Lesson Learned?

We get many requests from the homeless each week. I know there are a lot of needs if you are living on the street but cash is usually at the top of the agenda. The reasons given are mostly for a bus ticket or for some breakfast for the next day. Obviously some of the requests are legitimate and some are not. The key is making that determination which is difficult. Lately I have been thinking that if the requests are every week then you know something else is going on. Finally I decided that I would follow the house rules and not give out any money for any reason. If someone needed something, I would purchase it for them then there would be no question in my mind whether it was a legitimate or not.

If you spend any time downtown with the homeless, you can expect to run into them at other times during the week. I was going in to a store the other day and sure enough there was a homeless guy out front that I had seen downtown. It appeared that the manager of the store was having a few words with him about loitering. I knew he would recognize me so I waved at him as I entered the store. I kept thinking while shopping that I probably would see him later. Sure enough he was there when I left the store and wanted to talk to me. It seems he needed something to eat and wondered if I had a few dollars to spare. My new rule was not to give money but to purchase what was needed to make sure the request was legitimate. However, I broke my own rule and gave him all the money I had, which was not much. I really wanted to go home.

The next Tuesday night I saw this individual and asked him what he used the money for that I had given him. His answer was “I have to be honest; I bought a can of beer”. That was not what I wanted to hear. Obviously, rules should not be broken if I really want to help someone. In this case I only contributed to his addiction and I hurt him.
~Marc