Taking care of the street people

We don't know what their "story" is but I am sure most of them would rather no live on the streets, especially in the cold weather in Canada.....but they are there....

In our church, we have a big Christmas tree, and on it, we put mittens and socks...for the street people....

Each year I buy at least 10 pair of good warm socks and 10 pair of mittens.....that is my contribution...

There are other ways our church supports the street people.

We give them a warm dinner, twice a week.
We make up a box of things they would need like t.paste, soap, etc etc....and they can pick it up every month...

We give them food every month....not just for the street people, but anyone who is low income.....

We give them a $25.00 gift certificate each person, every Christmas. (low income and street people)

We give families with children, lots of support like toys, clothes for the children, a food hamper at Christmas.

It is nice to see their "grateful" faces at Christmas time.

Once my brother saw a street person sitting on the sidewalk with a blanket wrapped around himself. My brother and his friend "said, hey buddy, would you like a pizza).the pizza shop was near by. He said "could you give me the money instead, as I don't eat cheese, don't like tomato sauce, and all the junk they put on it gives me heartburn", hahahaha they gave him a bit of money, but laughed when they walked away at a street person being so "fussy"....(I wonder if he was lactose intolerant also).

Re: Taking care of the street people

I can not imagine,WB,what life is like on the street,I know I couldn't survive it,they are treated in London,by some people,quite badly,I have often watched their stories on YouTube,when they ask for money,usually it's to feed their habit,WB,..very sad,they need more people like you,

Re: Taking care of the street people

That's so good, WB. We have an excellent former minister who advocates for the homeless with our local government and coordinates all of the organizations so they can get the support they need.

There will always be some people on the streets. The best we can do is provide them an avenue - without fear or judgement - to resources when/if they want them.

In the meantime, we keep banging the drum for more neurological healthcare access.

Thank you and keep at it, WB. There will always be a need!

Re: Taking care of the street people

Thanks ladies. For me, it feels like I did something that is appreciated, and I find that rewarding......

Re: Taking care of the street people

We've covered this general topic in other threads from time to time but I'll throw my 2 penneth in again.

There's a huge naivety in most of the general public in regards to these "street people" as you call them. I've worked for a support centre in my large city for a year and my wife & I also help a Xmas charity which provides meals for about 100 people for 10 continuous days over Xmas when all the other support centres are closed.

When you work in these places you go through a cycle from naïve citizen to informed citizen to highly sceptical citizen.

Every Xmas people all over the city appease their guilt and hand in 1000s of coats, scarves, gloves and similar clothing to the charities. As if somehow these people only need them at that time of year. They are naïve, well meaning, but hopelessly ill-informed.

The "street people" mostly don't want that clothing. By which I mean for themselves. They WILL take it readily, in fact at my Xmas charity they come in and take black refuse sacks full of that clothing every day they can. They then go out and sell it to some market seller for a few quid.

These people want money, nothing more. They are desperate for money because they need it to feed their drink or drug habits. That's it. That's the truth people need to realise and take on board.

When your brother tried to offer a pizza, he did the right thing, offering them food and drink helps and if you buy something good and nourishing then you'll help their health. The point at which your street person said "can you give me the money instead" is the point he should have said firmly "No sorry, I won't give you money".

All he did there was buy them some drugs.

Giving money to these people DOES NOT help their problem, it simply fuels it. You wouldn't go and buy an alcoholic a bottle of whiskey, but if you give money, I'm afraid that is exactly what you are doing.

You would be wrong. The VAST majority of street people and seemingly homeless people ARE NOT homeless at all. Most do have accommodation of some kind or are sharing with their friends or they have been given accommodation in the past and behaved badly and been thrown out.

These people WANT to be on the streets because the streets is where they can beg for money to feed their habits. THAT is their day (and night) job. That is their purpose for being there. They can't earn money sitting in a flat provided for them by the council. So they live on the streets.

In my support centre we regularly work hard to get these people into accommodation working with councils and emergency shelters. We find very often that once this is achieved and even after we've helped furnish a flat (bought beds, sofas, kettles, toasters etc) the street person doesn't last long there, ends up trashing the place, makes it totally filthy and then takes to the streets again.

You can not really help these people, much as our heart strings are tugged when we see them on the streets. They have serious mental issues and serious drink/drug habits.
The support centres who provide shelter and hot meals etc are being charitable, but ARE NOT HELPING the person get out of their situation. In fact by making things cosy and comfortable for them they are actually exacerbating the problem because the street person has no incentive to change. They get free hot meals and drinks so why aim for a life where they would have to pay rent and pay for their own groceries and so on?

