Ever wondered about homeless people?

[scrapsD40]

They get to camp out every night and some of their swag set ups are pretty good quality. One guy the other day had a Burke & Wills swag. Maybe donated.

Noticed in Melbourne CBD of late that many homeless people are sporting mobile phones and camp overnight in building alcoves where there is a powerpoint to charge up the mobile. (Many are also sipping latte's in the morning) Anyhow who do they call? Can't be calling home.......maybe they text other homeless people. "So bro, where you camped tonight?"
Maybe they're playing 'group clash of clans?'

Some have a cat or dog and a sign saying 'donations appreciated to help feed my dog'.
I'm sceptical the cat or dog is a marketing ploy to get donations and afterwards they don't use my donation for pet food.  Maybe they should have a sign saying 'donations appreciated to help pay my Telstra account'. I'd probably give them money for that.

Next time I'm going to ask if they've got internet access on their phones. Might be able to suggest they join the myswag camping forum. We could set up a thread 'free to a good homeless person' and offer unwanted camping gear. Might be better than throwing it out.

Interested if anyone else has noticed this in their town/city?
Or are Mexican Homeless people just living in a prosperous state?

[denidoug]

Last time I was in Melbourne CBD,Saturday night,dinner,show.a young well spoken homeless grub asked for a rolly,said yeh,here you can roll your own,then "haven't got a spare $10 for some dinner"yeh mate no worries,then he's grabbed my tobacco AND wallet and #%€£ed off,next time,GET A JOB,
the homeless  with a pet,give em a 10kg bag of dog dry food that'll fix em

[plusnq]

Next thing they will be upgrading to a better tug and swag 

[Bird]

the homeless  with a pet,give em a 10kg bag of dog dry food that'll fix em

Homeless with a pet? give em **** all. if you cant feed yourself, don't get a pet.

[tk421]

I've met and seen some genuine homeless people through volunteering at a charity's emergency relief kitchen

But...I've also seen the 'shift change'. Guy sitting begging next to an ATM. Mercedes pulls up. Man gets up (leaves his sleeping bag) and climbs in the back of the merc, someone else climbs out, walks over to the sleeping bag. Picks up the sign and starts begging. Merc drives off.

The dogs are generally for personal protection and warmth

PS - anyone in Sydney tells you they can't afford to eat. There's about 20 places they can get a meal for free or under a dollar....

[denidoug]

Federation square

[whitey]

yes I have met some homeless persons and the last I made contact with he was late 50's, middle of winter, raining, wheeling and struggling trying to get a shopping trolley with all his belonging through doors into a spare room next to Albury railway stations waiting rooms, I approached him and tried to give him some $$ left over from a Chinese takeaway and he knocked me back saying he gets along quite fine without money, g'nite. 

[Julian Kaye]

 Simple fact is most homeless people are that way because of drug dependence and/or mental health issues. I would suggest very, very few people who sleep rough are doing so because they have no where to live. Some, no doubt find it moderately to substantially financially rewarding to beg. These days many people will drop coins to the homeless so they can show others how "caring" they are, others think they are doing a good deed.

[listo]

Only ever dealt with two (I lead a sheltered life (no pun intended)), one asked for money for a feed while I was fueling up at a maccas servo. I was skeptical & only gave him $5, he went straight in for a chew, I was left wishing I'd given him enough for a decent feed.
The other was at kings cross with the missus, we were between pubs & there was one huddled up in the alley trying to sleep, everything covering him/her was manky. I poured all the change I had in my over loaded wallet out for them.
Got nothing to do with trying to look good, I don't know their life story, all I know is I'm glad I'm not in the same situation.
I know you can't give to every one you see, but for me I rarely see this

[weeds]

On the odd time I had the time I offer to buy them a meal......only one out off about 1/2 dozen accepted a feed the others said no so I assume chasing money for drugs.

The tip of offering them a feed was given to me by a work colleague based on his travels around the world.   

[whitey]

Well done Listo don't see too much but know it exists way too much around our location, more than people realise, so I can just imagine the cities. 

[duggie]

There was an old "Homeless Guy" living in Rockhampton some time back.

He picked up and smoked other peoples smoke buts, raided the rubbish bins for food and drink, was given handouts and slept on bench seat around the town.

But he was filthy rich, he had been receiving/banking Centrelink payments for years and he never cashed them in.
 

