I also cut them off if they pull the hard luck story. I sometimes tell people I am broke too. Of course I used to do that at Classic BMW repair center much to the horror of most of the waiting room — hey you don’t get snowed with extras that way. I am from East Dallas, I don’t care if anyone thinks I have money or not.

I have taken folks to the Salvation Army when I know any money will go directly to a drug dealer. No, not people I would size-up as dangerous – you can tell if they really want to go. The rehab facility is on Harry Hines by Inwood, Trey (urban yokels know this stuff). You have to wait for them to be admitted (but make sure they have proper ID or they can’t get in). Sit in that waiting room. Don’t look down and open your eyes and ears. You might learn something.

So I bit him.

Dead.
Spot.
On.
Serious.

Standing. Clapping.

Thanks for the cordial welcome. I read the thread before posting.

No thanks for the snide comment that wasn’t relevant or necessary. I guess when you have nothing intelligent to say, you have to go out of your way to prove it.

Welcome to this thread. Please go back and read Puddin’Tane’s first comment.

Hey, did you hear that there was this subprime crisis? That the stock market melted down? Really! Things are bad! Hey, did you know that it’s January of 2009? Really! It is!

1) The bleeding hearts that think that the homeless are just homeless because they are down on their luck or poor (or in one case, it’s all GW Bush’s fault).

2) The heartless who think that the homeless are that way because they are just too lazy to get their act together.

The temporary homeless, that is the people who find themselves homeless because of economic or social reasons like domestic violence, are homeless for less than two weeks on average. We aren’t really discussing them here. There is a very good safety net in place that cares for them and gets them off the street.

We are talking about the chronic homeless, the street people, and they are overwhelmingly mentally ill. They are also overwhelmingly addicts. Whether their addictions are a result of, or a cause of, their mental illness probably differs from person to person, but in the end they are unemployable. In my opinion they are also a danger to themselves, and in some cases others. If sleeping in the gutter and eating out of dumpsters isn’t a danger to oneself, then what is?

When group 1 listed above gives them money, it doesn’t go to food or shelter. It doesn’t help them in any way except to allow them avoid seeking help for another day. When you give them money you are enabling them to continue to live in the gutter and do drugs. Believe me, they rarely spend that money on food. You are also contributing to the greatest blight on our city.

We have over 3,000 mentally ill people wandering our streets aimlessly, almost all of whom are drugged out of their mind, and Dallas’ solution was to build a building full of councilors and 100 beds. Since it opened, the homeless downtown are at the largest numbers I’ve ever seen.

I support enforcing bans on panhandling, but it’s only a bandaid. It’s not going to solve the problem. It might make the quality of life downtown more tolerable, but it doesn’t get the homeless off the street. That’s going to have to involve taking them off the street and putting them in psychiatric facilities so they can get clean, sober, and treatment for their illness.