How much money do you give to the homeless?

[HighParkLover]

well the other day i was in manhattan and walked past a bunch of homeless people sleeping on the street. i couldnt help but feel terrible. here i am at 19 years old, going back to my parents 5 million dollar esate, getting in my 50 thousand dollar car, with my 200 dollar jeans and my 500 dollar cell phone. i gave an african-american gentlemen $20, he was sitting in a cardboard box on the street in front of a church. i like to donate approximately $1,000 per year to the salvation army as well as assorted hunger-fighting charities.

Your blessed with alot of material things and a roof over your head. Good for you to offer.

Its hard to tell who are the real ones who need and who are not but just trying to help and make a difference in someones life shows your a kewl mate! Kudos !!!!

 

[ImperaTodd]

Sometimes I give on the street but most of the time I have had little to no money. This last year though I have done far better financially and I have given to animal shelters, jars at stores if I have cash on me I give, I do the toys for tots as many kids as I can afford, I hope two or three this year, and like today, when I bought a book, Barnes&Noble was taking donations for the local children's hospital I was more than happy to do. When I was a kid I didn't have much and so I understand what it is like and if I can help a kid avoid that I am more than happy to it. I hope people will read this and take a tag from a giving tree, buy a book for a sick kid, give to a homeless shelter, or an animal shelter. I want to give more, and this next year I hope to give far more. Its nice to be able to do so it feels good, and if you don't want to give to adults don't punish the kids they have no control over their situation.

 

[Absolut]

Whenever I leave Cardinals or Rams game here in STL, I always give a buck or two to the guy playing the saxophone.

The world is a better place with music. (plus I used to play the sax! not for money though...)

 

[Snickers52]

I have given homeless people money directly in the past, but not in many years because I know where most if not all of that money goes. I now donate money each year to homeless charities such as the Union Mission.

The reason I don't give money directly to the homeless is because of an incident several years ago. I was in my car one day and there was a homeless man standing on the side of the street with a sign that said "HUNGRY, NEED MONEY FOR FOOD". I wasn't able to stop right then and there but I went down the street to the Burger King drive up and bought a double cheese whopper, large fries, and a large drink and circled back to him. When I got to him and rolled down the window, he walked up and I said "I just got this for you, I know it's not much but I hope it will help" and started to give him the fresh food. He looked at me and said "GO FUCK YOURSELF, I DON'T WANT FUCKING FOOD, I WANT MONEY". I knew then why he preferred money and vowed never to give money directly to anyone like that again.

 

[RationalLunacy]

I give them birdseed. They can either eat it or sell it for tuppence a bag.

 

[duroc5088]

You need a address and phone number to put on the application and most times nobody uses applications anymore. Being a manager of a well known place here in Toronto , we dont have applications but expect resumes when people come in to apply for a job.

I have given some spare change or loose bills to some homeless here in toronto. If they are fooling me and truley dont need the money but are just too lazy to work then sobeit. At least I feel good about the action I did.

Well most of the struggling/homeless people that i hired when I was a construction supervisor used the homeless shelters address and phone number on their application.

There are ways around everything that you have mentioned.

like i said, IF they really wanted a job and IF they had some pride they would get off their lazy asses and get to work....

I've worked for everything i have, I have yet to borrow money from anyone. I don't take handouts, I don't like charity. even though I dont' make that much money, i still find a way to pay my bills and take care of my business.

Homeless people could do the same thing if they really wanted to.

Dirk

 

[Nonimus]

There's an old Arabic saying 'To Boast of a good deed cancells it out'

 

[Marbas]

There's an old Arabic saying 'To Boast of a good deed cancells it out'

I'm quite happy to boast of my (supposedly) "good" deeds: I give loads of dosh to the homeless, and I couldn't care less what they use it for. They might chose to buy food, or they might well choose to buy drugs or alcohol in order to make their miserable existences a little bit more tolerable. I don't care; giving away cash makes ME feel good... and, being a totally selfish bastard, that's all that I really care about.

 

[Nonimus]

I'm quite happy to boast of my (supposedly) "good" deeds: I give loads of dosh to the homeless, and I couldn't care less what they use it for. They might chose to buy food, or they might well choose to buy drugs or alcohol in order to make their miserable existences a little bit more tolerable. I don't care; giving away cash makes ME feel good... and, being a totally selfish bastard, that's all that I really care about.

Well, let me stand on my moral soap box and say 'tsk, tsk'.

I only give to the poor in order to benefit their lives and to impress cute guys who give a shit about things like that.

 

[icefan]

I have to say I am one of those people who sit in their car and ignore eye contact...I don't remember when I was told or by whom, but I've always had the thought in my head that if I give them money, they will just spend it on alcohol or drugs instead of food...I should probably change my thought that I've been taught, but I'll be honest in saying I am one of those people right now

 

[MadeUpName27]

Plenty.
Too damn much, if you ask me...


Oh, you meant in addition to my tax dollars????
Nothing.

