Tired of the performative beggars and alcoholics this time of year

I don’t have kids but my friend has 3 girls all under 12 and is often herself with them and gets very anxious about being approached in London.

It’s a shame people (understandably) feel like this though because the high street is already dying.

For everyone’s sake the government and charities need to come together and work to make long term sustainable change possible.

You usually find the opposite (people who're content with their own lot in life tend not to judge the lives of others harshly).

That’s actually fairly rare I’d wager and veterans are one group who are given a huge amount of support both funded and charitable.

I work for a homelessness charity in London, we work with rough sleepers. Street homelessness is up by 18% on this time last year in London, and I think it's likely to be the same in other cities, so it's no wonder it's more visible. Data here: https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports
The people you are seeing are unwell, and need a social care response rather than an enforcement response. Moving them on won't solve any of the underlying issues that have led to their homelessness. Many (up to 80%) people who are street homeless have experienced childhood trauma or abuse, and have a long history of being let down by services that should have supported them, so it can be (understandably) very hard to build the trust needed to work with them to address their homelessness. Often people use drugs and alcohol as a way of self medicating trauma.
The very best solution would be more supported housing provided by the govt as there are very limited suitable options available.

I agree with the OP. They all come out of the woodwork at Christmas hoping to tap into people’s gullibility/seasonal generosity. They do make more than someone holding down a minimum wage job who is out of the house 50 hours a week doing so.
To the beggars, it’s a business. Better to give to a charity rather than direct to them.

Virtue signalling is right. None of us have the same experience as the OP but we have our own. It isn't pleasant to be accosted - and I have been, it's not ok.

I used to buy the Big Issue from a woman outside M&S - until she wouldn't give me the magazine saying 'it was her last one', accepted the money though. I wondered what she was going to do with that last magazine. It's no coincidence that she was outside M&S and not anywhere else on the retail park.

Before I get an onslaught of 'no empathy' from the usual parrots, I pay to the charities that get people off the streets, quietly, every month. It is absolutely valid to say that giving people money is counterproductive and everybody has the choice of whether to do that or not. I don't but if the posters here want to then knock yourselves out... or perhaps you're just posturing on a chatboard?

Some of the posts to the OP are horrendous yet so predictable.

If they would rather die,they'd better do it and decrease the surplus population.

@ClairDeLaLune luckily, you can quote bad lyrics.
Re OP; absolutely agree plus enablers. I was lucky to have lived most of my life in central London. There were literally about 30 food trucks every night on the Strand and they would pick and choose - 'no, don't fancy the chickpea curry and rice [chuck on the ground] i'll try the Falafel Flatbread'. Shops that catered for Lunchtime time crowd as an aside to their normal trade would leave their food bins unlocked because they weren't allowed to donate out of date food but allowed people to bin dive. Sounds altruistic - the rats were definitely happy as people rummaged and chucked detritus all over. Pret a Manger developed a system to deliver food on the cusp of being out of date in a hygienic and measured way. Charing Cross Library had a lovely make over; people could come and browse / rummage - fair enough. Ironically, the comfiest seats were in the Romance section - the stink of urine, faeces and BO were rapidly absorbed into said, comfy seats. Upstairs, in the reference section there was plenty of room to lay down, imbibe substances and have sex - saw it all - although one couples tried to be discrete in their shared sleeping bag. At Christmas it was beyond ridiculous. You had all these puzzled tourists wandering around Covent Garden, The Strand, Soho who couldn't believe there wasn't anything open on Christmas Day - in central London?! I've seen them being approached by gangs / groups of homeless in an aggressive manner - 5 minutes from Whitehall. Same groups were bussed out at the first signs of serious weather on the horizon - proof there were enough hostel places but the majority weren't willing to go because no alcohol or or narcotics allowed. Word gets around and they travel to the best tourist traps e.g. Canary Wharf however, it's classed as a Private Estate so they hang on as long as possible before taking over the foot bridge to the Isle of Dogs - and fight over the best spots - also rent out dogs to each other because they're a honey trap, everyone's a sucker for a drugged up Dog or even better, a cat named . . . I saw latter and it was off it's tits.

I visited a local city this week and haven’t been for months. Last time I visited there were so many rough sleepers it was startling. However, this time I only saw one man begging.

Conversely, the small (and affluent) town where I live is now full of rough sleepers. Someone said to me they had migrated to my town because they get more when they beg.

I don’t know if this is true or not but the contrast between both places is startling.

It's all year round in my city so no different to usual.

Some of them aren't actually homeless, they've fallen out with their partner and she's kicked him out so he's gone out on the streets to get money for a bit before they make up a couple of days later. Yes, they actually tell you that.

Many others are just drug addicts and alcoholics, and people try to help them and they have friends because they've come from somewhere, but even their friends say they're beyond help and they can't help them.

There is one local one who is abusive and sometimes violent, and if you don't give him money he starts yelling about how you're the problem with society (?)

