I find it disturbing that people who are trying to deal with a real and serious problem are once again taken advantage of by those who know how to “work the system.”
There are several groups who are being victimized and abused here. First is the group who have already been victimized by an abusive spouse who are now unable to get shelter because the space is occupied by a freeloader.
Second is the people who in good faith give their time and money to make this opportunity available. Their time and money is being stolen from them.
The third group that is being hurt is the group of honest and decent people in society who are once again jaded by the realization that the users of this world abuse the honesty and generosity of others.
News like this makes those who are charitable and compassionate think twice before spending their money or time on a charitable project.
You are so right. Trust has eroded to zero. Recent example: Our church sits near a busy highway. Not long ago, a man walked in on our Wed. night Bible Study group. He sat down and began telling this taLL tale about how his car broke down, but he was able to get it fixed. The repair, he said, took all the money he had and now he needed money to get back to S.C. We were a group of females only, and I've been around the block a time or two. I immediately saw it as a scam, preying on the generosity of Christians, and told him we didn't have any money for such things because the Ministerial Assoc. handled emergencies from a general fund. But he kept sitting there, even after I told him that he could get a voucher at the First Baptist Church for gas. He didn't want to drive back to town. I asked one of the ladies to go call the Baptist Church to see if they were open (meaning go call somebody in case we need help). After a pretty long period, one of the ladies gave him a $20 and he left. She was "sure" that the poor man was in dire need. Maybe I would have been fooled too, but I had been the victim of that scam about three times already. Churches are targets for the scammers.
Anyway, after that we have been locking the door after everyone gets to Bible Study. Late comers have to knock on the back door to be let in. Think about the bind such situations cause for a Christian.
We are taught to be "good Samaritans". We are told to love our neighbor as ourselves. So we are faced with the choice of being a Christian or being a victim of fraud. At first I chose being a Christian and leaving the thief in the hands of God, but I got tired of contributing to the sins of the thief. We have had some conversations about this dilemma. Do we let ourselves be victims, or do we stick to Christian values? Anybody have an opinion on that?