Homeless People: Why do people treat them with contempt??

Question

Last night, i missed my last train home and i was miles away from my city so i couldn't justify a taxi.

I had a wander into the city centre to have a look around and do a bit of people watching from the doorway of a shopping mall.

The amount of abuse i got was horrendous. I was called a tramp, a smackhead and all other names.

In the end, i decided it would be safer if i went back to the station and wait for my train home.

So according to you lot, it's their own fault if they are sleeping rough?

WHAT A LOAD OF BALLS.

What I failed to mention was in the middle of the 90's, i was homeless. I slept in the stairwell of the multi-storey car park.

I did not ask for this. I wasn't on drugs, i wasn't an alcoholic, so what did i do to deserve this?

You lot have just confirmed to me what a horrible world this is.

Answer 1

I think most people assume, often rightly, that people are only homeless through choice. In my experience, people are only homeless as they refused reasonable attempts to rehouse them. Most of the homeless shelters and housing places have strict rules on alcohol and drug use, so many addicts choose to stay on the streets and use as they wish. There needs to be more treatment for alcoholism and drug abuse before this problem is going to go away.
There are people who are made homeless for genuine reasons (although one could argue that alcoholism is as valid a reason as any) but things are being done to tackle this. The best thing for someone who wants to help to do is to avoid giving money to panhandlers, but instead to donate directly to a charity such as shelter.
One way to tackle the problem would be to have more education and support for young people - get them help for the problems that drive them on to the street before it reaches that stage.
Also, a large portion of the homeless population suffer with mental health problems, and we need to educate our front line health proffessionals about these sorts of problems, to try and help people before they descend in to the dark realms of their illnesses that lead them to homelessness.

Just saw your edit :) I hope I didn't appear to suggest that everyone is homeless for the same reasons, obviously with such a big problem as homelessness, you can't label everyone the same. There are individual circumstances that can lead to a person being homeless through no fault of their own, and I would be interested to hear yours. I hope it wasn't a long term thing and that whatever problems you had that caused you to have to sleep rough are gone. Make sure you are careful though, you don't want to offend us alcoholics with what you say though! ;) Oh, and you mention the date, and as I'm not actually all that clued up on homelessness, so I don't know if that is relevant? Maybe I'm missing something - the above is just my opinion that I've formed from my experiences with homelessness. I was also thinking of mentioning the plight of many illegal immigrints who cannot get help here who end up sleeping rough, but that usually causes a very bad arguement, so I'll be quiet :)

Answer 2

cos most of the homeless are beyond help. its their choosing. and yes some of them are smack heads, i helped one along with a number of other do gooders, he treated them with contempt, all he was interested in was donations of money , not food or drink. he had so much food. he came to my cafe to chuck it in the bin, he was offered accommodation of the church but he refused, he likes to sleep in open keeping dirty, making people think this is the way life has treated him,, drugs, anything to make a quick fix. really is a quite intelligent person. but a manipulator

Answer 3

That's people for you.

Answer 4

if you washed and wore half decent clothes I would not have insulted you that night.