 

[M4P]

I contribute money off my bi-weekly payroll towards shelters and an agency where homeless can come in for a free meal. It's not a lot of money but I know it makes a difference

I've experienced pretty good fortune in my 41 year lifetime and I'm happy to give a hand up to someone who's a lot less fortunate than I am - no questions asked

 

[Croynan]

Sorry, but I don't give them shit. I refuse to help those who will not help themselves. For gods sakes!!! Have some pride, get off your ass and go to Burgerking, all you have to say is, Can I please have an application.
If they wanted a job they could find one. That's the bottom line.

Dirk

Were it that simple? You are over=looking a serious issue abot a large number of the homeless. Many of them suffer from severe mental illnesses. Ever since Ronald Regan signed the legislation about how people are committed to mental institutions and hospitals, hundreds of thousand of these people have left these institutions and are now out of the street.

The very one's you say "if they wanted a job the could find one." What a lousy attitude to throw at these people who need serious institutionalized care.

I think you need to find out who you are "really talking about."



eM.

 

[JSB_01]

I struggle a lot financially, due to family problems and the fact that I'm in school. I've had to pinch every penny just to make it, and I'm still not out of the woods yet, and probably won't be for a long time. That being said, I know that people out there have it WAY harder than I do. I promised to myself that once my situation gets better, I'm going to donate as much as I can, because I can only imagine what it's like for these people. I don't understand how people can spend so much money on clothes and electronics and never give anything to the needy. To me, that just seems incredibly selfish.

 

[sambapro]

a huge number of the homeless are mentally ill. On one occassion in my town there was a black woman who was so claustraphobic tthat she could not enter a building people tried to help her for years, and finally she died.

 

[Kulindahr]

I've been homeless.

For most of my life I was fairly generous, though I'd take a person to a diner rather than give money, or to Goodwill if clothes were needed. Then I went through it myself, and learned a lot.
Yes, many homeless are mentally ill. I knew two who were on the street because they lost everything they owned -- business, home, car -- because of being arrested and forced to get an attorney, then after being found innocent still had to deal with many thousands of dollars in legal costs; out of work beccause of time spent sitting in jail, they couldn't pay bills if they were going to pay the attorney... and it all went downhill due to our "justice" system. I knew one who had a $35,000 boat he had up and down the river, who had $100,000 in the bank; he had some strange disorder that left him unable to cope with all the straight lines of building and streets. Another I met had around $200,000 in the bank, and was homeless because he said he just got plain tired of doing house chores. A "bag lady" I spent some time with had lost her apartment when the building was sold, and thanks to lacking all sorts of required paperwork couldn't get another. Others are drug users who have lost everything by doing drugs.

So, being homeless, I learned to be doubtful when asked for money, because it's hard to tell the ones who need help from those who don't.

Then I got robbed of over $800 of gear by homeless people. Now I don't give a thing. I figure that given the amounts I've given in the past, I've rarely given more than $50 a year to the homeless, so in 16 years I'll have recovered the money homeless people cost me, and maybe I'll start giving again.

And meanwhile I'm still recovering from my own homeless spell. I tried not to use it, but sometimes there are things that just have to be had, and I used my VISA -- it's still got a balance in the mid four-figures. Also meanwhile, I bum housing from people -- so though I'm not technically "homeless", I have no home.

 

[turtle]

The only reason I am not homeless right this minute is because people love me.

Maybe the karma is in my favor, because I have always been generous to people on the street.

Maybe it is easier for me because I have lived on the meanest of streets most of my life, but I don't have any trouble at all seeing which person to give some cash to and which not.

I don't care how the money gets spent. I don't care if they drink it, smoke it. whatever. A twenty-dollar bill can make the difference between life and death, or it may just mean that one day will not be spent in total misery.

So far, only one person on this thread has responded the way Jesus would.

"When I was hungry, you fed me, when I was thirsty, you gave me a drink, when I was naked, you clothed me, when I was in prison, you visited me. "

"Oh, when did we ever do that for you?"

"when you did it for the least of them, you did it for me."

It doesn't say for the best, it says for the least. It doesn't say "because you gave money to the temple for charity" . It doesn't say "after due consideration and assessment of the person's worthiness."

I don't give a damn if there is something wrong with them. There has been a lot wrong with me. I don't care if they are all screwed up. I have screwed up myself. Sure the beggar just loves to beg, it pays him so well, he does it because it is such a choice lifestyle.

And the manager at Burger King just loves to hire pathetic, mumbling, smelly, dirty wrecks. Well, they won't hire me, and I am clean and bright, but I am old and gray, and because I was making good money a couple of years ago they just immediately wonder what is wrong with me that I'm applying at BK.

If it wasn't for my family, I would be on the street right now, living under a bridge, and you can all just go to hell!

-D

 

[Nonimus]

If it wasn't for my family, I would be on the street right now, living under a bridge, and you can all just go to hell!

-D

How very charitable of you - merry Christmas to you too.

 

[turtle]

This one's simple. You either get it or you don't.

And it hurts to see how many don't.

Golden Rule. If it was you, you'd want the money and you'd feel just like me.

-D

 

[NickCole]

I was homeless, on the street, for a few weeks when I was 20.

Whether or not I give a homeless person money, I look them in the eye and I say something to them. Or, when I've time, have a conversation.

It's a terrible thing to feel invisible, to be treated like you're nothing, as if your existance doesn't matter.