When I use the term homeless, I am not just referring to people who lack shelter. I am describing people who need extra help from others to get back to a place where their basic needs are met. Here is how to solve the homeless problem in the United States: Every capable individual will volunteer to support or sponsor one homeless person, one homeless couple, or one homeless family with kids. That involves doing whatever it takes to get those people on their feet, with money, clothing, shelter, food, work, and medical and mental health resources. This will require giving, even when that is not convenient. Can you help just one person come up from the bottom?
When you are driving and see a lost dog with a collar wandering around, do you pull over and try
to call it to you so you can check the collar and call the owner? Or do you just keep driving and
think, Someone else will do it?
Most of the time, you are probably more willing to help a lost animal than a needy human. Is that
because you think the animal is helpless, whereas humans are not? How is it that you will adopt
abused animals, but you won’t adopt homeless people, helping them with your time, attention, and
resources to get back on track?
When you see homeless people on a street corner, do you think: They don’t deserve anything
from me. I don’t want to enable them. If I give them money, it’s going to keep them on this corner. I
don’t want to pay for them to just sit here, so I have to look at them tomorrow and feel
uncomfortable again for not helping. I’m doing a public service by not helping them. How dare they
beg and make me feel uncomfortable? They must be junkies or lazy, and they’re just scamming
others by pretending to be homeless because they don’t want to work and earn a living like me.
Their problem is that they don’t want to grow up—they just want others to take care of them. I’m
earning what I have! Get a job and take care of yourself, the way I do!”
That’s what our brains do—that’s what our selfish instincts tell us. Instead, how about thinking, I
have no idea what their story is, but I can see that their fingernails are dirty, and I can see that they
are out there in the elements, and I can see that they are asking for help. I can see that they are
struggling to meet their own basic needs. I can see that maybe they forgot how to be givers, or just
never learned how they could contribute to others in a positive way. I can see that they appear to
just be taking, not giving. Yes, I can see all of that, but unless I spend some time talking to them, do I
know through judgment in a single moment the real reason for their circumstances? Do I know their
history, their pain, and their struggles? Am I willing to pull over and talk to them to find out?
Wait! Does everyone have to deserve my help for me to give it? How about I just help in some
way—regardless of whether those homeless people deserve it?
Pity the poor homeless because, in many cases, their stories are totally different from what you
think. Those stories are never as black-and-white as your judgment determines, based on briefly
observing the poor characters’ external appearance. I usually judge them quickly with a glance,
justifying why I shouldn’t help them without talking to them to hear their story. The real story is
usually different from what I imagine, as I will discover if I take the time to actually talk to them.
The point is, regardless of the reason for their being homeless or begging, many of them do need
our help. We tell ourselves that other people are helping, or will help, so we don’t have to. That is an
excuse to shift responsibility to others, allowing us to neglect the homeless and their suffering. Many
people who need help are not getting it—at least, not the real consistent help that requires time,
patience, energy, and follow-through.
Just giving poor people money is treating the symptom and not the problem. It is guilty quick-fix
help, which is ineffective. Those poor folks need a longer-term commitment of help. They need
more than a few minutes of your time. There are many reasons why people are incapable of taking
care of their own basic needs, including drug or alcohol addiction, a decline in health, loss of loved
ones, job loss, or mental illness with no help from family members. If you ask them their story, they
will reveal their struggles fairly quickly.
When you help the homeless, you may get your hands dirty, and it may take several attempts to
find someone you can help, since some people don’t want to be helped.
Again, when I use the term homeless, I am referring to more than just the people you see on the
side of the road, packing their belongings. I am also referring to people who may have a place to
sleep, but who are alone, neglected, and don’t have other people helping them out. So when I use the
term homeless, I am also referring to people who need help from others getting to a place where
they, too, can start helping others.
I have come up with four categories of homeless people who need our help. Let’s examine each.
The first category is people with drug addiction. Some have lost the ability to take care of
themselves due to their addiction. However, giving those people money is not the solution. But
feeding them is something you can do, and while you are doing that, you can give them time,
attention, and words of encouragement. You can also help them get into a detox or treatment facility.
Another way to help addicts is to offer to take them to an AA group to meet others who can better
help them with their problem. Most of the time, giving them money directly only enables them to
continue their addiction.
The second type of homeless people are those who are mentally ill. Schizophrenia is common
among this group, as well as various post-traumatic stress disorders. Many members of this group
are veterans and victims of abuse. Many cannot hold jobs or provide for their own basic needs,
including food and shelter. Some mentally ill people have no family members to support or help
them, and some have families that have rejected them, so they end up on the streets. My own sister is
schizophrenic, so I know from experience that dealing with mental illness can be very challenging.
Some mentally ill people reject help. And many of them don’t have the capacity to get help for
themselves. They need help from others to provide for their basic needs. Many of them need
sustained help, which requires patience and tolerance. They may need help researching and locating
resources to help themselves. That will require giving of your time and effort. For example, you
might take them to a Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) office, where they can apply
for resources such as housing assistance, food stamps, and medical assistance.
There is an application for long-term care available at DSHS offices, which is the first step in
applying for long-term help for disabled or mentally ill people who cannot help themselves. That
involves setting up an appointment with a social worker to discuss the individual’s specific needs
and issues. You may allow the individual to use your address and phone number to assist with his or
her applications, and then follow up with them, meeting them at or taking them to their appointments
in these critical first steps of getting the help they need.
The third type of homeless people are those who have experienced financial hardship that led to
their homelessness. They may have lost the ability to provide basic food and shelter for themselves
for a variety of reasons, including job loss, a decline in health, grief over losing a loved one, or
extreme stress and anxiety from traumatic experiences. Many of these reasons are beyond their
immediate control. But regardless of the reasons, they need help and guidance with taking care of
themselves. Some people find themselves alone in the world, with no one there to help them out.
The fourth type of homeless people are those who choose homelessness as an actual occupation,
in which they beg from others to meet their basic needs. Some of these people do not want to
change. However, if some of these homeless individuals were to show an interest in going to an
Expert Giver Group meeting and decided to work through the steps voluntarily, they could grow
away from total dependency on others’ giving, and transform their lives into contributing and giving
to others. We don’t try to force or persuade these individuals to transform themselves, but we do
help those who want our help. Find one person who truly wants and needs the help you are offering.
There will be no greater reward than helping to lift another person up to make the transition from
taker to giver.
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