Years ago a family member ran a coffee franchise, gave a bum some muffins when he was begging for money for food. The guy threw them out as soon as he left - he went back and caught him at it.
Know quite a few homeless. Unfortunately, most are homeless because they don’t want to live by anyone’s rules. Drugs, alcohol, simple selfishness. But there are ones who really have just fallen on horrid times, and there are always the mentally ill, who simply can’t function in society.
yup... when they want food they show up at a soup kitchen, or beg outright for the food
Misplaced sense of self-dignity. If you told them the sun rose in the east, they'd argue.
Everyone who is homeless is, because they managed to burn every single bridge with everyone that ever cared for them.
I knew a woman at my old church who, when I met her, was a very respectable-looking middle-aged woman, above-average intelligence. You would never in a million years guess that she had once been homeless.
She told me that before she found Christ she had been a raging alcoholic who used to sleep in the streets and beg for cash. She used to tell people that she needed the money for food, that she hadn’t eaten for days, etc. But then she’d take it right down the liquor store to buy more booze.
A few years ago I was driving home from work and stopped at a light near an overpass. There was a beggar out with a sign, “Hungry. Please Help.” I had my lunch bag in the car and hadn’t eaten my grapes or two hard-boiled eggs, so I gave them to him before the light changed.
The next day I was driving the same route, came to a stop at the same light, and there on the ground, in almost the same place, was a bag of grapes and two hard-boiled eggs, untouched. I NEVER give to beggars any more.
And this rule can apply to addicts as well. My brother is/was a pill addict. Used to come around asking for money for food and gas for his truck. I ordered a pizza, sat down with him for a bit, told him I had a 5 gallon container of gas that he could have. I took it out to his truck, filled it up, and he made up an excuse that he had to go. I said, “I thought you were hungry?”
“Well, I was looking for some cash so I can eat later,” he said.
He wasn’t interested in eating. He wasn’t hungry. He wanted money for pills and was pissed that I ordered a pizza and gave him fuel from my personal stock instead of giving him cash.