Guilt over homeless girl

dave98

Fighting Irish wrote: »

I wish boards had a decent lol smiley


I want to laugh but i feel embarrassed posting this ":D"

ye boards does need a better smiley.lol. Anyways myself and a friend had this discussion the last time in Dublin. There was a homeless man outside a fast food place begging. My friend wanted to give money, I was doubtful as I thought he looked like he was on drugs. My friend felt guilty as she thought he might be hungry. So we met half way. She bought him a coffee and a large big mac meal. When she offered it to him, he threw it on the ground and said its money he wanted. So maybe some homeless people dont want help....

But I do feel sorry for the homeless - wish there was a hostel we could donate money to and in return they give free beds for the night. I think this would be safer.

artielange

Give her some money if it make you feel better. What she does with is it is up to her. Your giving it to make her life a little easier. Maybe she'll use it for drugs maybe not and if she is maybe it will help her stop whatever she was going to do to get them. But I would'nt let her sleep at my place she might snore, and my wife would be pissed.

Capt'n Midnight

maybe get on to your local TD and find out why social services / simon community etc never have enough resources to help the homeless ?

X-Calibre

dave98 wrote: »

But I do feel sorry for the homeless - wish there was a hostel we could donate money to and in return they give free beds for the night. I think this would be safer.

Pretty sure most hostels will give you a "free" bed providing you "donate" enough money!

sdanseo

Some of the posts in this thread are a shocking example of AH has gone downhill of late. A year ago there might have been one or two, but one out of every two replies here has been sarky shíte. I know, I know, it's AH - but it would be nice to show that ye can all be mildly responsible once in a while

We're getting a little too close to TCN, like.

Anyway, on topic - dunno if I'd help out in as practical a way as offering someone stay in my home. Don't own my own but even if I did that would be overstepping the mark from both our points of view. Maybe in the country, it would be looked upon favourably?

I would certainly love to help but I would rather voulenteer my time than give the odd randomer a sandwich or a tenner. There are trained voulenteers who can differentiate between the scummers and the genuine needy, and the somewhere-in-betweens who will only use whatever they get to score heroin or the like. I can't do that, short of the nice old man you see and nowadays even then you can't be sure that your hard-earned money is going to be of good use.

I'd feel worse to be honest if I gave a tenner to a 20yo girl looking mildly down on her luck as was the expression used above, only to find a 65yo man looking like he's dying of the cold 100m down the street and have no cash left.

blow69

OP, I would like to congratulate you on having a conscience.

What you did was truly a noble act and tbh I am shocked at a lot of peoples attitudes towards homeless people. There was a thread about this a while back and the abuse directed towards the homeless was almost as bad as racism.

Yes some of them are abusive themselves, but they have had a hard life and probably suffer from a number of mental illnesses and instead of caring or feeling an ounce of sorrow, most people think of ways to degrade them even further with an 'oh-so-witty' comment they hope other people will hear and laugh along.

What are we doing when we treat fellow citizens, who happen to be homeless, as if they are nothing more than garbage?



For the record: I have done nothing much for homeless people myself. Give them a bit of change now and again. But I do not put them down and make them the butt of my jokes.

That is all!

Dr. Loon

blow69 wrote: »

OP, I would like to congratulate you on having a conscience.

What you did was truly a noble act and tbh I am shocked at a lot of peoples attitudes towards homeless people. There was a thread about this a while back and the abuse directed towards the homeless was almost as bad as racism.

Yes some of them are abusive themselves, but they have had a hard life and probably suffer from a number of mental illnesses and instead of caring or feeling an ounce of sorrow, most people think of ways to degrade them even further with an 'oh-so-witty' comment they hope other people will hear and laugh along.

What are we doing when we treat fellow citizens, who happen to be homeless, as if they are nothing more than garbage?



For the record: I have done nothing much for homeless people myself. Give them a bit of change now and again. But I do not put them down and make them the butt of my jokes.

That is all!

And your point is? What have you done for these people who can earn alot of cash a year? Poor ****ers.

Tar.Aldarion

Should chat to her for 5 or 10 minutes and decide what she is like. Ask her about herself and so on.

Exneigh

Ask her what she's wearing... the blanket hides that so you can break the ice easy enough.

Phototoxin

Unless you got a blanket and went back with it and some tea?
Once in southampton there was a guy who looked pretty emaciated so i went into a polish sandwich shop and got a bottle of water, a sammich and mars bar to go and gave him lunch. He seemed to appreciate it.

blow69

Dr. Loon wrote: »

What have you done for these people who can earn alot of cash a year? Poor ****ers.

Oh forgive me. I completley forgot that they earn alot of cash every year. That must be why they choose to live on the streets. It's way comfier out there in the cold. Foolish old me.

And I already admitted that I don't do much to help them. I'm just sick of people demoralising them.

And your point is?

What i said in my previous post...:rolleyes:

Professey Chin

Right the OP said she's goin back and hasnt been heard from since. I think we can safely assume she's dead from attempting to help the homeless.

Lillylilly

OP, I work in a service in Dublin city centre for homeless teens. We provide a hostel service- for free!

If you have concerns about the welfare of a homeless young person, you should phone the local Garda, who will then contact the Duty/ Out of Hours Social Workers (depending on whether it's day or night). These Social Workers then have the responsibility to place these young people in suitable accommodation, whether it be a hostel, residential or back with their families.

