Most effective way(s) to support homeless people?

[Cocorico]

Would be really interested to hear your thoughts/guidance on this please.

I live in London at the moment, and I see a lot of homeless people every day.

I'm sure that there are also a lot of homeless people in other towns and cities across the U.K., and that the number of people in this situation will either increase or decrease over time depending on various factors e.g. the amount of social security available to people who are struggling financially.

Anyway... my question is (AIBU to ask) how can we help homeless people most effectively?

Is it best to:
A) give money to people directly

B) to help in a more indirect way (for example, by donating to charities involved in helping homeless people or people in financial difficulty, volunteering for these charities, donating to food banks, helping out at food banks or any other way)

C) to do a combination of both A and B.

Thanks very much.

I work in this field.

I don't give money but will buy a cup of tea and try to chat, and talk to them as a real person.

My charity pound goes to Thames Reach. St Mungo's also do good work with rough sleepers and people at risk of sleeping rough in London.

Shelter are a perfectly good charity but don't really do any work directly on street homelessness.

Someone above said that they distrusted charities because they spent most of their money on salaries. Rough sleepers or people at risk of (or with a history of rough sleeping) generally have very complex needs and need professional support with drugs, mental health, employment etc, as well as help accessing mainstream services. Your charity pound is paying for those services which take the form of professional people, ie salaries. It's not well paid work - a lot of it involves being out in nasty places in the early hours of the morning, dealing with drugs, vomit and violence. It's pretty grim work and no one is getting rich from it. Charities can claim housing benefit on residents behalf to cover actual housing costs - it's the staff time they need your money for.

I will decline politely, but not give money, not because they may be a con artist, but because I do not want to support an alcohol or drug addiction, tough as it may seem. Instead I donate to charity.

Dh works in London and felt the same dilemma - we donate to Centre Point.

Give to charity and offer food and water. I offer chocolate bars and bottled water; some decline which is fine and some people are quite happy with that.

Talk to them, make them feel like a person of value. Maybe give them some food/socks/pants/gloves... Find out about local services/charities for the homeless, make sure the people you chat to are aware of any help available to them.

I don’t usually have change but will often say that I’m going to get something to eat from that shop, would they also like something? And if they accept I ask what they’d like and go get it.

I’m not in a financial position at the moment to be able to do much else but when my personal commitments calm down a little bit I’d like to spend some time volunteering to make a difference

I don't know what the answer is. I'm in the midlands and the situation is really bad here too, not just Birmingham but the smaller towns where you never used to see it before. It is very sad and I am hoping new Mayor Andy Street will live up to his promises to tackle it.

Re the comment about "give them a room in your house" who are you Bob Geldof? Fuck off. I live very near the murder referred to above and whilst this is isolated and very rare what happened to this poor family who truly were good samaritans how many people can truly say hand on heart they would do that?

One of my proudest moments as a parent was when drunk son’s drunk friend told me that after leaving a club, my son had gone into a kebab shop and bought half a dozen kebab and chips which he then gave out to rough sleepers in the area. Now kebabs would not be my choice of meal but I guess they are warm and filling and were given with compassion.

Crumbs1 you are the gift that keeps on giving. I'm surprised you didn't make a healthy donkey grilled kebab on the aga and go out and feed the homeless yourself. Afterall, you give SO much to those little Carol singing urchins children at Christmastide and give gifts to the poor prisoners children. You make me feel warm and fuzzy inside not

Locally we have a coat exchange in city centre

Your village has a city centre Crumbs1 ? It must be a rather large village.

Thanks again everyone for all of your suggestions.

With option A (giving money - or food and drink - to homeless people), my main question with this is what - or in the case of money, how much - should I give? I understand there's no right or wrong answer, but just feel really frustrated with the whole situation and think it's really important to do something effective regularly to help. I'm just not sure what.

I do think it can be a good idea to give money (and/or food and drink directly to people), but I'm never sure how much to give. People might expect a certain amount and be offended if too little is given, but equally, I wouldn't want to just assume that a specific amount of money is the best amount to give.

The other thing is when there are several people sitting a few feet away from each other - it seems cruel and wrong to give money or food to one person but then to walk past the other person or people who are also there.

I'm never sure how best to act when I come out of a shop and if someone is sitting in front of me who might need food or money or other support. This can happen really regularly, especially in central London - or all parts of London really. What is the best way to act in that kind of situation? How can I do something effective and helpful that will actually benefit the people I see? I normally just say I'm really sorry, but that sounds so fucking spineless and i completely see that it could be seen as really patronising and ignorant, because it doesn't actually achieve anything.

I volunteer with Citizens Advice at the moment, which sort of deals with addressing the root causes of homelessness, and it does a bloody good job of it. I'm so proud of what they do, and proud to be a part of it. But I really really want to do more to help people who are already homeless, although I completely agree that doing more to tackle the root causes of homelessness is really important too.

Give to charities.

Also write to your local MP and local councillors for them to take action.

Oh ffs @Crumbs1. You could be a genuine poster, but whether or not, please could you just use a bit of judgement for once?!

