Tired of the performative beggars and alcoholics this time of year

Surely it’s possible to have empathy for people sleeping on the streets, while holding it back for people saying they’re sleeping on the streets but not actually having to do so?

Do people genuinely believe everything a cardboard sign tells them?

I don’t why the police / government don’t tackle this issue properly - allowing organised crime openly on our streets.

Thank God there's someone with a bit of heart on here!

I agree totally.

The trouble is if you have a dog or an addiction you can't go into the hostel in my local area. We got amazing local charity locally which is very active in our rural area and as a result apart from one homeless lady with a very bad drug addiction we don't have aggressive begging at the moment in the local town. The advice has always been don't give money to someone who is homeless but give to the local services that support them.

I'm not understanding this comment...you're surely not disputing that the Guardian is left-wing?

I am so sorry, Lunde.

Why on EARTH would someone give a person sleeping rough a bottle of whisky? Everyone knows that people sleeping outside are vulnerable and may well be living with addiction. How utterly thick can you get! That makes me angry on behalf of you and your brother. Why couldn't that gormless idiot have given him a hot meal and drink if they wanted to help? Jesus, just when you think you've heard it all.

I haven't reacted either way to this because on the one hand, where I live are many homeless people living in shop doors year round. They leave during the day then set up camp when the shops close for the night. They are polite and don't bother anyone. Some live in camps by the river. They are honestly no trouble and the vast majority don't beg.

On the other hand, I have heard terrible stories of fake beggars. One man in a nearby city simply sits on the pavement looking pitiful without saying anything, and people give him money. But he's not homeless or a drug addict, and when the day ends he dresses in normal clothes and boasts about his large earnings.

Sure you can. But that is not at all the same as saying that people are not making choices, and all we can do is support them in their addictions. Which seems to be an increasingly common response, and pushed even by some addictions and healthcare organizations.

Respectfully, OP, it's going to take a lot more than one hot meal a day to help someone with severe mental health issues or addiction to hard drugs.

'Services in place to help them' as you put it, OP, won't take people in active addiction. Thus, they remain on the street. Hope that answers your question.

No, I just understand how people turn to drugs, because I am capable of critical thinking and have life experience unlike yourself. Troll or not, I feel sorry for you.

I think you should volunteer for a homeless charity OP.

It is sad that your privileged upbringing didn't raise a compassionate or decent human, OP. Tell me OP, when you have had traumatic events happen in life, did you get up, paint a smile on your face and go into work the same day?

That must’ve been terrifying. I’m assuming this was a random burglar and not a family member on drugs ?

Maybe you haven’t felt the effects of what drug addicts actually do then As a kid, a drug addict broke into my bedroom. I am permanently traumatised.

The last part of this post is important.

In the last three years, on probably a dozen occasions, the stresses I have been dealing with have pushed me to an unhealthy "fuck it all" attitude and I have drunk to painful excess and engaged in risky behaviour. My nearests and dearests have reacted mostly with compassion, but also a measure of tough love clearly defining the fact that if it keeps happening, I would be cut off.

At my age, in my 50s, I have just enough self preservation or survival instinct to keep myself in check. It means I live a very small life, away from temptation. I could easily tip over the edge when it seems everything that can go wrong does go wrong. My fear of complete rejection is one factor that keeps me going, alongside fear of the pain it would cause my family or friends if I did do anything "stupid". Also, ridiculous as it may sound, my cat.

However, I'm constantly at war in my own head with a voice that tells me it's all essentially pointless, and I am pointless.

In many ways I'm lucky - I am housed, and can just about cover the basics on a limited income while I try to rebuild my entire life.

This is why I don't judge. Because it is very much a case of "there but for the grace of God go I".

My lovely friend ended up sleeping in Tesco shop window for a couple of years from young teenager. He sorted his life out with the help of kind peoole around him. Hes a wonderful person

Im very glad you are not one of them and can look down on them. A change in circumstances for any one of us could see us in the same position

That’s a completely separate argument.

If those children believe they are reaching their potential by dropping out of school, learning to be homemakers, whatever - it’s not up to us to tell them they’re wrong. We can’t be telling people how to raise their own kids, beyond abuse etc.

If that’s the life they want and believe in, that’s up to them.

For me, it’s not about absolving of responsibility but looking at the reasons why.

I don’t claim to know those reasons, but in my view to become addicted to the level you beg strangers for money, or to sleep on the streets instead of in the warm home of someone who cares for you - something has to have gone very wrong.

Most of us, even if the worst happened, have somewhere to go and wouldn’t rough sleeping in December wouldn’t be either the norm or the preference.

You can acknowledge someone is choosing to take drugs to deal with whatever it is their dealing with, and still have some sympathy for that.

Unbelievably offensive post. Societal collapse is everywhere. The haves have way too much. The have nots… fuck all. I don’t believe ANYONE wants to sleep rough, especially in our wet cold winter months. We’ve got such wealth in this country and people begging and sleeping in doorways 🤦‍♀️

Let’s just get them off the streets, like they did for Prince Harry’s wedding 😡

I have Roma neighbours and my life has been a living hell since they moved in, constant noise, an everchanging population of around 10 adults crammed into a two bedroomed house, drug dealing, rubbish dumped everywhere, they used my address for various fraudulent activities and I got all the threatening debt collection agency letters, benefit fraud stuff from the DWP. I feel horrible saying this but it is cultural, we have a lot of Roma now round where I live and they cause havoc, and it is true that the girls are pulled out of school at around age 11 and the boys rarely complete their education. Girls are expected to spend their time cleaning and the boys will have more freedom but will mainly be involved in whatever the family does ot make money. For all they they are nuisance they are also exploited by terrbield landlords who rent out substandard accommodation to them knowing that they won't complain and indeed do not know how to complain. The rents are paid in cash which means the landlords won't be paying tax . Like you I feel sad about all the children who for cultural reasons and the generational mistrust of authority will never get the chance to achieve their potential.

It's inevitable that when there is money or good made available,there will be people who are taking advantage, and if it's lucrative enough they will take advantage systematically and in numbers. And there are places where begging can make good money.

Christmas time tends to have a lot of extra money and such made available for those in need, so inevitably people like that come out. I used to volunteer for an organization in a major city that gives out Christmas meals and gifts, and they were part of a network of such organizations, part of the purpose being to make sure people were not getting 5 differernt meals and sets of gifts which people certainly tried to do.

I work in a small town now where the main Christmas charitable group don't have those kinds of resources, and people do take advantage.

It can be hard for people not to become cynical, including people who work with such populations. It's a reason some people burn out after a few years. You have to be able to manage some complicated feelings and the people who are the most "be kind" often aren't the ones who keep doing that kind of work IME.

Personally, I get most frustrated by the people who totally buy into the disease model of addiction and want to totally absolve addicts of all personal responsibility. It's not true for one thing, as anyone who has to deal personally with an addict knows, but it's also not doing them any favours; the only path out of addiction is to accept responsibility for their lives and how they affect others in their lives. Remaining in addiction means death, sudden or in increments. And ultimately I just don't see enabling that that as being a "kinder" attitude.