job.  It's the same one I have seen in the same places for over a year they always have McD, cups and are smoking wtf. If they realy wanted work I believe they could get it I have had other contractors tell me they tried but they don't want it. I feel these people give the ones in true need a bad name.  I have know people who were heroin addicts who went in rehab and got there shit together and now own his own successful business and he used to live under a gazebo in Stamford .  I understand hard ship have plenty myself  but some of this is ridicules.  I don't mean to sound cold and will help almost any one who asked and have in the past.  Any thoughts? 

[Pyraxis]

Got hit up for change on the way home from work today by a guy more persistent than usual. He had this long shpiel about how he was trying to get to his wife in St Louis or some such bull. Trying to convince me he was telling the truth and different from all the drug addicts that hang out under the bridges here.

If I were any good at verbal conversation I would have give him the words in my head: that I didn't really give a fuck if he were being honest or not. That I had no way of verifying it anyway. That he ought to work as a salesman with that kind of storytelling. That what I could respect was persistence and that it had to take balls going up to strangers and begging all the time, considering how demeaning it feels to do.

I spent the rest of the walk trying to figure out if I got screwed over for giving him ten bucks or not. Inconclusive results.

[Parts]

I am usually okay as they don't ask me often I dress a bit dumpy and am rather a big guy they don't always botherme

[Pyraxis]

I ignore them when I feel like it, but figure sometimes I can spare the $.

[Parts]

Yes I have given some money but m very choosy about who  old ones get more sympathy from me especially vets

[Pyraxis]

How do you figure out if they're a vet or not?

[Natalia Evans]

There are people who fake being homeless so they can make some extra money. I don't give them any. Closest I will be to giving them is change and that's it. I will do it if I have too much change in my purse and giving it to the homeless is a good way getting rid of it. I know there are people out there who are naive or generous enough to actually give them real money.

[Peter]

I gave a beggar 30p last week.  He had a little dog which looked in better shape than he did, and which seemed to like him.

[Parts]

How do you figure out if they're a vet or not?

It's tough but it used to be easier most have signs but they could be lying I saw one the other day with no legs something tells me he was telling the truth

That and they like to talk about it

[Johnny]

they can set their own hours, have no boss to answer to and if they do good in a few hours they can call it a day

i drove a truck and saw tons of panhandlers and some out and out scam artists.

As somebody said, helping out an old timer is ok and I'll help out a so called kid, but as far as people much over 20 or not real old, screw em all. a 18 year old or so there is some hope for he/she might have actually made a one time mistake and will recover from it in most cases, people much over that are making a career out of being victims, so screw them.

[garmonbozia]

I once saw a discarded "Will work for food" sign lying next to an Interstate exit.  What was unusual about this one was that it had "Engineer" in parentheses below.  Frightening.

[Tesla]

During the technology bubble burst, I was living in San Jose, and going to work one day, I saw a guy wearing a sandwich board with his resume on it.  He held an MBA.  That was scary.

I only give money to bums if they have dogs.

There was one guy who used to ask for $20 at a time...  he would slap his fat belly and say, "you know I'm not homeless, I just lost my wallet and need to take the train back home."  He gave me this same script on three separate occasions.

[renaeden]

I have refused to give money to those who have smelled like alcohol and cigarettes because it is pretty obvious what they will spend the money on.

I once gave $5 to a woman with a little boy, she said she didn't have enough money to get the bus home.

[Johnny]

I have refused to give money to those who have smelled like alcohol and cigarettes because it is pretty obvious what they will spend the money on.

I once gave $5 to a woman with a little boy, she said she didn't have enough money to get the bus home.

she probably makes a good living using the kid as bait, you got scammed

[Natalia Evans]

Yes some people do use their kids. It's to make people feel really sorry for them so they will give them money. But they are feeling sorry for the child, not for the adult, so they are mostly helping the child. Some even use their unborn child. I have seen pregnant women begging for money. They are standing and holding up a sign saying they have been evicted and they need money. I do know they could be living in a apartment and they are just trying to make extra money for their child before it comes.


Heck some people even use their animals. They will be sitting on the sidewalk with a sign with their dog.