Where I grew up there were beggars at several of the traffic lights on major streets. I was just a kid, and being a typical self-centered kid I never thought of giving them money. A friend of my older brother did give them food once, and had it thrown back at him. One day I was in the car with my dad and I saw two of these beggars entering a BMW sedan and another two exiting the car and grabbing the "Will work for food" signs. Ever since then I have been extremely hesitant to give direct aid.

In college I suffered from clinical depression (due to malnutrition my doctor later hypothesized) and dropped out of school. Education was always a big deal with my family, and because I had turned my back on it my family took it as turning my back on them. End result was that I spent several months homeless. I had sporatic jobs, and never really knew where I would find shelter or food. Due to my depression I really didn't care.

If my personal sense of honor had not considered suicide to be about the most cowardly thing a person could do I would be dead. Eventually, with the help of friends and not government aid (though I certainly qualified) and with a great deal of hard work, I pulled myself out of that abyss and made something of my life. I'm not sharing this to gain any sympathy (I hate the idea of being pitied), but to offer the perspective of someone who has needed help. I walked out of that experience with a lack of respect for those people who will not put forth the most basic effort to improve their lives.

These days my personal preference for helping people have been programs that promoted self-help. Programs like Habitat for Humanity. I try to give a few hundred dollars a year to them, and try to help with building homes in my community. I take pride in any assistance I can give these people who really want a better life and really work towards it.

Wow, CS thank you so much for that comment, it got an insightful, I think that kind of sums up my point really. You have to be willing to help ypurself first!

One day I was in the car with my dad and I saw two of these beggars entering a BMW sedan and another two exiting the car and grabbing the "Will work for food" signs. Ever since then I have been extremely hesitant to give direct aid.

This is difficult because though i would like to give direct aid, you never know where that money is going to go to and I would much prefer it to go somewhere that I knew it was going to help people, than do nothing at all.

Eventually, with the help of friends and not government aid (though I certainly qualified) and with a great deal of hard work, I pulled myself out of that abyss

Well done, you have my respect that you helped yourself, did it for yourself, and learnt from this experience, if only other people would do the same thing!

That really was a great comment, thank you again!

That really was a great comment, thank you again!

You are welcome.

I am generally a very mellow guy, and I try to respect the opinions and perspectives of others, but this is one of the few topics that I feel very strongly about.

About a year and a half ago I moved to Colorado, and one of my new friends was a fellow that was always complaining. He had gone to Penn State and gotten a degree in Industrial Engineering; all on his parents dollar. He had a good job here in CO making about 50k, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at less than a year out of college. He had model good looks and a decent brain. But for some reason none of this was good enough for him.

Another friend and I found him a job with our company that paid a little better, but had MUCH better benefits and stability (his previous job was drying out). But all he could do was whine about having to make the decision whether to take the new job or not, and how horrible it was that it was only a $2000 raise. All of this in front of several of our other friends (his girlfriend included) who were elementary school teachers lucky to be making half of what he was getting.

No matter what good things came into his life all he did was obsese on any percieved negative. And most of them were only percieved. I mean, who complains about having too many job offers!?! His catch-phrase was, "Life can't get any worse!"

He upset me so much one time that I just lost it and "explained" to him how lucky he was and how millions of people would love to have his life that "can't get any worse." I made him cry and I didn't feel the slightest bit bad about it. I didn't even have to tell him what it was like to be homeless and broke, or to have your family disown you, or to have to pay your own way through life (his mom was still paying off his credit card). People like that, who refuse to take responsibility for their lives, make me sick.

Very very good article. I wrote a similar article last week titled The past and present of the homeless, that dove a bit into this subject. I live in a major city(Minneapolis) where homelessness is a huge problem, you are correct when you say that you can not help those who will not help themselves.

CS guy, thank you again for the great comment. I'm one of these people, that is never happy with what I'm doing, I always push myself to be that bit better, I'll write an article, and like it, and then I'll submit it, read it over and think, hmm that's not so good, and I'm like that in most things I do. Having said that the difference between me and that guy is, I'm not ungrateful about what I have, I just like to push myself to get that bit further, I do realise that in alot of ways I'm blessed, and I'm very lucky, this guy sounds like he needed a good kick up the arse, and you gave it him, yay you!

