Homeless - How Do We Help?

I am very conflicted about the homeless issue. As Mud Puppy asks in the comments section of the Semper Fi Fellowship blog, "...how do you know who’s faking it and who’s legit?"

Something that has stuck with my my entire life happened when I was around 11 or 12 ... My father (well, step-father, but he was my Dad) was a very generous soul. One day he saw a scruffy man by the side of the road with one of those ubiquitous cardboard signs asking for help. My Dad pulled over and offered the man a job (paying $6 an hour in 1982!!), offered to get him a hotel for week until his first check, and stake him some money for food and new clothing.

The guy blearily blinked at my dad and slurred out, "I just want a few bucks to get drunk, man."

My sympathy for the homeless was shattered, and I've never viewed them the same.

I know there are homeless who would truly love to receive an offer like that, but I suspect there are vastly more who simply want another drink, or another snort, or another shoot.

Some it's fairly easy to tell ... the ones with kids.

Others it's not so easy. Some have slipped so far into the cracks of society, for so long, that the once industrious and kind souls have become embittered and mired in self -loathing and addictions that climbing out of their black pits of despair is nigh impossible for them ... alone.

But how do we help?

Not the we as in society, or government. We as in us. The readers of this blog, the average joe, John Q. Public.

Volunteering at soup kitchens, half-way houses, and food banks is a start. If time is an issue, donating some money to those charities that aid the homeless is an option.

But that doesn't take care of the real issue, the underlying causes of these poor souls' plight.

It's unrealistic to think we, the common folk, can offer jobs to those who would relish the chance for one. Some have jobs, but simply cannot afford adequate housing for their families. Rising insurance rates and sky-rocketing housing costs have driven many people out of homes. Living in a hotel or motel is not a real option, as the costs of that are astronomical in the long run.

Offering a homeless family a place to stay would be great. But there lies also the security issue of your own family. Do you take the chance of allowing complete strangers into your home? If so, for how long?

What of those people so addicted to drugs, alcohol, or the homeless way of living? Do you give them money which may go only to feed their addiction? You could give them actual food, which only gets them through the day, not touching the real issue of their problems.

It seems that society wants to help the homeless, while at the same time staying apart from them. It treats the symptoms without looking for a cure.

Government and private agencies are woefully underfunded, understaffed, and overwhelmed.

Large cities, like Tampa, funnel vast quantities of public monies into sports teams training facilities, stadiums, and areas. They build glistening Riverwalks in affluent neighborhoods. They debate over what to do with several unused public buildings ... turn them into museums? Condos?

If that money was used to help people, if those building were renovated to house homeless, if better funded and staffed counseling centers and addiction clinics were created, could we stanch the flow of ever increasing homeless? Could we, perhaps, save some of these benighted souls, help them recover from the squalor and addictions that envelop their lives?

I don't know.

I suppose it's easier for those who have to stay locked away in our ivory towers, basking in the glow of our possessions, as we studiously ignore the dark blot of the have-nots in our courtyards.

I've no answers to give. This is just something that gnaws on my mind from time to time. I don't know what posting this will do to help, other than getting my thoughts out.

I could do more, I suppose. I just don't know what, or how.