Next time you see a young person begging, you should phone Leanbh, which is a service run by the ISPCC 24/7 to prevent child begging, and aims to link them in with other services. The number is 01- 2342009. Also, if a child is actually homeless (as opposed to having just left home after a row or whatever) they will have a social worker, and will be recieving a homeless payment. This can be up to €60 for under eighteens.

There are a lot of services out there to provide for these people and is you are concerned and willing, you should give donations, as opposed to giving them money directly to a person on the street. It is always much appreciated!!
Prevention is better than cure, so try to link in with a voluntary organisation so that they can provide a better service

Sorry for the long post, hope it clears some stuff up!!

L.

Chocoholic84

hmmm I know what you mean.

Normally I'd be too scared to go near a homeless person for fear of being stabbed or whatever (that's what society is gone to now!), but in a drunken state one night I decided that all people are nice, and I decided to bring down 3 homeless people cups of tea and a pizza (this was around 3am!)

Now I could've gotten scalding tea thrown in my face but such was my "the world is nice and fluffy" mood, I didn't really think about that - I just thought I'd do something nice.

And they really appreciated it! Stayed and talked to them for a while as they drank the tea and ate the pizza - and they were so grateful that I was so glad I did it, as it's not something I'd do sober

Lockstep

The_Minister wrote: »

Tbh, I've always considered that logic to be faulty.
Say the average begger makes €40 a day (the younger, cuter ones, and the very old get more).
That person will always have to spend a certain amount on food, enough to sustain themselves. Say €16 (three dirt cheap meals and what pity gets them).
The remaining €24 goes on booze/fags/drugs/whatever.

If you buy them a cup of soup or a sandwhich worth, say €4, then thats €4 that they no longer have to spend on food. Assuming they only spend €3 less then they spend €16-€3=€13 on food. The €3 is probably transferred into extra drink/drugs etc, so really, you haven't helped the situation.

Subsidising one area of their expenditure, would to my mind, also serve to subsidise the other areas of their expenditure.

Spoken like a true PD:D

speedboatchase

Homeless girl on Talbot St?

Dyr

My auntie put up a homeless scummer girl for a while once, a friend of friends'. The bitch repeatedly stole off her, had her boyfriend up at the door having domestics etc. Got so bad my auntie had to ask her to leave (and my aunt has a heart of gold). Yer wan was later stabbed to death by her boyfriend. Theres very few hard luck cases with young homeless people IMO.

snubbleste

OP, can i ask you if that had been a young homeless man you witnessed, would you have had the same concern?

TwoShedsJackson

blow69 wrote: »

OP, I would like to congratulate you on having a conscience.

What you did was truly a noble act and tbh I am shocked at a lot of peoples attitudes towards homeless people.

What a shame you didn't actually read the OP and see that she did nothing for the homeless person in question :rolleyes:

Mr. Incognito

If everyone was in the habit of getting a breakfast roll and handing it to a homeless person every day, well, somthing o simple could make a huge difference.

biko

dorothygale wrote: »

Did I do the right thing by doing nothing or should I have offered her my couch?

You could have given her some money for drugs hot tea and a sandwich.

Mr.David

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

If everyone was in the habit of getting a breakfast roll and handing it to a homeless person every day, well, somthing o simple could make a huge difference.

Ya it could raise their cholestrol and increase their chances of getting heart disease. Wonderful out of the box thinking Incognito

the bolt

dave98 wrote: »

ye boards does need a better smiley.lol. Anyways myself and a friend had this discussion the last time in Dublin. There was a homeless man outside a fast food place begging. My friend wanted to give money, I was doubtful as I thought he looked like he was on drugs. My friend felt guilty as she thought he might be hungry. So we met half way. She bought him a coffee and a large big mac meal. When she offered it to him, he threw it on the ground and said its money he wanted. So maybe some homeless people dont want help....

But I do feel sorry for the homeless - wish there was a hostel we could donate money to and in return they give free beds for the night. I think this would be safer.

you could always make a donation to the simon community who do good work in this field.

Capt'n Midnight

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

If everyone was in the habit of getting a breakfast roll and handing it to a homeless person every day, well, somthing o simple could make a huge difference.

especially to centra

Professey Chin

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

If everyone was in the habit of getting a breakfast roll and handing it to a homeless person every day, well, somthing o simple could make a huge difference.

Greasy homeless?

RATM

siobhan.murphy wrote: »

well Dorothy,if she seemed ok u could have asked her if she would like u to get her a coffee or soup in a nearby shop,but u dont know these people so I can really answer,try not to worry about it,I was in Dublin one time and in a very pissed off mood saw a guy near the westbury begging and smoking,,i sais well if u can afford to smoke u shouldnt be begging,I thought it was funny but looking back I wouldnt like to be in that suitation

I remember doing some research for a paper on homelessness in Ireland in uni a few years back. A shocking 72% of homeless people were found to be smokers ( compared to about 27% nationally ). Take from that what you like but the way I saw it was that they have a hard enough life and a cigarette is one of their few little pleasures to what must be a hellish existence.

me-skywalker

easyeason3 wrote: »

I'd feel very sad if I offered someone a place to stay, with no strings attached, out of good will & if they declined because they felt uncomfortable.

no strings? damn i love them strings... for holding them tight against the bed!

EdgarAllenPoo

Just throwing this idea out there but if you give a homeless person food instead of money what are the chances of this happening - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBUbJhFmTPc

boards.

I always check out the footwear on homeless people. It is a good sign of if they are really homeless or just those wanker beggers, before I give them a few euro.

Dyr

Which is why most junkies cover their legs in blankets, when they're tapping :eek: