As someone who is just grnuine friends with a lot of homeless people in my town and when I lived in a bigger place with a couple roommates who had been on the streets or in prison and we gave people a couch to crash on, the homeless are just like...people. A lot will fuck you over and tske advantage cause they've been taught fuck or be fucked and then were really really really fucked by our system. There can for sure be a give a mouse a cookie factor that you gotta set limits and keep em enforced (most of the people thst came through in my situation were also crack and or opiate addicts). Homelessness and desperation can make you need or feel you need to do some pretty shitty things same with addiction but those are circumstantial factors that need to be handled realistically and not treated as the overall quality of someone's character. You can judge a person but you can't judge desperation or addiction, doesn't mean you gotta take the shit that comes with it, but you gotta just tske that as part of being there to help people get fed and sheltered and warm and stuff
A few times in the past I've given rides to homeless guys or cash to them, sometimes just conversation even if that's what they're after. At the end of the day it's not like I'm doing volunteer work, but treating any homeless person who approaches me with the same respect I would anyone else has so far left me unharmed and even helped--I've had homeless people help me change tires, for instance. I get the feeling that even with the damage to your mind that the stress of homeless can do, people are still people and people like to feel useful and respected.
As someone who is just grnuine friends with a lot of homeless people in my town and when I lived in a bigger place with a couple roommates who had been on the streets or in prison and we gave people a couch to crash on, the homeless are just like...people. A lot will fuck you over and tske advantage cause they've been taught fuck or be fucked and then were really really really fucked by our system. There can for sure be a give a mouse a cookie factor that you gotta set limits and keep em enforced (most of the people thst came through in my situation were also crack and or opiate addicts). Homelessness and desperation can make you need or feel you need to do some pretty shitty things same with addiction but those are circumstantial factors that need to be handled realistically and not treated as the overall quality of someone's character. You can judge a person but you can't judge desperation or addiction, doesn't mean you gotta take the shit that comes with it, but you gotta just tske that as part of being there to help people get fed and sheltered and warm and stuff
A few times in the past I've given rides to homeless guys or cash to them, sometimes just conversation even if that's what they're after. At the end of the day it's not like I'm doing volunteer work, but treating any homeless person who approaches me with the same respect I would anyone else has so far left me unharmed and even helped--I've had homeless people help me change tires, for instance. I get the feeling that even with the damage to your mind that the stress of homeless can do, people are still people and people like to feel useful and respected.