Would they work if they could? NF

[esoxansteel]

A number of years ago (mid 80's) when we lived in London, our son was in sick kids in Toronto. Very rare blood disorder and on life support. We were staying in hotels and eating in restaurants. To make a long story short, as we were walking down Young St., a young lady asked me for some change and I dug deep and gave her all the change in my pocket. It was probably about 5 or 6 dollars and mostly quarters and a few loonies. She threw it on the street and started cursing at me. My wife had never heard me use the language that I shouted back at the girl. To this day I will not help a beggar. Pity the fool squeegee kid who leans over my truck with his chains to wash my windows.

P.S. My son made a full recovery after about 3 months and is fine now.

 

 

Crusty Crusty Crusty Wolsely must have been tough for ya Now i have to go find a kid with chains to clean your windows, dont care what he charges me LOL

[manitoubass2]

Anyone is welcome at my house for dinner, just be sure you provide proof of income and dont touch my darn wine!!

 

Lol, i dont envy the life of you city folk

[chris.brock]

Hamilton, Mandarin Buffet last fall, walking through the parking lot with my Grandmother, a rough looking guy approaches

 

"I have no food for my kids"

 

my grandmother gave him $20

 

almost 2 hours later, we come out, he approaches again, "I have no food for my kids"

 

there was some other words I won't mention, and a little saliva may have been spraying out of my mouth when I spoke, but I said

 

"she just gave you $20, why aren't you back at home with grocery's?"

[ecmilley]

I pay more than enough taxes for social programs hard up no wear to go hungary.

Churches salvation army ymca ect available for those that need it.

on a side note would be anyone thats a friend ofine wouldnt be leaving my house cold or hungary or without a place to go.

[bare foot wader]

everybody's been through times before, I'm sure everybody has a story how they ended up there...hats off to the guys that still feel some compassion and sympathy for those in need...sad fact is good intentions are too easily abused, very hard to trust a stranger on the street...smarter bet to donate to a legit charity

 

at work somebody is always doing food/donation drives to help the local community, especially around the holidays...I will donate to the gifts for kids people that are always setup in malls around the holidays (they always get the $20 fishing rod combo from walmart)....I believe that actually helps, more than funding street drug habits

 

last people I helped on the street were setup with a cardboard sign at an intersection, skinniest dog you've ever seen but somehow they could afford hair dye, smokes and a cell phone...stopped at the first store and circled back with a bag of dog food...the girl said thank you about 10 times, dog got to eat dinner for a few nights

[OhioFisherman]

A couple of the local TV stations in Cleveland did some investigative reporting on some of the people that stood on the highway ramps here begging, will work for food seemed to be the farthest thing they were really looking for!

 

Funny, but once they started putting some of them on the news showing the cars they drove and homes they lived in the numbers of alleged homeless beggars dropped.

[Lape0019]

There is a guy up here in ottawa that sat in front or around the corner fr my old building depending on the day.

 

My coworker was on the same bus as him one night and he started complaining he only made $150 dollars that day. The sad fact was he made more money sitting on his but in that day than most of the people on that bus. From that day on, I didn't even look at the guy.

[limeyangler]

[waterlooxu]

i was kind of new immigrates here from last Xmas. I still remember the first day i got my vehicle here,when i parked in front of a plaza, A man who looks really not in good mode,knocked at my window, i shut the window down and asked him what happened. He showed me his finger,wounded by medicine gauze,said he had no money to go into the pharmacy in the plaza to get some medicine for his injured finger, it was cold in winter ,early February, and i gave all cash i had in my wallet maybe 10-15 bucks.that was the first time i met such kind of things in Canada.

OK then 7 months later. that is about 1 month ago, when i was parking in the same plaza, someone knocked my window. i saw him again,I'm not 100% sure but i am quite certain about it. he told me the same story.And i said,does it really take you nearly a year to heal your finger? he looks a little puzzled ,and i told him i met him right here in February.

I just drove away and felt a little angry and upset. i dont know what should i do, maybe i should call the police or someone but my English is poor and i just cant express my feeling.

