Homeless people-is it our duty to protect, feed & keep warm?

Experts estimate that in any given year 3.5 million people are homeless!

39% of them are children
22% suffer mental disorders
33% of homeless men are veterans

Is is our duty to help take care of them? Is it just by chance that we are not homeless also? Most of us work every day, plan ahead and save some money, but keep in mind that 25% of homeless people DO have jobs, they just don't make enough to cover rent or a mortgage.

Here is an excellent site with lots of information on homeless people- it is any eye opener!

www.nationalhomeless.org...

I guess my question is this. If we see someone who is homeless what should we do? Should we offer them money or shelter or food? How many of us have had to move in with a friend or family member, until our financial situation improved? Is this what kept us off the street ourselves? Has any one here ever been homeless?If you see a homeless person what do you do?

being the person I am I do take it as my duty to help someone in need should they cross my path. I admit, I don't go out of my way to help the homeless but I help when i can.

there was a particular woman that hung out on Maiden lane (NYC) that affected me, I used to give her my brown bag lunches on my way to work and also gave her toiletries and a blanket. She never spoke to me or thanked me, but I felt better knowing what I did.

Here in South florida, even though I know many are homeless, you just don't encounter them as much as you would in let's say a city like NY.

Originally posted by jeeze louise
Experts estimate that in any given year 3.5 million people are homeless!

Great post jeeze louise - and a good linkl. Thnx.

...I think you meant 3.5 million Americans are homeless... but point well taken anyway.

Seems like most of the boys would rather wave guns around and itch for war, than worry about things like homelessness or healthcare. Which is why only women should be allowed to run the world. Guys can't manage their own testosterone, never mind a country.



Okay, I apologise already to all the wonderful guys here at ats. Just can't resist a good one-liner sometimes.
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I tell you what they are not the only ones that we have to take care off as now.

We now have Iraqi homeless and destitute to take care also.

So as you can see the government can not take care of our own here at home, but its making sure that the ones in Iraq will be.

The children should be helped, as should the mentally disabled, the able bodied adults made thier bed they can lie in it.

Originally posted by mwm1331
The children should be helped, as should the mentally disabled, the able bodied adults made thier bed they can lie in it.

I have to agree with you there. Or at least a form of workfare. Veterans have a nationwide health care system and government assistance as needed for a variety of things. Not perfect but better than nothing.

But one critical part of this is left out: Some homeless prefer it. San Francisco has a huge homeless problem. Despite free hotel romms and the like, alot are simply not interested in it.

I rarely see homeless people here where I live. Most people know each other. It's a small town with several churches.
People usually help one another here. The churches and other groups also help out when someone is left homeless because of fire or finances. Donations are collected at a lot of our local stores.
Mostly if someone needs help here and they make their needs known someone always tries to help. (Unless they truly are just a lazy bum).
When I have seen homeless in the larger cities that I visit sometimes, I give them money or in the case of one woman outside a grocery store I came out of. I gave her some canned goods that I had bought.

[edit on 30-11-2004 by elaine]

Originally posted by FredT

Originally posted by mwm1331
The children should be helped, as should the mentally disabled, the able bodied adults made thier bed they can lie in it.

I have to agree with you there. Or at least a form of workfare.

Many people who *seem* able bodied really are not. There are a lot of diseases that eat the body from the inside, slowly, often taking decades before symptoms are "clinically verifiable." Depending on what cells and tissues are affected, early symptoms can include horrible pain and more. ...The point is, we often just don't know who is actually able bodied and who is not.


.

Originally posted by FredT

Originally posted by mwm1331
The children should be helped, as should the mentally disabled, the able bodied adults made thier bed they can lie in it.

I have to agree with you there. Or at least a form of workfare. Veterans have a nationwide health care system and government assistance as needed for a variety of things. Not perfect but better than nothing.

But one critical part of this is left out: Some homeless prefer it. San Francisco has a huge homeless problem. Despite free hotel romms and the like, alot are simply not interested in it.

Work Fare is being used in Ontario right now and I know a couple of people who are on Welfare, and they give you a choice 1. Go to School they will also help you get into Colledge or University and if you have been out of school for over a year you qualify for GED which is enough to get into most colledges and universitys. 2. Mandatory Volunteerwork 3. They find you a lowwage job and if you make above a certain number and your still on welfere they confiscate some of your welly check or hold it back and kick you off completely depends on the workers attitude/mood at the time.... Oh yeah a couple gets around 800 cnd a month after the cheapest rent in a craphole they are usually left with around 200 a month, so no workfare does not work the way it was intended to in ontario. Allthough things are supposed to change soon supposedly....

But one critical part of this is left out: Some homeless prefer it

I find that pretty weird too. Here we do have some homless people. But there is no point in being homeless. They could simply go to the welfare and get a little apartment and money for food.
So I do not see a reason in helping them.

Good post, good question as well..

The quality of a society is not how much money it has, or how big are its buildings, but how it cares for those who cannot care for themselves.