Janders, I'm glad you liked the article, I shall go and have a look at your article now. Homelessness is not such a huge problem here now they seemed to have worked through it, but I didn't want to come across as thoughI had no sympathy for them or no time, I just believe that before you can help people they have to be willing to help themselves.

You're right about not giving them money. Many of the homeless have made a huge scam out of this very thing. And there are many reasons why homeless still remain.

First, one of the least popular things Ronald Reagan said has a grain of truth to it: most of the TRULY homeless (as in those who have no roof over their heads, not even at a homeless shelter) are there because they choose to be. There are many options which could keep them off the street; the reason they don't like these options are that they come with RULES (in working with a homeless ministry, I was admonished for praying for homeless individuals because "a lot of them don't like that"; the HORRORS!).

Second is the tragic truth that preying on the homeless is a cottage industry. Many homeless outreaches rely on volunteer effort, and while that does keep the costs down, it also forces you to be a little less choosy about your staff than you would about paid staff. The kinds of ways that these individuals take advantage of the homeless are genuinely unspeakable, and since you did not denote this thread as an adult thread, I will refrain from detailing them. These predators constitute a minority of volunteers for the homeless, but the fact that they are there deters many from using these resources.

Third is, "helping the poor" is big business. Very few homeless outreaches are geared towards teaching long term self reliance and genuinely assisting the individual in pulling themselves out of their situation. The reason is simple: eliminating the homeless would eliminate the money flow.

These are but a few of the reasons many approaches to homelessness have been ineffective. A lot of changes and new approaches need to come about before any long term reform will take place.

Thanks for the comment Gideon, a different perspective on it is really appreciated. I realise that even when help is provided it isn't always the best kind of help and that the people that are trying to be reached don't really want to be helped. this is not true in every situation though, there are genuine people out there, who do just want to help people and do want to see them off the streets, i guess it's all about who you choose to trust and where you choose to go to be helped.

the reason they don't like these options are that they come with RULES

Exactly, they are used to living a free life, and then they come into a situation where they are no longer free, they have rules to live by and sometimes this is just to much for them.

Many homeless outreaches rely on volunteer effort, and while that does keep the costs down, it also forces you to be a little less choosy about your staff than you would about paid staff.

There still must be some standards they have to maintain while recruiting staff, it can't be just anyone that walks in off the street, don't they screen them or something?

Sorry I have another question, I clicked post by accident....

Third is, "helping the poor" is big business.

How is it a big business? I'm not been rude, I just genuinely don't know how it's a big business.

There still must be some standards they have to maintain while recruiting staff, it can't be just anyone that walks in off the street, don't they screen them or something?

Many organizations perform background checks, yes, but background checks only find crimes already committed. Quite often, as many homeless individuals are very mentally ill, their stories aren't believed by police as they aren't considered reliable witnesses (after all, if you were approached 10 days in a row by someone demanding that you do something about the cia putting poison in the drinking water, well, when they approach you on the 11th and report some of the things someone's done to them, it kind of loses its punch). It's not right, but it unfortunately is the way it is.

How is it a big business? I'm not been rude, I just genuinely don't know how it's a big business.

Simple actually. In our country people are actually extremely generous to the poor, regardless of what the critics think. There are millions of dollars in grants given every year towards the problem, and private donations that exceed even that. While much of the staff is volunteer, the administrators of most of these programs are paid. As well, the building contracts for building homeless shelters, etc.

The big business of "helping the poor" occurred to me in our old hometown when one of the local homeless ministries built a $4 million facility in a community of 60,000. I commented to my wife that, with the limited homeless we had in that community, the same $4 million probably vould have bought them all their own houses.

In this area I am not "speaking out of my posterior", believe me. I have worked with homeless ministries for 15 years (after my experience of being homeless at 18), and have seen the ins and outs from both sides of the fence. I will say this, however: 99% of the volunteers to help the homeless are VERY well intentioned and the actions of the other 1% should never detract from the marvelous work they are doing. I was simply speaking to the question of why there are still homeless.