These people need proper treatment, proper Rehab to get them off the drink and drugs. That's it. But that solution does not really exist. The health services offer bugger all in the way of rehab. Here in the UK the NHS offers something like one week of rehab and that is frankly puerile. No-one is going to come off drink or drugs in one week.

Real rehab in a professional dedicated centre costs £1000s which of course street people don't have.

Our society then is broken in this respect. We have this huge and growing problem of drink/drug addicts and we have no real solutions to get those people back to a normal life. All we have are various support services who aren't helping them get to where they need to be and who are just making it harder by making them comfortable.

The whole, gloves, scarves, jumpers and jackets thing is a yearly fiasco which the public just doesn't understand.

I sympathise because I too was naïve when I first got into all this. My wife and I, having volunteered for the Christmas Charity went and sourced 150 canvas bags from a wholesale supplier and then sourced loads of things to put in them which we thought were useful. We bought shampoos, shower gels, wet wipes, plasters, sterile swabs, emergency foil blankets, tooth brushes, tooth paste, woolly hats, underwear and so on. We probably spent £500+ that Xmas on those treats for these people.

When we saw them take those and endless black sacks of donated clothes and learned that all they do is go and sell all that stuff for pennies to feed their habits, we realised how stupid we had been and of course have never done it again.

Rehab and treatment for Mental Health is the only real solution for this problem and for these people. Our society doesn't provide it. As a result society remains broken and WE ALL SUFFER the outfall of that in terms of crime, theft, vandalism and so on.

I'm not heartless, in fact I greatly feel for these people and have given huge amounts of time and money for their cause but you simply eventually realise that it is all in vain. It's an endless cycle that sees these people doing the same thing over and over and over. They have no desire to "get better" to stop drinking or stop using drugs. It's a life they have fallen into and it becomes the only life they know.

Never give money imho, it simply fuels their addictions.

Re: Taking care of the street people

Thank you for your input Realist, and I think a lot of what you say is true, and a lot of it seems that you are painting them all with the same brush..........

As far as Rehabilitation for them, our government does not offer that. There is nothing in the budget for that.
To get help with getting off drugs and alcohol in Ontario, you have to have about $8,000.00 and up, because the only public help that is covered by our government, is CAMH in Toronto, it has a waiting list "miles long"....they would be dead before their name come up.

So if we can't get them off the drugs and alcohol, we certainly can get them what we think might help them through the winter months. The people we help are not just street people, we also help low income families.

Our Winters can be brutal and even the druggies like to have a warm hat, mitts, and scarves, and perhaps a warm blanket to cover themselves, during our bitter cold nights on the grates on the sidewalk, where the steam comes up to keep them warm.......

You may know a lot about what goes on in the UK Realist, I am sure you do....but, I have a good handle on what goes on around here...........thanks again...

Re: Taking care of the street people

When we were on the streets all those years ago we were working, just couldn't earn enough to pay private rents. There are a lot out there like that, you see them living in cars and caravans, campervan on a side street of town. Not as bad as being in a doorway, but bad enough in the winter.

We give to the food bank, and if we see anyone on the street will try to get them in touch with our local homeless charity who do a great job.

I was very sad recently when I realised a man we had been trying to help had died in a tent on waste land next to where I work. Such a wasted life. He was an ex military man very proud, fell on hard times when his wife left him. He wasn't a drinker or a druggie he was just a sad man who couldn't cope with civvy life.

Re: Taking care of the street people

Chris Kitch wrote her life story , pavement for my pillow , it tells of 20+ years of drink and drugs and living on London streets . She tells us NOT to give money to homeless people . Read her book it is incredible. She chose to get help and went into rehab and now lives on a barge on the Thames .

I do hear what Realist is saying and believe it to be true .

Unless an addict is prepared to get and accept the help they can't change their life .

We have homeless here in our town , I know of some who have places to stay yet they still beg , I won't give money

Re: Taking care of the street people

like blueberry said ==u cannot paint them all -some had to leave home to go live on the streets -myself I would not last a week ' and true what realslist said try not to give money '
there is a young woman about 26' sits out side the B/M store reading her book ' she gets quite a bit of money I did notice she had expencive boots on ; so why work when u are given money ??

Re: Taking care of the street people

I guess you know, first hand, what it is like then Julie, thanks for posting that, nice to hear from someone who has "been there".....sad storey about that man you refer to in your post.....I have heard other cases where ex-military persons have ended on the streets, they don't get enough support from the Government when they come back ..they are mentally drained.. IMO.......