just wondering
I really can’t see a downside. If they seem to be obviously homeless or they’re actively asking for help, they probably need it. Though it’s extremely unlikely that your meager contribution will be the change that suddenly allows them to magically overcome poverty and become middle class home owners with well paying jobs, that doesn’t really make them need it any less. Whatever they use the money on, it’s going to be what they need in the immediate term, be it drugs or food or anything really and unlike others this is the only way they can really get that money so they do need people to occasionally part with it. You’d only give it to them because you had it spare anyway and it’s not going to make them more homeless than they already were. If the concern is that it’s not addressing the root personal problems that put them individually on the street or the root social problems that put many on the streets, that’s completely true but if you’re serious about doing that you’re going to need more than the couple of bucks in your pocket anyway. That’s going to be concerted massive political will and financial effort and several people’s lifetimes worth of work all at the same time, besides you can always involve yourself in some way in such efforts and hand over spare change. The only times I can really think of where it makes sense not to give directly are: you can’t afford to do it, the physical circumstances of handing it over are dangerous/impractical, you don’t care about homeless people or other people in general or you subscribe to some nasty Malthusian ideas and think yourself somehow benevolent for condemning people to destitution as some kind of “cruel to be kind” doctrine in which case you’re unlikely to have given this a lot of thought anyway and don’t really face much of a dilemma.
My opinion is no. They can then use it to buy drugs or alcohol, which is unfortunately likely.
Maybe you could donate to some homeless shelter?
Or maybe, you could try asking if you could buy them some food instead.wtf?!? Is this Lemmy?? How did this comment get more likes than dislikes? I’m gonna post the same thing and see what happens.
Who are you to decide what they’re allowed to buy? You’d rather have someone go hungry on the off chance they might buy something you don’t agree with?
Who am I to decide what my money is spent on?
Giving another person money usually implies the transfer of ownership of that money to that other person, unless otherwise specified.
I think people have the right to do that conditionally
Sure. And depending on the circumstances the conditions might not make you look like a very nice person. Which you are of course free to ignore.
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And? That’s not the point.
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The point is to help this person temporarily alleviate a problem they have, whatever that problem may be. If you don’t want to do this, fine, but if you’re only willing to give money if they use that money in ways that you deem wholesome, that’s patronising.
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It’s ultimately an assessment done in a case by case basis. Another example: will you give money to a relative who will use it for gambling? Helping someone turn around their life and enabling their habits are different things.
If my relative wants to gamble with the 2 Currency that I’ve given them, okay then.
Buying them some food I think is the compromise here.
Housed people buy drugs and alcohol. Unhoused people buy drugs and alcohol.
Why is it so much more evil for the latter?
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You sit outside on a cold street with just a blanket at 3am when your life has fucking disintegrated and tell me alcohol and drugs are pointless, you daftie
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Some nuance - nobody is freely giving housed folks money to buy drugs and alcohol either.
I’ve received gift cards to liquor stores before.
That’s cool! I’m willing to bet that’s outside of the norm for most folks. If y’all want to prove me wrong I’ll happily provide a venmo ;)
I personally do not, but I think it’s a personal decision. I have a background in working for homeless non-profits. If you have a desire to really help and be part of moving towards a solution, find a local group and donate and/or volunteer with them.
The reality of handing money to someone is at best it’s a band-aid, and more often you’re just buying that night’s substance of choice. No judgement there, if I was homeless and likely not receiving needed medical and mental health treatment, I’d be high and drunk as often as I could too. Hell, I’m high as often as I can be now. Nevertheless though, I feel comfortable choosing not to participate by handing money when asked and I don’t begrudge anyone who does.
exactly how i do it, and i make sure 50% of my professional life i’m sacrificing income to work for not for profits. i want my donation to be the most effective it can be, and making sure that people have roofs over their head isn’t going to happen with my spare change
Yes.
Yes, they might use it for drugs or alcohol, that’s fine, it’s as important as food sometimes.
Non profits and charities are great in theory, but most redirect less than 10% of what they receive towards the homeless look at LA’s projects as the most glaring example, it “takes” 10 million+ per single housing unit for temporary housing. Not due to cost, but simply corruption at every level. From the non profits involved to the government itself.
Giving directly to the homeless skips all that.
Or to put it another way, you can’t fix the problem or treat symptoms by continuing to give money to the cause of the problem. Giving directly at least treats the symptom.
most redirect less than 10% of what they receive towards the homeless
this is a very very bad way to think about charitable giving. if your aim is to get as much money to solving homelessness as possible, you want advertising and marketing campaigns, you want efficiency (but people working on a problem is “overhead” whilst their solutions to make things cheaper mean less money that “makes it to” solving the problem at hand)
this video does an excellent job at describing the problem
That’s nice, but there is no excuse for higher overhead than the amount of money actually spent on the problem, when the problem objectively can be solved by direct expenditure.
