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I CAN tell you I have offered food numerous times, and they were not as enthusiastic, which tells me a lot.
They did a study on pan handlers in large cities, and they make around $20 an hour.
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I was walking to work in a city very often last spring, and I would often go by the same people asking for money. If I gave each one a dollar every day, that would get very expensive. I already had to pay a fortune just for the train. So I would give some of them a quarter each time. They didn't look too happy.
I also noticed that some of them had iPhones, which is something I don't have because it's too expensive. I didn't give them anything.
I was not giving money out of feeling guilty, or anything the bible says. I was trying to get rid of some of my change.
you cannot.
in some way, somehow, you will always consider yourself an awful person.
i am, too. i strive to reduce those times when i act awful or, at least, feel awful.
as long as the Earth is spinning, we will get dizzy and make mistakes.
fall down, get up, fall down, get up. my life has been like that.
You really feel like an awful person just because homeless people try to pressure you into giving them money? Please don't. The majority of them are scam artists and drug addicts.
When you can afford it in the future, I agree with giving to the Salvation Army. They are familiar with the street people in their area and know which ones to help.
You really feel like an awful person just because homeless people try to pressure you into giving them money? Please don't. The majority of them are scam artists and drug addicts.
If someone was pressuring me, I would not give them money.
If someone tells me he is hungry, I think I would give him or her the benefit of the doubt.
In our area many of the homeless are people who cannot afford skyrocketing rents. They end up on the street, living off their wits or their disability checks. I do know that many of them are addicts, but I can't tell who is and who is not. I do feel sorry for many of them though. And not all of them are addicts. Many have mental illness and nowhere to go.
My sister did buy lunch for someone who told her she was hungry. So, in that case, she got lunch but no money for anything else.
It is really hard to know how to handle this sort of thing. Do we simply tell ourselves that these people are the victims of their own bad choices, even though we don't know their stories? Or do we give when we feel moved to? I think how we react is governed by the narrative we have in our heads about them.
If a non-Christian person can be more Christian than me, I don't even know what that makes me.
Someone who is confused what their religion or lack of it has anything to do with how you treat others. If you think only that one specific religion has cornered the market on the fine treatment of others, you need to keep looking. It is misguided to pretend that members of one specific religion universally treat other people better.
Thank you LLCNYC and redplum33. I know it is a good thing to give, so I am looking into credible charities. We have a Salvation Army in our city, but I don't know why these homeless can't go there or a soup kitchen to get food instead of coming up to random people on the street. And as I am a woman grocery shopping alone, I just follow my instincts and run! Normally I give to my church, so I think if I can't give because I don't have cash, I should just give to a good charity online that week.
Many do. I've known many homeless and have ran with them. At least here at Sallys, dinner is at 5:30, if planned right, you can hit at least two soup kitchens to get more than one meal. Three of these places happen to be within a few blocks and they can't feed every homeless. Some may even require them to have some sort of continium ID. Take it from experience; one meal a day sucks pretty bad, often so does two. I've known some homeless to spend most of their day just going to get something to eat. Going to one place that has breakfast(if it isn't only for those staying there), then making their way to a place that has lunch or back to the same place. Then dinner. Sometimes the quality or schedule of food might determin this. Sometimes you can only get to one place.
You don't need to give money to every hand, church, and charity to not be an awful person. If you don't have it, you don't have it.
No, you are not awful. It is possible that the homeless have learned being aggressive and giving a scowl works for them. People will usually only do what works for them.
I am in South Florida, and in my particular area I have not seen panhandlers be aggressive other than wave to get your attention.
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