This isn't hilarious.
Brighton has a lot of homeless people. It's not usually the best plan to give them money as you're maybe feeding an addiction and, to my mind, that fiver might just be the one that kills them. These people don't want to die, they don't want to live on the streets and they don't get an awful lot of choice in the matter due to there being not enough money or people or time to help them. However, their addiction (should they have one) is THEIR RESPONSIBILITY, not yours. Don't feed that, feed them.

Here's a list of things you can feed to a tramp without them coming to any harm.

TIME
Time is fantastic if you have some. Ask how they're doing, sit down and have a chat. Educate yourself beforehand about local night shelters and where soup kitchens, showers and cheap breakfasts can be had so you can tell them where they can go to if they're looking a bit lost.
Remember, tramps are people and think how you'd feel if people ignored you all day except maybe to spit at you or hurl insults. The street is a lonely place. Make their day and have a chat with them.

PHONE CREDIT
Yours. If you have free minutes and you're not using them all up, you could let them use your phone to call someone they know for a chat. There's one woman who I always chat to when passing and she always wants to call her mother.

SOCKS
HATS
SCARVES
SLEEPING BAGS
CARDBOARD
The above are required for all seasons, weather and night temperatures are not predictable.

FOOD
HOT DRINKS
COLD DRINKS
Ok, you might not have much time but if you want to give them things to eat - ASK THEM FIRST - you have no idea about allergies, diabetes, illnesses that you might make worse by trying to shovel a caramel doughnut and coffee with 8 sugars down their throat. Maybe they have a dairy allergy. Be careful with what you actually give a tramp to eat.

NOT ALL TRAMPS ARE NICE AND KINDLY PEOPLE, A MINORITY ARE SO BLIGHTED BY MENTAL ILLNESS AND HATE THAT THEY COULD BE ABUSIVE OR UNGRATEFUL TO YOU. Don't take it to heart, it's nothing personal and you're not obliged to be nice, just move on. You did your best.

If you have spare money, give it to Crisis or Shelter (or whatever the homeless/housing charities are in your country) as this is where it will be used properly for the help of the homeless.

edit/ And if you have spare time then you could use it to volunteer to help jammydodger respray his clapped out Honda Accords in his Garage of Lies. in a homeless shelter.

To clarify, I didn't make this post to be smug or self-satified. I just realise that not everybody has all the time in the world to be able to help in the best ways possible. Just trying to offer some ideas on how to make someone's day mildly brighter.

(for more sense and better words than mine, I'll direct you here www.b3ta.com/questions/tramps/post471722 )
( Lu, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 8:57, closed)

I like this.
I hope it wins.
( elephant rider property shark sighted!, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:00, closed)

I want Battered's to win.

( Lu, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 10:48, closed)

Fuck off hippy

(bogus official contains acts of violence and sexual references, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:10, closed)

I hate you and you're not even my real mum.

( Lu, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:12, closed)

Fat cunt

(bogus official contains acts of violence and sexual references, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 10:34, closed)

Good sensible advice

I like your style

Have a click
(grinner sees hoff people, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:19, closed)

Are you a Disney character?
This is twee bollocks.
(Grrrrr Tigers, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:23, closed)

^^^THIS^^^
Couldn't agree more. I imagine this poster lights their house under the power of their own smug self satisfaction. "Oh, I helped a tramp today!" They say, in their nice cosy home next to a roaring fire. Give me a break! I bet they even have one of those 'I'm not a plastic bag' bags. Cunt.
(jammydodger, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:25, closed)

I've been homeless
and lived on the streets and been ignored and spat on.
Once I got my life back on track, I couldn't see a thing wrong with being pleasant to those who haven't been as lucky as I have.
So no, I don't live in my lovely house with lovely things feeling smug with myself. I just happen to understand maybe a bit more than you do. Tosser.
( Lu, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:28, closed)

Well said jammydodger
this post is utter twaddle.
(Errin C, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:36, closed)

On checking your previous answers
Your posts aren't exactly the best in the world.
( jim_bob is a waterproof rapist. Apparently., Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:52, closed)

I bet you both sit at home with your supermodel girlfriends
Whilst your Honda Accords gleam in the driveway
( SexFace! will be dead soon enough, don't worry!, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:42, closed)

I've got a roaring fire in my cosy house
Does this mean I am not allowed to help homeless people? It's very confusing. Perhaps you could write a set of rules on who is allowed to help homeless people. That would be very useful.
( LemonEntryMyDearWatson This time, Moriarty, the hand is on the other foot, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 10:19, closed)

No, I just happen to not be a heartless wanker.
Nobody's making you be nice.
( Lu, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:26, closed)

There are those who do
and those who like to think they're doing. Not that its any of your business but I run a homeless shelter.
(jammydodger, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:28, closed)

A-hahahaha!
*Bangs the big internet drum of lies*
( elephant rider property shark sighted!, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:28, closed)

I was doing voluntary work in one as a befriender.
Due to ill-health I can't do this any more. Most people haven't got time to do things like volunteering outside of their day-jobs so I just offered something that people could use that would be kind. It's fuck all about feeling smug about oneself for helping.
( Lu, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:30, closed)

There are those who don't
who pretend they do, just so they can tell people who did but now can't and would like to that actually they don't.
( Flapjack - a nasty case of the Afghan Surge, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:54, closed)

