I want to give them money but since my childhood my parents pretty much told me that they are all either faking it or are too lazy to go to work for money. I mean, I guess they can go to work but not everyone gets accepted to work as easy as it sounds like.
Nobody who is doing well is sitting outside in December begging for change. It’s dehumanising. If someone is down on their luck and wants a beer to get through then it’s not a waste.
Personally we have some good homeless charities around here so I tend to report them using an app which brings out volunteers to help them get supplies, a hostel, and benefits which is more money than I can spare, but if I have food or drink (including sometimes alcohol) going I usually donate that too.
It’s important to put yourself in their shoes.
I don’t know how it is where you people all live. In big european cities it has happened that criminal networks force people to beg on the street. You’re probably right that they are not well. Sometimes this involves human trafficking. But they’re not the usual homeless people. The gangs will “recruit” for example amputees and people that get sympathy. The money usually doesn’t stay with those people. It’s organized crime and the money is taken from them. You ocassionally/rarely see dubious people when you visit a christmas market. Police cracks down on things like this but you can google a good amount of news articles on this.
However there are homeless people. And it’d be a shame if we stopped helping them because of this. But you also don’t want to support criminals.
And I don’t think it’s the same in the US anyways. Social security, healthcare and everything is very different. So is what kind of organized crime we have around us.
If people are being human trafficked they’re not doing well.
This idea that all homeless people are fronts for gangs however is a right wing idea that rarely or never plays out. A gang can make money drug dealing, stealing cars, even petty theft, all are going to pay much higher amounts than sitting in the train station begging for change.
I’m completely with you on that. Criminals are also known for doing pickpocketing on christmas markets. All of that isn’t that big a problem where I live and this hasn’t happened to me, yet. But I know people. I think it’s obvious that seasonally crowded places are bound to attract some criminals. And all of that doesn’t really have to do anything with homeless people. But I will gladly rethink the stereotypes I heard and think about where I got that from. Sounds like something right-wing people would love to regurgitate.