In manhattan, many of the homeless are there because the government lunatic asylums were closed down or had to kick most of their patients out. These are not people who can function in normal society to being with, and now they're on the streets alone without medecine and in a rather desperate situation. Hell they practically don't even know it by the looks of them sometimes. Also, there are more people than jobs, but not all jobs are filled. If one is homeless, one could theoretically get a job of some sort. Of course, if you've been living on the street for a few months, heck even a few weeks, what kind of job are you going to be able to get anyways right?

Originally posted by soficrow
Seems like most of the boys would rather wave guns around and itch for war, than worry about things like homelessness or healthcare.

Military spending is something like 3% of GDP in the US. Republican's were the ones who expanded healthcare.

Which is why only women should be allowed to run the world.

Because Queens Elizabeth and Victoria never waged a war or created an empire and mangaged to wipe out world hunger with their feminine policies right?

elaine
I gave her some canned goods that I had bought.

Did you give her a can opener too, or are you just some sort of sadist??

tsuribito
They could simply go to the welfare and get a little apartment and money for food.

Its hardly as straighforward as that and they aren't necessarily given enough money for an apartment and food.

netchiken
The quality of a society is not how much money it has, or how big are its buildings, but how it cares for those who cannot care for themselves.

I don't know about that. A thousand years after the society is gone, no one rembembers if it gave handouts to its poor or give free condoms out on the street. But people will remember the buildings that are still around and its wealth. Rome isn't known for its bread doles, even though it had them.

Its hardly as straighforward as that and they aren't necessarily given enough money for an apartment and food.

It is here. And still we have em. Pretty strange

Originally posted by Netchicken
The quality of a society is not how much money it has, or how big are its buildings, but how it cares for those who cannot care for themselves.

I couldn't have said it better, Netchicken.
Pity we can't vote for mods to get the WATS award. You would definitely have got mine.

Absolutely not! It is not our responsibility to care for many that have made bad or wrong choices in their lives or that have been lazy....some of them though are in the position through no fault of their own...at any rate to answer your question, no, it's not our responsibility....it's our compassion for our fellow beings that dictates we should help those in lesser situations than ourselves!

As far as the ones who are working, it's the responsibility of the company that they are working for to pay them sufficient funds to provide their basic necessities.

WWJD?
I doubt he'd call them lazy.
Some people on this board really shouldn't call themselves Christians. Maybe 'Christianist' would be better? If you took out every reference Jesus made to the poor, you wouldn't have very much of the New Testament left. He was very clear that we should helped whenever and however we can.

I'm an atheist, but I read some on these other posters threads, and the hypocrisy they live in regard to their religion is just mind boggling!

I've had mixed feelings on the homeless my entire life. I speak as someone who has actually been homeless (as in, sleeping on the street, waiting at the back door of bakeries at night for the trash, and learning what it was like to have "well-meaning young men" visit you in the middle of the night with fists and feet).

Legitimately homeless people have it bad. Real bad. You think your life is hard? Try camping out inside of a stinking dumpster filled with roaches and rats and filth, just because it's the only vaguely warm place you can find for the night. Try walking across town to a shelter, just to find that the gauntlet of scum you have to walk past have stripped you of everything remotely valuable on your person...setting you back at ground zero again.

The only way I pulled myself out was to get a job, stick to the job, work my arse off and have an employer forgiving enough to let me sponge myself off in the employees restroom so that I could be presentable enough for work, and allow me to work extra shifts so long as I showed up, did my job, and stayed sober (which wasn't that hard, considering I wasn't even ON anything, nor was I a drunk, I just happened to become flat broke at a bad time).

Now I have a good apartment, a happy engagement, prospects of a house in the future, a relatively nice new car, and a steady career in tech support (at least till I go back to college).

So...here are my feelings, as best I can word them, and sort them out in my own mixed-up head:

As an employer, it is your duty to give that homeless person a chance if they show up asking for work. If you're worried they will stink, give them a stinking job, like cleaning the toilet. If you're worried they'll steal, then get some insurance and shell out a couple of beans for a security camera. Make them earn your trust if you want, but at least give them the -chance- to earn it. Let them work to rebuild their life and sense of respect.

As for the people sp'ang'ing on the street...screw 'em. I NEVER ONCE ever begged. I never panhandled. I never once asked anyone for a dime I didn't work my arse off to earn. While it is true, the charity of others allowed me to get a job, or in some cases, to eat, I never once stole, I never begged, and never once touched money I didn't earn. People who beg or harangue others on the street make me sick. I hated them then, and I hate them now. It is the height of laziness and the worst false display of self-victimization the country has.

I could have put myself AND my future children through college based on what I saw those lousy people walk away with at the end of the day. They play on sympathy, and every time you give them money, you are PAYING them to stand on the street. Nothing more.

Originally posted by curme

I'm an atheist, but I read some on these other posters threads, and the hypocrisy they live in regard to their religion is just mind boggling!

Amen to that brother curme

Jesus manage to feed the masses but the so call christians in some of this post, (no all of them) will kick them in the stomach so they don't ask for food anymore.

I think we should always offer what help we are able to give, if some chose not to take that offer, well that is ok too.

Always ask if they need help, they can only say yes or no.