Homelessness is a really serious bloody problem. People are dying in Britain - in the 21st century - because they are homeless.

So could you just, for once, avoid pissing around and telling us about your perfect life (like you live in the village from a Hovis commercial) when people are trying to give real, effective, helpful solutions to a really serious fucking problem?

You could petition all parties regarding making homelessness a thing of the past here.(UK) In our guts, we know it's not right, even if there are complex reasons, even if we think some of them are wasters, even if some of us are hanging on by the skin of our teeth to a roof ourselves. It would be better off addressed as a social/societal challenge, rather than an individual responsibility. (Which is not to say you shouldn't help, as an individual). UK is comparatively rich. We should collectively refuse to accept seeing people living on the streets unless they want to and let our political representatives know that.

@mardymustelid I think that's a really, really good idea.

I just wouldn't know what to include in the petition in terms of ideas about how to tackle homelessness. Should that be left up to the parties? It feels frustrating because homelessness is such an important and complex issue, but it's been looked at so many times before. I just wonder whether the parties will take notice of it this time.

Should we all try and get a petition together? Who else agrees that a cross-party petition - maybe on Change.org or something - would be a good idea?

I work for a homeless charity.

There should be numbers online for your local street outreach team, use them. They will go out and find homeless people, and where they’re willing, they can be given a bed for a night, space in a hostel, and signposted to other agencies that can help with substance misuse, mental health etc etc.

Donate to local charities and shelters if you can, supplies run really low over winter months and homeless people will die because of exposure.

Buy them food or a drink. Giving money is discouraged because it has encouraged begging from people who aren’t homeless. They sit outside for a few hours a day, make a few quid and then go home. If it’s not possible for me to pop and buy something to eat though, I will give some spare change and hope it’s got in to the right hands. What that person chooses to spend the money on is up to them, I don’t judge.

ComingUp I completely agree. There's a time and place for her inane posts on topics that are serious. I sincerely apologise to anyone on the thread for picking her up on it but I'm sick and tired of her posting her perfect life on threads that are serious.

OP there's lots of fab ideas on here for helping the homeless. I hand in toiletries, underwear, sleeping bags to my local soup kitchen as they give out these things to the homeless that attend it. They also offer hot shower facilities so toiletries, razors, etc are always appreciated.

For the past 2 or 3 years I have given a place at Christmas for a homeless person via Crisis (Crisis at Christmas). Here:

www.crisis.org.uk/get-involved/reserve-a-place-at-crisis-at-christmas/

They seem to be an excellent charity and the money is going for a defined purpose. Targeted and useful help to an individual homeless person.

My local council pride themselves on the fact that there are less homeless people in the town centre than this time last year.

They don’t mention that they have been driven out by a heavy police presence and sleep on the streets outside of the town centre instead.

Watch Drugsland on BBC. There was homeless couple who raised money for their drugs (heroin and crack) nearly solely from money given to them by passers by. Why on earth would anyone want to risk that when you can give to the specialist charities who know how best to spend money.

Giving a sandwich or a drink is a much better idea although I don't ever give anything.

I'm not a fan of some aspects of the Salvation Army but they do amazing work in my town. They are amazing.

At this time of year you might want to wrap up a few pairs of gloves or socks ready to hand out. Everyone needs socks or gloves. Lots of people don’t get any wrapped presents ever.

@Crumbs

Are you for real? I actually find myself wanting you to be as the alternative is pretty ugly

I saw a link earlier to a social enterprise called "cider and crack". They sell lots of items that are then distributed to homeless people. It's things like umbrellas, backpacks, warm winter coats etc. I have the same dilemma, I don't know how to help. I'm definitely buying some bits!

my son had gone into a kebab shop and bought half a dozen kebab and chips which he then gave out to rough sleepers in the area

DId he bother to ask them first? If they actually wanted or could even eat kebab and chips? Homeless people have illnesses and food problems too but because they are homeless they should doff their caps and be grateful for anything edible or not because they are not real people so we don't have to ask them first.

I would second recommendations to focus cash donations on organisations like St Mungos or soup kitchens (of course you will miss the audience of admiring friends). For practical donations toiletries (especially sanitary products) can be useful or the offer of a hot drink/food but please ask first, if only to acknowledge they are human beings who may have needs or even preferences.

A common pain points from homeless people is being ignored as a human being, worrying about looking suitably grateful when, as a coeliac or with ulcers, you are bought an unsolicited bread roll or greasy kebab which you can't eat. Just ask first.

C) and dont vote Tory.

Homelessness doesn't have one cause, it wont ever be eradicated until people are willing to fund hostels across the country and keep them open even when they have empty places. Plus support networks for the problems people face, such as mental health problems.

It wont happen under the current regime; they wont even fund DV refuges. (Despite the fact we are paying a tax specifically to keep them open.)

Shelter advise and campaign. They don't provide anything physical.

Crisis or similar organisations. And do nothing to support drug dealers. The harmless recreational use deemed so right-on is part of the problem.