Do the homeless affect you?

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While I love living in a big city, I get extraordinarily anxious when I pass a homeless person on the street who is begging for money. I can almost feel the pain that they are emanating. I can keep the anxiety at manageable levels if I walk by and don't even acknowledge that they are there, which is funny. It looks like I don't care at all, when in reality I feel it deeply.

Anyone else experience this?

No, I usually tell them I don't have money(which is true, if I have any money i usually give what I can) and then just talk to them like anyone else. Homeless people I find are generally easier to talk to then the rest ofthe world if nothing other than they don't have s**t else to do.

Now it's a whole other story if I perceive said homeless man to be out of his mind(which I find most aren't, they're either unlucky or druggies)

Yes, the poverty haunts me, and I know to pay it forward as people helped me when it was me begging for change, begging for anything . . .

that is why I go to the dollar store and buy a couple dozen of those 'magic gloves' the one size fits most kind that are sometimes two pair for a buck. then I keep some in my bag or pockets and when I go out, I always give away a pair or several depending on how many I meet. Now that I have a car, I do the same when at a light and I am parked next to a person that is obviously on the road.

I am satisfied, and I have never had anyone refuse a pair of warm clean gloves.

I thought I should add when I was under 19 I usually ignored them like you do. I believe to have done this subconsciously as a survival mechanism.

We have career homeless here. People who flock to our area for the love we show, the weed we grow and the generally mild weather. It's easy to be a vagrant here. Bleeding hearts give you their money, don't need too many jackets cause it's too cold, you don't need air conditioning because it's too hot. They post up on every f*****g corner and every f*****g exit from any parking lot that's busy.

Personally, I got no love. Most of them here can do s**t, just choose not to. Most are able bodied 20 somethings who for whatever reason decided to grow dreads and be a career vagrant. Reliving the hippy movement. LAME!

I particularly despise the ones that parade their kids or dogs. One woman, and two men sitting in their vehicle that's outta gas and they're asking for money for fuel, but won't drive their car to the fuel station to get fuel. If people here would stop paying, the vagrants would leave!

I'd be more inclined to help if they were looking for work, but there's a couple signs that these guys hold that say "ANYTHING GREEN!!"

^^ I am not talking about those guys, because frankly, they would laugh at my gloves. I ignore them. The gift of gloves weeds out those who are in it for bigger game.

No offense but when I was homeless and hungry gloves were the least of my worries. Then again it's colder in oregon then where I live, and I was living in my car. But still give the poor guys a buck or 2. This gives them the option to buy food if they are truely starving. What they going to do eat the gloves? Sorry for sounding ignorant but you don't seem to have ever been hungry, it sucks.

Yes I feel sadness when homeless people are in need of food or money. If I am passing by and have some food or drink I will usually offer it to them.

don't jump to the conclusion I havn't been hungry too fast, Mindovermatter. I never said I was Mother Theresa. I am telling how I can't walk past some in need without giving what I can. I don't doubt you help those you can, as well.

I'm always concerned that if I were to give money, that it might not be used for productive purposes... so I just tell myself that I could contribute by donating to a homeless shelter or something... yet I don't do it.

I usually give em some change like 50 cent if they ask for it just to be helping another person out. I just hate when you give em some change and some of them begging for more. I'll be like no I ain't got no more then.

I've been in danger of homelessness. At one point, the only place I had to stay was a hospital bed and would have been out on the street if it weren't for a friend who let me sleep on her couch for a summer. So I have never really felt all that different from them. They are people who have generally had rotten luck in life, or made bad choices that hurt them more than is fair, and in general there's not too much different between them and me.

To be honest, I'm not actually good at telling whether somebody is homeless. There's no guarantee somebody who is actively begging for money is homeless, and if you were and weren't begging, wouldn't you want to hide it as much as possible to avoid being targeted by criminals and run out of places like so much trash? I figure, people is people, and that's all there is to it.

I am not all that sure about what to do if asked for money. Sometimes I say yes, sometimes no. Generally the "no" is more like "crap, I'm overstimulated enough going shopping, no more conversations now please go away!" than "you'll just spend it on booze".

The moral quandary of whether or not to give money if they will just spend it on alcohol, though... that confuses me. Obviously that is their choice, but there's no way I'd ever be able to tell just looking at them which choice they would make. So I consider that point largely irrelevant. Mostly it is, "Do I have enough energy left over to deal with this unexpected event?"

The glove idea is great. You're right, not too many people would refuse those, and they wear out quickly when you wear them every day anyhow.

I don't understand homeless people.
I guess it's because I don't have any experience of it.

In Australia, if you've got no work, the government pays you.

I've never been out of a job because;
1. I work really, really hard - like 10-12 hours a day.
2. I take whatever abuse is sent in my direction - I don't quit.
3. I'm careful not to be too annoying.
4. I only take lower-paying and secure jobs (security over money).

I've never had a destructive vice because...
1. I don't smoke because I don't see the attraction. (I've never smoked)
2. I've never been near drugs because it's silly - and because I don't have any friends who use them anyway.
3. I've never had an alcohol problem because I'm a good idiot without needing to drink
4. I don't gamble, heck I used to stress about putting $2 into a slot machine... or money into a space invaders machine.
5. I don't make dumb business decisions because I'm so cautious

Yes... I'm boring.

but it doesn't change the fact that I can't understand how someone can go from being a kid with all kinds of possibilities to an adult with nothing.

Try being unemployable due to disability and getting kicked out of your apartment because you were hospitalized and your landlady thought you would be a bad influence on her teenage kids...

Ok... that's plausible but in Australia, you'd be getting funding for that. Maybe not a lot but certainly enough help that you wouldn't need to sit around on concrete during the day begging for money.

Here, too, but have fun getting said money within two years of your first applying. And somehow getting the applications sent in and replies received despite having no mailing address. You'll probably get food stamps pretty soon, but getting approved for disability is a long drawn-out process, and if you're not approved it will be considered your fault that you're not working, even if you're marginally employable and getting beat out by all those people who can put a home address on a work application.