[Meken]

Simple fact is most homeless people are that way because of drug dependence and/or mental health issues. I would suggest very, very few people who sleep rough are doing so because they have no where to live. Some, no doubt find it moderately to substantially financially rewarding to beg. These days many people will drop coins to the homeless so they can show others how "caring" they are, others think they are doing a good deed.

mental health issues I believe are the biggest factor in our homeless plight - although some do choose to live rough rather than "deal" with what is accepted as a normal adult life & the responsibilities that go with it.
Pets - well I can't imagine a homeless guy walked into a pet shop & handed over a bundle of cash for a puppy... Probably was his / family pet before he ended up living rough & stills feels responsible for it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[chillipepperz]

So a few years ago, wife and i strolling around some tourist spots in Athens (Greece) and wife spots a young boy (say 5 or 6yo) sitting down begging. He had a little and very cute dog with him. Of course my wife stopped to give him a bit of cash. As she was rummaging through her handbag, the kid took a call on his (till then) hidden iPhone.

Well that was the end of the donation as he became engrossed in his call and didn't engage enough to take the money- at least the money saved paid for a crappy coffee in the next cafe we stopped at. If only he had kept the phone on silent and not answered she would have showered him with cash and pity.

Me? Perhaps not as caring, though I did volunteer for around a year in cooking food and feeding the genuinely homeless in Adelaide. Now that was an eye opener. Some stories of genuine hardship to be learnt from these people, and of course many stories of squandered opportunity and lost lives. A good pair of shoes are seen as a life changing/sustaining thing to many.

Cheers!
Andrew

[noel_w]

A school classmate of mine ended up homeless. He had it all, was a schoolteacher, married with 2 kids and part time television acting. Something snapped one day and he disappeared. Months later another of our cohort found him on the streets roughing it. He refused help and ended up legging it. Often wondered what happened to him in the 30 years since and only a couple of weeks ago got news he has been found again and is now accepting help. His family never stopped looking for him for all those years.

[glenm64]

A school classmate of mine ended up homeless. He had it all, was a schoolteacher, married with 2 kids and part time television acting. Something snapped one day and he disappeared. Months later another of our cohort found him on the streets roughing it. He refused help and ended up legging it. Often wondered what happened to him in the 30 years since and only a couple of weeks ago got news he has been found again and is now accepting help. His family never stopped looking for him for all those years.

Had same thing with work colleague
In his 50's own business, married older kids, he just walked out and no one saw him again.
No one knows what goes on in people's minds.

Cheers Glen

[edz]

Have a look at Paul Elkins designs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG0aRjKDnKo  for his homeless shelters ..
Have had quite a bit of contact over the years with  people that live rough, mostly in cars.. One lady in her 40's basicaly lived in my works car park for nearly ten years..
We'd ask her to move on but after we finished work at midnight she'd just come back, never made a mess was always gone by 7 the next morning, got talking with her a few times about her safety and life etc [ marriage broke down and never got anything out of it bar the runabout car, Ex moved his new girl in and kept the lot ] , she reckoned she'd never had any troubles and felt quite safe.
 Reckoned she didnt need a flat or a house and all the baggage that they tend to gather,  had a job and was always well presented clean and tidy when she came into our work for meals or what ever .
She owned several brand new small  two door cars over the years and  modded her cars so that they had no rear seat and a bed where the passenger seat used to be, tinted the windows and fitted mesh vents to the tops of the front windows  ..
   

[McTavish]

Having travelled in Asia this sort of thing gives me a different perspective.  I used to think we have it tough here - until in Malaysia I saw a guy literally dying on the footpath with a gangrene leg in full view and the police officers doing their patrol walking right past him.  I can only assume he died soon after I saw him but what could I do?    Giving money was not going to help him.  Can you imagine the media getting hold of that for a story here in oz.   Now that is true homelessness.  No fortnightly Centrelink payments there.  Hence many people do the street vending thing flogging fake sunnies, bags, selfie sticks etc.   This really takes away from the travelling experience when constantly bombarded by this stuff but I don't begrudge them as at least they are giving it a crack.  Not like here as the $'s come anyway.

Interesting topic as we do have amazing safety nets here in Australia and really there should not be homelessness if money were the answer.  I'm not sure what is - and as others have said above, it's more about mental illness, drug/alcohol abuse, circumstances, childhood abuse etc.   Once your mind is beaten then it's really hard to come back from that unfortunately.