Your subtitle about helping the homeless to help themselves says it all, though. Most of these ministries aren't helpong them help themselves; they're providing a handout.

one of the least popular things Ronald Reagan said has a grain of truth to it: most of the TRULY homeless (as in those who have no roof over their heads, not even at a homeless shelter) are there because they choose to be.

i guess im finally really speedsliding down the long steep slope of declining age, cuz im unable to restrain the compulsion to point out (once again) that there was a time in at least one living human's lifetime when the only place one saw people living and sleeping on the streets was in theatres, on tv or in the national geographic. (which is not to say there werent transients--also called bums or hoboes--but they were generally not visible unless you went looking down by the tracks; there were relatively few of em and any community with a cop kept them moving on down the line)

as far as reagan's observations, the irony is palpable. the first wave of homelessness was a result of his implementation of a california statute intended to ensure that people who were capable of caring for themselves were not doomed to a life of involuntary commitment in mental hospitals (like making it easier to fly over the cuckoo's nest). during his first term as governor of california, reagan was up against a deficit budget hed promised to balance. by interpreting that law to permit the closing of all but 2 of the states mental hospitals--all the while assuring californians that the newly liberated patients would be taken care of by their local communities--he was able to make progress in that effort, although he eventually wound up offsetting those savings because the deficit was much higher when he was done signing the thing.

between 1968 and 1971, the number of california inpatients dropped from about 12,000 to about 4000.

reagan proudly noted the 'success' in his 2nd inaugural address after being elected to a second term as governor of california in 1970.
"It is the same in mental health where the number of hospitalized mentally ill patients is half what it was four years ago
what he failed to mention was the number of people living and sleeping on the street in california had increased by several thousand percent.

it was, unforunately for all concerned, one of those california trends that was too quickly imitated across the country

Previous Occupation: "Racism has kept me unemployable."

Is that his racism he is talking about? Because I'm pretty sure I've seen people of all races working.

Thank you Gideon! That explains alot for me. It's sad they aren't believed, but having said that it is understandable why the police are suspicious, if they hear things like that every day, hmm. That's no excuse though, everyone has the same right to be treated like a human.

Your subtitle about helping the homeless to help themselves says it all, though. Most of these ministries aren't helpong them help themselves; they're providing a handout

This is it. They are not actually solving the problem, they are just providing a short fix, and then people return to living on the streets, it's just a circle they are going in, and that's what needs to be stopped.

"It is the same in mental health where the number of hospitalized mentally ill patients is half what it was four years ago what he failed to mention was the number of people living and sleeping on the street in california had increased by several thousand percent.

I think that says it all, thank you kingbee

Thanks little_whip, i'm off to check that link out now! The sad thing is none of hem seem to have any hope. They are accepting of the situation, it's just a way of life to them now, it is very sad, but maybe it's the way they want to be, they are in every sense of the word, free.

(20 freakin years ago? This guy hasnt been able to find a job of any kind for 20 years? gimme a break.)

....agreed!

I shake my head when these guys say they can't find a job. When I moved out here and couldn't find work, I asked around until I found a ride into the nearest big city, 60 miles away, to get there at 5:30 AM for the day labor pool (we had a car, just not reliable enough for the trip). The deal was this: if you were there at 5:30, with steel toed boots on, you had work. If you showed up later, they'd try to get you out, but they couldn't promise anything. I was ridiculed regularly for travelling 60 miles for what usually amounted to $6 an hour. My response? "$6 an hour is $6 better then NO bucks an hour". I supplemented my income picking up cans about 8-10 hours a week (averaged $10-20 extra per week doing it)...and I have a family to support. During the time I was doing day labor (before I found a permanent job), I met several other "transitional" workers. These people would show up every day (often both husband and wife), work their 8 hours, get their check, pay their rent for the week, and put a few bucks aside for rent for a regular apartment. There were also many people that worked at day labor that would show up when they needed the money, but the point is, they were WORKING, not begging on the streets.

The old saying "where there's a will, there's a way" applies here.

The old saying "where there's a will, there's a way" applies here.

Exactly, what you had to do may not have been very nice, but you did it, you worked damn hard, and unfortunately this is what some people aren't willing to do, they just accept their situation, and aren't willing to take on the hard work that is needed to get out of it. You have my respect for doing that, and i don't see it as pointless, you was working and getting out there and doing something!