On The Homeless

The Covent Garden end of Shaftesbury Avenue is full of drunkies and junkies; there's a bit of a needle park behind the cinema. People constantly beg off passers-by and once this really sketchy girl got Ed to give her three pounds 'to get home' and then came into the bar where we were having drinks and actually canvassed him again.

I'm not happy when I see women using their kids as props during fundraising initiatives in tube stations or shoving a note about how shit things are in Bulgaria into the faces of commuters, but that's nothing on the legless vets that used to canvass on trains in NYC. When people ask me for change I'm likely to say 'sorry, I'm skint' whether or not it's the truth, and at least in London that seems to be a reasonable excuse. When I lived in NYC I got into the habit of leaving cheap restaurants with a 'doggy bag' and giving this to the first homeless person I saw.

i mean, if they're supposed to be so wise then how come they ended up HOMELESS??

Jimmy, I think it depends on how often you are asked for money and the manner in which you are asked. Where I live, you cannot avoid being hit up around 10-15 times every day, with some of the panhandlers wheedling and some subtly menacing. Also, it's not so simple as saying "no" and moving on; frequently, you will be followed and harassed or harangued. In fact, the other day I did give a guy some change just because it was below zero outside and he proceeded to yell at me as I walked away because I wasn't sufficiently polite when I gave him the money. If it were a simple case of "can I have some change", "No", "all right then", I don't think this thread would even exist.

this "you MUST have rage b/c of middle-class guilt" is the attitude of someone who lives in suburbs or north bumblefuck (where, like, they don't have homeless people and if any showed up the cops would beat the shit outta them).

Everybody knows that Berkeley Amoeba is the best, anyway. Plus there is the guy that sells jokes just outside. He told me that they would "guarantee [me] pussy".

If you have nothing to do at six in the morning, sleep.

lol the other day a dude asked me for 90p so i looked in my wallet and the lowest substantial denomination i had was a £5 note, so i was floundering when he said 'give me that and i'll give you £2 because i need £3 to eat' so i saw he already had just over £2 in his hand and stupidly didn't say 'ok give me everything you have and i'll give you this', i gave him the note and he slipped me 50p and i was all 'OI you said £2' and he said 'no i said £1!' and then gave me 50p more so i guess i got some money back off a beggar but i certainly didn't plan to give him £4, he must have thought it was his lucky day to have found mugglesworth himself on the pavement outside liverpool street station

anyway if i am less than generous with the homeless for a week or two this is why

you broke the first rule of giving away money on the street

you broke the only rule of giving away money on the street. Which is giving away money on the street.

lol missed out a "not" there

that isn't even in the top 5. rule 1 is don't take out your wallet duh

you saying i should keep 50p coins in a separate pocket and give one away if i'm feeling particularly generous

No just don't give anything is what everyone's saying

including me

if you are someone who likes giving away money, yes. i mostly say no but if someone asks at a bus stop or something i can just go in my pocket. xpost

once in a while is not that bad who cares

it's just that the tipping thread brought this back to the forefront of my mind - maybe i should be harder about these folks - also i only give if i'm alone, in groups it's way easier to say no

how is it hard to say no when you are alone?

if there is sorrow in their eyes and they are following you

yeah it's best not to reward followers imo. maybe you should have a blanket no giving money rule i guess

ok, most of the homeless people I meet are stationary

on the mean streets of london they have a tendency to be mobile and persistent

lolling picturing this, charles dickens like

i once bought a big issue salesman a vanilla custard bun from the supermarket instead of giving him money and he told me he had already eaten but ate it anyway - he hadn't even approached me and he had a lot of big issues left so i felt sorry for him

they can be surprisingly dickensian yes

i dont get accosted by panhandlers very often but i try to give change when i have some--its one of the five pillars fyi

One day I was taking some canned goods over to a friend who had a canned food drive going at work. A homeless guy was sitting on the curb and asked me for some money. I was poor at the time, but I had the canned food, so I go "do you want some soup"? He said "yes" and pulled out a can opener, popped off the top of a can of soup, and drank it.

So maybe Louis you should carry around a can of soup, because that way, if the beggar's really hungry, he'll take you up on your charity, and if he just wants money for drugs, he won't. Plus it's better than carrying around an extra sandwich or something because it won't go bad if you don't see any homeless.

it'd have to be a can of gazpacho - i'd feel nauseous at the sight of someone drinking raw soup that's meant to be heated

Last time I stopped and fumbled w/my wallet on hearing the magic words "some change, mate" from some hunched dreadlocked guy with arm in plaster and scraggy dog, the guy said "no, I was offering YOU some change, it is my conceptual art project to make people think about how lucky we are here in the West" etc etc

anyway I mainly stopped because guy was reading a battered 70s sci-fi paperback

chatted until my bus came, A+ nutter, would give 50p again

^^^can you loan us some of your homeless folk plz

regarding kkvsg's soup idea, in Oxford there is a homeless shelter which costs something like 2 pounds a night, and a charity from which you can buy tickets for the shelter and hand them out instead of change, which I have considered doing but worry that it looks v. patronising and middle-class and "I don't trust you not to spend my money on drugs so you will have a bit of paper instead", but maybe that is what I am actually thinking, so uh

I quite like giving out change as it makes me feel like a slightly less bad person, but it is less enjoyable when someone gives you the epic sob story of missing the last bus and needing money for the train, and then you see them the next night, and the next. also I am in a permanent state of thinking I am running late

homeless guy hung around reception today for ages today complaining, eventually lost patience and kicked out our laughable security screen. but then i do actually work in a housing office.

on the mean streets of london they have a tendency to be mobile and persistent

― your favorite toy dinosaur ruined my asshole (acoleuthic), Wednesday, January 20, 2010 6:46 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

idk, rly?

i think they have you down as a mark. you must give something off.

They saw him tipping the barstaff.

maybe they have a can of cold soup someone gave them earlier and they hope the hot air will heat it for them.

"I don't trust you not to spend my money on drugs so you will have a bit of paper instead"

I don't really have your class issues or compunction thereabout, so if someone says they're really hungry and I'm feeling charitable but suspicious, I've been known to buy them something from the dollar menu at a fast food restaurant.

damnnnnnn estela

:o

:O

:O=333

photo finish in a chicken leg race? i give up tbh.