Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Spare Some Change? How Do You Respond?
In the article Spare Some Change? How Do You Respond? By Heather Donckels of Religion News Service I am quoted as saying:
“Just don’t give. Money given straight to the homeless generally goes toward supporting a drug or alcohol habit,” he said.
Smith, whose LA Mission offers meals, beds, education and counseling to the poor in what he calls the “homeless capital of the U.S.,” said he learned not to give new shoes or sleeping bags when he heard homeless people sold them and took the money to buy drugs.
What’s more important than money, he said, are the few seconds it takes to spend a little time treating the homeless as human beings. “The relationship issue is tantamount,” he said.”
While I stand by my comments I think a few qualifiers are in order.
1. Don’t give directly – Give through a trusted organization that can help screen true needs or provide direct services such as food, clothing and shelter.
2. Giving stuff randomly such as shoes and sleeping bags is subject to being sold. But, that does not mean we should not give such items to those we know have need.
Most importantly, give time to those you know that have a need or to a ministry like the Los Angeles Mission that can help with more than spare change. The relationship issue is tantamount.
Joel Roberts of PATH is also quoted in the article. He is right on that it is more than “3 hots and a cot.” We at the Los Angeles Mission don’t stop with a meal but go on to provide spiritual counseling, work training and relationships with the goal of a good job and housing to break the cycle of homelessness.
--Herb Smith, President
“Just don’t give. Money given straight to the homeless generally goes toward supporting a drug or alcohol habit,” he said.
Smith, whose LA Mission offers meals, beds, education and counseling to the poor in what he calls the “homeless capital of the U.S.,” said he learned not to give new shoes or sleeping bags when he heard homeless people sold them and took the money to buy drugs.
What’s more important than money, he said, are the few seconds it takes to spend a little time treating the homeless as human beings. “The relationship issue is tantamount,” he said.”
While I stand by my comments I think a few qualifiers are in order.
1. Don’t give directly – Give through a trusted organization that can help screen true needs or provide direct services such as food, clothing and shelter.
2. Giving stuff randomly such as shoes and sleeping bags is subject to being sold. But, that does not mean we should not give such items to those we know have need.
Most importantly, give time to those you know that have a need or to a ministry like the Los Angeles Mission that can help with more than spare change. The relationship issue is tantamount.
Joel Roberts of PATH is also quoted in the article. He is right on that it is more than “3 hots and a cot.” We at the Los Angeles Mission don’t stop with a meal but go on to provide spiritual counseling, work training and relationships with the goal of a good job and housing to break the cycle of homelessness.
--Herb Smith, President
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Hi, I'm really interested in this topic because I'm working on a project involving homelessness and how the general public can help. I agree that you cannot just give out money, due to the fact that you never know what they will use it for. I think another helpful option would be going out and actually purchasing food for them. I went to Santa Monica with my church one time and just passed out hamburgers and cheeseburgers to the people on the street. I'm also making a blog relating to homelessness and mental illness at www.mentallyillhomelessnessinla.blogspot.com
any feedback would be great! (p.s. its still unfinished with many unrelated things)
thanks :)
any feedback would be great! (p.s. its still unfinished with many unrelated things)
thanks :)
# posted by 
: 12:09 PM PST
: 12:09 PM PST
Well i was homeless for 4 years from 12 to 16 years old, preganant to and i could not find anyone to help. he. i ended up misscarring in my second trimester. if some one, some, would have handed me 5 bucks to eat on my baby might be alive. and charitys dont help the underaged, the just ship us to foster care. sometimes were on the streets for a reson..... and dont want to end up back in the same sistuation we were in. when i went to foster care i was raped, beaten, molested, and lived in a house infested with mice and cockroaches. we had little food and all 6 of us would survive off of top raman noodles. the staff would have sex with the girls or demand us to do stuff. it was horrible, y would i want to go back there?
reply at toxiclove16@yahoo.com
reply at toxiclove16@yahoo.com
# posted by : 4:22 PM PST
: 4:22 PM PST
i think that this is a topic that is not spoken of enough. just yesterday i was at the carls jr drive thru and a guy was asking for change so that he could eat. i gave him a dollar and not even two seconds later he goes up to some guy and gets a cigarette. come on. he should have at least waited until i was gone. so that is why i didnt give money out. i used to just donate money to the salvation army or the red cross when i could. so now i am back to that. i think that if i can offer some at the moment i will purchase it myself and that way i know for sure that they really wanted the money for food and not for drugs.
# posted by : 6:53 PM PST
: 6:53 PM PST
I was so touched by your comment that I wanted to reflect on it before offhandedly responding to you. I am painfully aware of the issues related to foster care and emancipated youth. My wife and I volunteer at a camp one week each summer specifically for those in foster care, (abused and neglected kids). I also know first hand from the Los Angeles Mission the paperwork and legal issues charities encounter trying to deal with this age group. You are right not to go back to an abusive situation. I regret that you were not able to find someone to help and more importantly, I profoundly regret the loss of your baby. There are places that can help but they are so few and far between. Would the $5 have helped? Who can really say? The point is we should not have to reflect on such a question. Services should have been available. I know that had you come to the Los Angeles Mission you would have been given three meals a day without question. We would have tried to find you a safe living situation. We would have offered pray and hope along with some tangible needs. Jenny, you know first hand the problems and have experienced that harshest of situations. I hope you can find a way to grow beyond your hurt and perhaps champion the cause for others like you. Your baby’s memory could live on inside you knowing that you were doing everything you could to see that is doesn’t happen to someone else, or one more child!
--Herb Smith, President
--Herb Smith, President
Things change and the homeless situation is not the same as 1997. The police and laws have taken the shopping carts away and some areas like Mac Arthur park is now vagrant free.
Spare change? Well some panhandlers are more sophisticated and some in Hollywood drink out in Public while panhandling. Nonetheless the issue is that some folks don't have a warm place to stay and some people starve. The bottom line is how many deaths occur when someone is out in the cold or how many people starve while there is food being thrown away?
Are there some people too proud to beg? Well I am not sure, one lady was digging in the trash in Chinatown for food. I'll never be sure it was for her pet or for herself...because I didn't ask or want to embarrass her....
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Spare change? Well some panhandlers are more sophisticated and some in Hollywood drink out in Public while panhandling. Nonetheless the issue is that some folks don't have a warm place to stay and some people starve. The bottom line is how many deaths occur when someone is out in the cold or how many people starve while there is food being thrown away?
Are there some people too proud to beg? Well I am not sure, one lady was digging in the trash in Chinatown for food. I'll never be sure it was for her pet or for herself...because I didn't ask or want to embarrass her....
# posted by : 8:00 PM PST
: 8:00 PM PST << Home