We know how to eliminate homelessness and the causes behind it even in a capitalist society. It doesn’t cost a billion per 100 transitional housing units.
and that all requires organisation, and organisation isn’t free - in fact the structures required to organise things like that are more expensive than the cost actually spent on the problem … you don’t just up and build houses - that’s not how any of this works… ask anyone that’s built a house, and they’re not even doing it on a large scale where complexity goes up significantly, or dealing with distributing money in a manner that they have to makes sure their expenditures are justified rather than just being able to make decisions for themselves
The government should take care of it’s people
If you want to. It might help.
If you want to, yes. When I see them I try and buy them some food. I also give to the local charities which support them.
donate to local nonprofits
Yes, it’s better to give it directly to the people who need it, when they need it, instead of them having to rely on a third party for help. Donate to organizations that won’t pocket most of the money, but if you have a chance to give it directly to someone, I think that’s better.
No. It would be better to give your money that fixes the underlying issues why the person is homeless in the first place.
There are a lot more homeless people about than the one you’re giving money to, and giving money to one homeless person will not fix their situation.
Yes of course. And if they go spend it on a pack of chips or coffee from the 7-11, that might be just what they needed to get through the next few hours.
Only they know what they need right then and there, and I hope we’re past the condescension of people refusing to give money but offering some food item they believe the person would benefit from (because “if I give money they’ll just waste it”).
Sometimes they might want to talk if you can spare some time too, to break the social exclusion they’re feeling.
And they might not be appreciative, or they may have a as bad attitude, that’s the way it goes. They’re dispossessed, they’re looked down on, and they could be sleeping on the side of the road on a rainy night wondering how long they’ve got left. They may have lost families. They may not have it in them to say “thanks mate”.
It’s not so much people being worried about wasting it, as much as they’re worried about paying someone to continue fueling spirals of addiction. People can be homeless due to any number of different factors, so I hate to assume someone’s circumstances, but it’s impossible to know when giving cash is helping or making things worse.
My place of work is a nonprofit that coordinates with a variety of local social services, so I donate to those causes each year instead and help others connect to the resources they offer when I can.
people refusing to give money but offering some food item
Dude doesn’t need to accept it.
the condescension of
Hmm. Don’t be a dick, okay?
Are you serious dude? Fuck me.
There’s a lot about direct giving here, but consider donating to local shelters instead. Especially in the winter. The more they have for supporting bus fare in and out of town or food, being sheltered is a good thing. And the local shelter has very little overhead compared to charities.
The important act is giving. If you think a dude on the side of the road needs $20 and you’ve got it to spare, there’s no downside to doing that. They may not use it how you like them to, but they will use it how they best can. Sometimes that’s food, sometimes that’s drugs, to keep them from actively offing themselves.
If you think a charity has a decent track record and can better use those funds to serve more people, donate it there. They’ll use it how they beat see fit, whether that’s food, shelter or enforcement of policies. It may not be how you want it used, but that’s okay.
Ultimately, give what you can, however you can. Once you’ve given the money, you can’t determine how it’s used, so be okay with your act of charity simply existing by itself, not in comparison to another hypothetical “best” act of charity.
Once I saw a homeless guy begging outside of a sandwich shop, I was going in to buy lunch, so I ordered two sandwiches instead of one. I came out and offered the extra to him. He scoffed at me and refused it. So, I had a sandwich for lunch and I had a sandwich for dinner, and both were delicious.
You could have asked him what he wanted first, if anything at all?
Same, as a young man I had a visit in downtown Chicago. I had a doughnut in my pocket… Which a begger refused. Really crossed my circuits that day.
I was at a sandwich shop in town. Something happened and they messed up my sandwich. They said “want a remake?” and, well, please. I’m particular. “Want this one?” Yeah, as I’ll bring it home for the wife. But wait: on the way to the train I see a pair huddled in a doorway, just being. “Free sammich? Just from there, I swear it’s good, but it’s extra. You want?” Yeah, they wanted it.
Felt good not to waste it.
I feel totally okay with buying a poor guy lunch if he wants it. My family was poor, I’m okay now, I have no pride and I like food; I assume Buddy is the same way. If so, free lunch. Woo!
I don’t like giving money to people. I DO like giving money to the food bank, as they can leverage the fuck out of it and the dollar goes further for more people. I don’t give food to the food bank, as whatever I buy to give for them is nowhere near as good as me giving that money to them directly.
Yeah, those pan handlers are jerks.
I had a similar experience with a Subway restaurant downtown. Dude was begging for money on the sidewalk. We offer him a sub, and just gets mad at us, and goes back to playing on his MacBook while cursing us out.
My parents have a well worn story of the time they were students and very poor and they saw a homeless guy outside the kebab shop and asked if he’d like a kebab to which he agreed. They brought it out to him and he examined and threw it on the ground and yelled at them about something they now don’t remember exactly but they think it was something to do with not wanting chilly sauce. Guessing that guy wasn’t in the best state of mind at the time, bit of a bummer for them though because they scraped together the last of their cash to pay for that and it would have been better if they could at least have eaten it themselves.
I do. I get the “but they’re just gonna buy drugs!” thing, let’s be honest: I was gonna spend it on that, anyways.
If a 40 is what they need, right now, to numb the pain of existence, in this moment, why not?
Would I rather live in a world where sometimes people take advantage of kindness or a world where nobody helps anyone in need? I’ll take the former.
