Originally Posted by
Steady Stiching
Lovely thread to start here Ireland Dragon, this is how I try and act every day. Sad thing is so many times my helpful hand is met with "no thank you". I think our society has become so jaded and frightened, its sad really. But we just need to keep on trying.
In my area there are often people on street corners of freeway exits holding signs claiming to be homeless or out of work. I was talking to a friend about it and she told me about a person she knew who was a single father and that is how he made money 24/7. For the sake of his son he decided to go get a job. He worked for about 3 months and then went back to the street corner because he made more money doing that then he did working a job. There have also been stories about people who have hidden bags of groceries that people give them in near by bushes. At the end of their day they pull them all out and go home with dozens of bags of groceries. I never give money to "homeless" people because you never know if it is a scam. Instead I will go to a nearby coffee shop, restaurant or grocery store and buy them a coffee or meal.
One time there was a woman that I was seeing often on the street corner holding a sign. Every time I saw her she was crying. One time I bought her a coffee, another time I bought her a sandwich and spent some time talking to her. I finally convinced her to let me take her to the local social agency (our city has done a lot to put together resources for folks down on their luck) and got her in touch with food help, job training and mentors. She is doing great now. She always did have a place to live but had difficulty paying so they also gave her rent assistance. If she had not had someplace to live I would have asked her to stay with me.