[Whitespinnerbait]

Always kinda wondered where they got the SHARPIE and Clean cut of Cardboard to write in Large Clean Bold letters....Hungry....maybe should have bought food instead of a $ 6 dollar marker :dunno:

 

The money they collect is for two things and two things ONLY ....Drugs or Alcohol

[Beans]

Years ago, when I worked downtown T.O. a very pregnant young woman stopped me and asked for money...all I had was a two dollar bill and a twenty so I gave her the two...she said "I'm eating for two"

 

"Not my fault"...I replied and walked away

[Ralph Field]

They interviewed a corner beggar here in London and asked him why he begged. He replied that begging earned him 19 $ an hour on average much more than he would earn at a minimum wage job.

[jimmer]

What a society we live in when you can make more by begging!

[ketchenany]

What a society we live in when you can make more by begging!

If this post is read in other less dortunate countries we will be overrun by beggars when they how much they can make

[DRIFTER_016]

[misfish]

LOL ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ YUP

[glenner]

Was in St. John's on businees, walking down Water St. and a regular beggar was asking everyone for " 80 cents for a coffe", he even went up and asked a parking enforcement officer who was writing tickets.

Ten minutes later I went into the liquor store and there he was, counting out a pile of dimes and quarters to pay for his bottle.

Passed him again the next day and when he asked for "80 cents for a coffee" I said "sorry, buddy, no change".

As I walked away awy he screamed "F*&$ you, you F*&$er".

Store clerk across the street told me that he used to work out on the offshore oil rigs and got injured, received a huge settlemet and is very well off, doesn't need to beg.

[muddler]

I have noticed a lot of people lately at on/off ramps with signs with things like "Hungry, Homeless, Please help!

God Bless". Obviously they are looking for handouts and I got to wondering; would they work if they could?

 

The other day as I was pulling off the highway I saw one of these people, I had just stopped at a coffee shop and bought a coffee and apple fritter, he looked hungry so as I pulled along side of him I handed him the bag with the apple fritter in it, I had to keep moving, there were cars behind me but as I looked in my mirror I saw him throwing the bag at the back of my truck.

 

There was nothing wrong with the fritter, I hadn't taken a bite out of it or anything but he threw it back at me. My first thought was "well tomorrow I'll try tossing you a cup of steaming hot coffee" but then I cooled down a bit and wondered if I just didn't understand.

 

As I was driving I started thinking about what I would do if I or my family were homeless, and hungry. Would I stand at the side of the road asking others to give me money? Well, I guess I might if I had no other choice but I am way too proud to ask others to give me anything other than an opportunity.

 

I remembered back to the late 60's when I lived in French River and worked for INCO. We went on strike (not my choice) and the strike lasted about 3 months. My strike pay was $11.00 a week, I had a wife and two kids and no money in the bank. Every two weeks I would hitchhike from French River to Sudbury, get my check, go and buy groceries (a lot of KD, it was only $0.11 a box back then), and hitchhike back to FR. (Had to walk it a few times that was back in the day when there was a prison farm at Espanola and big signs "DON'T PICK UP HITCH HIKERS".

 

We ate KD and fish/grouse/ (and anything else I could catch/kill) and we survived. Our landlady was kind enough to let us defer our rent until I got back to work (of coarse with intrest) and I changed the oil stove to a wood stove, we used candles and lanterns (couldn't pay the hydro), but we didn't ask anyone to give us anything (well I guess hitchiking is asking someone to give you a ride).

 

Do these people really need to be out there asking for donations? Don't we have systems and resourses in place to deal with things like this? I know that every year Sue and I donate what we can afford to food banks, the Unitedway and a few other charities but this is Canada after all. We donate millions if not billions of our tax dollars to other countries, are we doing this at the expense of our own people? If so, why?

 

 

 

 

The prison Farm was at "Burwash" about 20 km south of Sudbury and Espanola is about 50km west of sudbury of Hwy 17. Espanola has NEVER had a prison.