Now that was smug satisfaction
"Not that it's any of your business but I run a homeless centre"

Smug twat.
( Agnostic Antichrist why isn't fingering a girl known as digital sex?, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:33, closed)

Well I run this website
And I invented teaspoons. And I've got no elbows. Not that it's any of your business.
( LemonEntryMyDearWatson This time, Moriarty, the hand is on the other foot, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:34, closed)

*snort*
:)
( Lu, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:35, closed)

I really don't have to answer to you or prove anything
I do run a homeless shelter which is why guff like this gets on my nerves. If you want to make a difference volunteer. If you don't don't. But the sort of people I need are not the one's who do it to find some validity for their own existance. I want people who want to genuinely help. The other type hang round for a few shifts and then disappear without a word. Batterd's post about Crisis is great; this post is not.
(jammydodger, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:40, closed)

Maybe you missed the part above where I pointed out that I was a volunteer.
And as soon as I have my health back I shall carry on. I really can't see why you're taking issue with helping the very people you're purporting to be helping yourself.
I am aware of rehabilitation and drug/drink programs and key workers and all of those things. It's something I personally strive to be able to do Proper Work for when I am better.
Thing is, what you're not taking into account is again, what I said before, NOT EVERYONE HAS THE TIME (or the health) to be able to do what you do. There's nothing wrong with doing a little bit of something else that makes someone's day a bit less miserable, how can you not see this?
( Lu, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:44, closed)

So you run a homeless shelter...
But you are having a go at someone for helping homeless people?!

My bullshit detector is off the scale...
(The Kwyjibo A big, dumb, balding North American ape., Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:41, closed)

Aye, and I've got loads of girlfriends.

( jim_bob is a waterproof rapist. Apparently., Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:47, closed)

Do you shelter the homeless by putting them into the boot of a Honda Accord?

( Rudolph The REddache Reindeer Buy My T-Shirts (see profile), Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:53, closed)

Well said Lu
Treat them as people, not cases.
( jim_bob is a waterproof rapist. Apparently., Tue 7 Jul 2009, 9:57, closed)

HOW DARE YOU try to help those less fortunate.
What gives you the right to help others?

You'd be better off staying home and masturbating furiously into a stolen Big Issue. Just before you go to run a homeless shelter.


And poo in the soup.
(colonel69 has got breasts???, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 10:06, closed)

My two penneth...
I think Spanky summed things up well earlier on in this QoTW - there is humour in this topic as well as the more serious aspects.

We've seen a variety of posts - well intentioned based on some personal experience, others have more direct experience either through working for or volunteering with homelessness organisations or through having been homeless themselves.

For me volunteering came about accidentally, I don't boast about it, nor do I feel smug about it, but I have got a lot out of it - particularly some terrific friendships & I would encourage everyone to do some form of volunteering - maybe not with the homeless if that isn't of interest but do something with an organisation of some sort - you'll be amazed what you will get out of it as well as the difference you can make.

One thing is clear to me: there are a great deal (generally not just within B3TA) of misconceptions about homelessness - statistics on how many people are homeless, how people end up without a home, how the homeless can get help etc. This needs to change & it is great how different homelessness organisations (St Mungo's, Broadway, Salvation Army, Crisis, Shelter and others) are now working together (despite having different client groups) to educate people on the causes of homelessness and how people can help.

Personally I think most people who try & help people directly in some way do so with the best of intentions, although some are misguided through a lack of education on the subject. I couldn't give a fuck if someone feels smug about helping as long as their attempts to help does help the people that need it.

I think this post is well intentioned but inaccurate in part - "most likely feeding an addiction" - big hairy bollocks - only approximately a third of homeless people have a dependency issue. The part in the post about time I think is correct - the isolation people feel as a result of being homeless is (as I understand it but am open to correction) one of the worst aspects of being homeless.

If you want to give money to someone who needs it do so if you wish or give it to a homelessness organisation - either helps & it is your choice as it's your money.

Now can we have a QoTW that involves lots of stories about shagging?
(Battered wants to do a poo at Pauls house, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 10:14, closed)

Agreed with all of that.
I rather meant that it's hard to judge if someone DOES have an addiction or not so giving money may not be the best plan, my wording isn't always the best.

Edited original post to make more sense, ta for pointing that out. I'm a spazz at times.
( Lu, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 10:17, closed)

With regard to Shelter
there's a common misconception that they are a homeless charity. they actually exist to help people with housing problems, which is slightly different.

Crisis is the actual homeless charity.

(I used to work for Shelter and we were always recieveing calls from people wanting to give us blankets and whatnot which we couldn't take)
( Joe Scaramanga - One Week Left To SPONSOR ME: SEE MY PROFILE NOW!!!!!, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 10:26, closed)

Ta.
I shall put that on the original in case people don't scroll down.
( Lu, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 10:28, closed)

A /talker dealing in whole paragraphs?
What madness is this?

(clicks hard, by the way.)
( Enzyme is in ur [noun]z, [verb]in' ur [noun]z, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 10:37, closed)

Following your advice...
I today attempted to feed a homeless man a sock... it did not go well.
(Mr_Yarrrrr, Tue 7 Jul 2009, 16:45, closed)

What sort of sock?
He might have a cotton allergy.
(Scritty http://www.brbcatonfire.com, Thu 9 Jul 2009, 1:33, closed)