If You Give a Homeless Person Twenty Bucks, Don’t Expect Him to Go to Burger King
You’re paying for a liquid lunch
It was a beautiful summer afternoon in Minneapolis. I was sitting with my neighbors on a bench in the park by the shelter where we stayed.
One of the guys walked up with a bag in his hand. He had been signing, when someone gave him a twenty-dollar bill. If it would have been me, I would have gone to the Book Store, but my neighbors didn’t think that way.
He went to the Liquor Store and bought a fifth of vodka, instead of the pint he usually bought.
I’m not being judgmental
It’s not that I have anything against drinking, I made a few trips to the Liquor Store myself. I can’t see how people let booze control their lives so much.
I applied for a job once, it was in my first days on the street. I have no real skills. I was a security guard for twenty years. I can walk around and wave at people, but not much else.
What do you say?
I didn’t know what to write on the application. I had to give an address, so I wrote the address of the shelter around the corner. When I handed the application to the manager I said, “ I had to start somewhere.”
The point is, I can see why a person wouldn’t bother to get a job once they hit bottom as I did. The whole experience does something to a person’s psyche.
I don’t know how she knew, but she did, and she let me have it
I would have fallen further than I did, but I had a glimmer of hope left. Her name was Olivia, and she lived in South Carolina. We chatted on FaceBook often; and later, she sent me a phone.
She kept me straight. She knew somehow when I had been drinking. Her disapproval kept me out of the park and in my room out of trouble.
Hitting Bottom:
I know that there are good people out there, who want to help. Placing money in a homeless person’s bucket isn’t helping. You’re enabling self-destructive behavior. That led to that person being homeless in the first place.
Donate your money to a charity. Volunteer at a shelter, you will feel better about yourself, and the money will be put to better use.
Signing: Also known as panhandling.