 

As for the homeless. when I lived in Scarborough we had a couple of 'local' homeless people. They realy have mental health issues and are heavy alcohol and/or drug users. They are expert con artists. We had one guy named"Wayne" that used to work on Bay street until he literately snapped. His family lives in a posh house in West Hill and he won't have anything to do with them. Wayne would have a nice scam every Christmas season. First he would take his shoes off and stand by the local variety store looting unkempt and disoriented. Every time a customer would walk to the entrance Wayne would intercept the 'mark' by slowly and deliberately taking his hands out of his coat pocket where a very old crumpled 5 dollar bill would fall at the marks's feet. Wayne would pretend he didn't notice and he would thank the mark for the donation( ha ha). A few minutes later the mark would exit the store and hand Wayne some money. Once the mark was far enough away Wayne reached into the other pocket and pulled out a huge wad of money and added this to his donation.

 

I was in a parked car near all this watching as I waited for a friend to finish her shopping. I watched Wayne score every time. He must have made $200 in less than 30 minutes. Each morning Wayne would walk down the middle of Kingston Rd to get to the LCBO when it opened.

 

My Nephew goes to U of T and is paying his own way the best he can by doing virtually and summer job(s) he can get. Last year he shared an apartment with 3 other students. They were regular 'homeless' young guys that worked the downtown core in the summer and weekend during the year when they needed money to party. My nephew moved out as these guys did a lot of shay things but he told me that they even had there begging clothes in garbage bags because it stank so bad. These guys managed to to afford a car and nice clothes and they ate in decent restaurants. All they did for a living was beg on the streets.

 

Then there is the story of the shaky pencil lady that was loaded and lived in Oakvile.

 

I fell for the mentally ill ones as they can't handle the reality any more, but all they really want is money for booze and/or drugs. The scam artists I don't feel for at all. These are just parasites looking for a free ride. I have a lot more respect for the guy playing his guitar in the subway. At least he is working at it.

 

I always offer to get them something from a food vender rather than cash. In over 36 years I've ALWAYS been refused.

[Big Cliff]

The prison Farm was at "Burwash" about 20 km south of Sudbury and Espanola is about 50km west of sudbury of Hwy 17. Espanola has NEVER had a prison.

 

As for the homeless. when I lived in Scarborough we had a couple of 'local' homeless people. They realy have mental health issues and are heavy alcohol and/or drug users. They are expert con artists. We had one guy named"Wayne" that used to work on Bay street until he literately snapped. His family lives in a posh house in West Hill and he won't have anything to do with them. Wayne would have a nice scam every Christmas season. First he would take his shoes off and stand by the local variety store looting unkempt and disoriented. Every time a customer would walk to the entrance Wayne would intercept the 'mark' by slowly and deliberately taking his hands out of his coat pocket where a very old crumpled 5 dollar bill would fall at the marks's feet. Wayne would pretend he didn't notice and he would thank the mark for the donation( ha ha). A few minutes later the mark would exit the store and hand Wayne some money. Once the mark was far enough away Wayne reached into the other pocket and pulled out a huge wad of money and added this to his donation.

 

I was in a parked car near all this watching as I waited for a friend to finish her shopping. I watched Wayne score every time. He must have made $200 in less than 30 minutes. Each morning Wayne would walk down the middle of Kingston Rd to get to the LCBO when it opened.

 

My Nephew goes to U of T and is paying his own way the best he can by doing virtually and summer job(s) he can get. Last year he shared an apartment with 3 other students. They were regular 'homeless' young guys that worked the downtown core in the summer and weekend during the year when they needed money to party. My nephew moved out as these guys did a lot of shay things but he told me that they even had there begging clothes in garbage bags because it stank so bad. These guys managed to to afford a car and nice clothes and they ate in decent restaurants. All they did for a living was beg on the streets.

 

Then there is the story of the shaky pencil lady that was loaded and lived in Oakvile.

 

I fell for the mentally ill ones as they can't handle the reality any more, but all they really want is money for booze and/or drugs. The scam artists I don't feel for at all. These are just parasites looking for a free ride. I have a lot more respect for the guy playing his guitar in the subway. At least he is working at it.

 

I always offer to get them something from a food vender rather than cash. In over 36 years I've ALWAYS been refused.

I stand corrected, LOL Burwash it was, it was in fact Estare that I was thinking of.