It is not hard-heartedness but practical cnd compelling considerations of personal safety and quality of life that make the homeless generally unwelcome as individuals and feared when they congregate in significant numbers. Many of the homeless have mental or substance abuse problems, health issues, dismal personal sanitation and grooming, significant criminal records, and a pattern of behavior that is disruptive and menacing.
The best and most caring approach to homelessness requires structured, well-designed programs staffed by experts. Although expensive and complicated to develop and administer, some success has been had in recent years with supervised living arrangements that combine single occupancy apartments in a group setting with individualized counseling and treatment that is delivered on site.
Even at that, many homeless like the freedom and excitement of street life. I have a schizophrenic cousin who is that way. Her deeply caring and forgiving family are always ready to help her out of a jam, to take her in, or to get her into one or another residential programs. Yet such periods of stability always lapse as the influence of mental illness and drugs draws her back to the streets.
1. There is no such thing as “feeding homeless people”. If you offer food, you have to feed everyone.
2. The government will not allow you to feed people willy-nilly. They have their regulations that must be obeyed.
It should be legal to offer them one-way bus tickets to San Freaksicko, though, and a box lunch to take along!