It's easy to have distant sympathy when it's not someone in your house stealing your things and selling them for drugs just before Christmas.

One of those problems where people think someone else should help and don't do anything to help them themselves.

But for the most part, if it's possible to help them and they appreciate the help (even if they aren't perfect) then they have somewhere to go and someone to help them.

Remember many of them make more money and get more free handouts than people working minimum wage jobs, especially because they don't pay tax. You can't fund a serious addiction on min wage. There is one I know for a fact makes on average £200 a day this time of year.

🤣

To be fair, if I was homeless, I'd probably be drinking too. Maybe walk a mile in their shoes first before you judge.

OP, you sound awful and have clearly led a very privileged life.

I find it really confusing these days so I just don't give to homeless on the streets anymore, made all the easier because these days I don't carry cash or coin. Instead, I give an annual donation to St Mungo's.

Back in the 80's and 90's I would buy the Big Issue from street vendors who were obviously rough sleepers. Nowadays the majority of Big Issue vendors I see appear to be well dressed and clearly not homeless. The lady outside my local M&S has been in the same spot for 17 years. It's a job with unverifiable hours that permits her to claim full tax credit and housing benefit (many known her circumstances after such a long time in a small market town).

The other type of person asking for money are Roma woman begging professionally.

The last type are most likely genuinely homeless but also (based on a survey of my nearest large town with a know drug problem) probably substance abusers or alcoholics. We are always told not to give in these circumstances.

Easiest way is to give to St Mungo's.

Well where do you propose they go instead? If taxpayers were funding putting addicts up in hotels or giving them flats/ houses no doubt you’d complain about that instead.

Thats why we have online shopping Op ! Thats why I will not drag my children or myself into the city center too, to have us all harassed and for me to have to explain about the people who badger us.

This. You lost me when you started complaining about soup kitchens. Fuck me. You think you recognise arseholes then suddenly there is a whole new level of arsehole. Shame on you op.

Most towns and cities will have charities which do outreach work, run kitchens that give out food (not necessarily 3 meals a day, in our nearby town its Wednesday, Friday and Sunday nights only from one place and there are a couple of churches that do lunches) and run shelters. The bigger problem is the toxic combination of mental health need and addiction suffered by many street homeless people. Providing a meal and overnight shelter is actually reasonably straightforward, it's providing services beyond that that is difficult and expensive and that's where the support ends.

My brother is a polydrug user with huge mh issues who has suffered periods of street homelessness so this is a subject quite close my heart. He's now in a supported living hostel so has a roof over his head whilst he drinks himself to death. He's hostile to the medical establishment but there's no mh support available to him anyway and even if services were available he can't engage with him whilst he's actively drinking/using and there are no services to help him stop even if he wanted to which he doesn't (too many demons). So yeah, it's a mess. Had he had access to mh support and substance abuse services 20 years ago things might have been very different.

Exactly. Absolutely nuts.

This is the poor husbands comment after his wife and 13 year old son’s murder :

Of Barley he said: “There’s no motive, there is no explanation. He decided that because his life was going bad ways, he was going to take it out on the people that had cared and looked after him. I wish we had never met him – I wish my wife had never set eyes on him

Yes, I never even heard of the Critic before I googled this. But the points made in the article, about the Big Issue being significantly affected by gangs of Roma, seem pretty consistent with the experience of other posters, including mine.

I really wouldn't want to support a situation where women are being exploited by gangs.

At the very least, the Big Issue has got some explaining to do, hasn't it?

I dont believe that most of the beggars are homeless. I think we have a huge homelessness problem, but the ones visibly begging on the streets are mainly long term addicts. Im not sure of the answer to it , and im sure theyve been failed along the way, but im not getting involved with them, or paying for their drugs and alcohol.

I used to be an addict in the past and have been homeless. I genuinely hope that a lot of these people sort themselves out, but i won't hold my breath.
Ive always had a few friends still on the periphery of some of these communities and I think I lost a lot of my naievete about a lot of the beggars quite a few years ago.
Some people cant be helped, and my resources are so limited.

Not ''boasting'' here - I donated to UNICEF Children in Gaza as they are probably innocent (for Xmas this year).

No fucking way would I ever allow a homeless person into my home. I am not stupid. This thread is bonkers.

Wow addiction is an illness not a choice. You are so judgemental.

and to add to my previous comment :

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/oct/04/aaron-barley-homeless-man-who-murdered-woman-who-helped-him

Most homeless men are not killers btw and I’m not suggesting they are, but they’re still a. men and b. strangers and many have substance abuse issues which can cause or exacerbate poor mental health so they carry a certain level of risk! Let’s be sensible here.

I was a bit silly albeit well intentioned as a teen and once invited a homeless guy outside the library to my church barbecue. He then proceeded to leer over me and invite me to his treehouse for sex which led to me running away as fast as I could.

There are so many great charities you can pitch in with or donate to or pressure your MP into proposing some real sustainable solutions to the wider problem. Taking in homeless men off the street isn’t the one.

🙄