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'm also a woman.

Go and visit your local charity that supports homeless people. Talk to them, find out what they do. Ask what you can do to help.
Not all charities are a scam.
As someone else mentioned, nurses, social workers, psychologists working full time to assist homeless people do actually need to be paid. Homeless people often have complex needs and require ongoing specialist help.
You only have to read threads on here to see how easily a sick or vulnerable person can lose everything.
Charities are filling the gaps left by the cuts made by the current government.

Whoyagonna

I don't mean to be rude or claim to be an expert.
I have my own experiences I can draw conclusions from. This country does not have homelessness ( if we equal it to sleeping rough with no shelter ). Individuals have homelessness and those individuals come with problems that far exceed the problem of a shelter.

Is that ignorant to say? I don't think so.

Well I can unequivocally tell you that this country (England) DOES HAVE ROUGH SLEEPERS. In their droves.

I have read some ill informed shite on this site, but this I think is the worst. People sleep on ths streets by choice. 95-100% of rough sleepers have substance abue issues, all it takes is 'pull yourself together and ask for help' basically. Yup. And then to top it all off, the person saying this bullshit, tries to say they themselves have been homeless before. Pull the other one.

Yes many people on the streets have alcohol/drug problems. I would question which came first, the homelessness or the addictions. Because I sure as hell would be needing some kind of pick me up if I was unlucky enough to be sleeping on the pavement with judgemental tossers saying it was my own fault and I just needed to swallow my pride

Just open your eyes when in central London. How many people in their sleeping bags are faking it? God above but it's like talking to a brick wall.
I challenge anyone, ANYONE on this thread to tell me that they have walked around London today and not seen someone in a sleeping bag.

As I've said earlier, there are charities that can not help, no matter how desperate you are.

And such charities are constantly saying this. Doesn't stop people claiming they know better than those who actually do try to help those who need help, rather than spreading bollocks about how they all enjoy being on the streets. Decent people know that the country has a problem with homelessness, and its not (usually) a choice, and that there is nowhere near enough help available. Some people have a conscience.

Give them a room in your house

Is that you Lily?

I'll tell you where a lot sleep, from the areas I know.

A lot sleep in allotments.
Others sleep on street pavements as CCTV protects them from attack.
Some sleep in parks.
In Stratford, there is a shopping entre opposite Westfield where at least 50 sleep at night.
Alleyways.
Hospital A&E (security wouldn't kick you out if it was raining until 6am).
In central London, anywhere with a roof (major buildings basically) are packed at night.

@Labyrinthian unfortunately that scheme no longer exists. The night shelter has been closed and now there is a hostel that provides longer-term accommodation that residents pay for through their benefits. Much of the housing for vulnerable people has been closed recently due to lack of funding and the poor condition of the buildings. Rough sleeping in Oxford has multiplied beyond belief in the last couple of years. It's absolutely abject.

Personally I support the homeless in every way I can as it's an issue I care about very much. I volunteer at our local hostel running two leisure activity groups, which I hope support the mental and physical health and social relationships of the residents. I also donate food to a homeless drop-in, and food and household items to the food bank via the supermarket collection.

I also give directly to people on the street. I ask if I can get them anything eg food or toiletries and will also take clothes, bedding etc to people I know need them. If someone asks for money after I've offered goods I give them that. I've thought about this at length and changed my mind often, but at the moment I feel that people in addiction will probably go to far worse lengths than begging in order to obtain their fix and I'd rather they didn't have to do that - I also know they need to buy things as required and can't be carrying around an armful of generously donated supermarket sandwiches, sleeping bags and tampax when they have nowhere to put stuff. People where I live are penalised for leaving their things in public areas. I also think having money and deciding what to do with it is important to everyone's dignity.

Is that ignorant to say? I don't think so.

Do you think this is ignorant to say? The rest of the original post made in here too, but especially this.

I really find it unsettling that people find it a worthy cause. Just call it what it is: "This Christmas I enabled drug taking and supported my local dealers" or, particularly in London " I made this Christmas beautiful to all my local Romanian human trafficking/begging gangs".*
Lovely.

Berating people for wanting to help the homeless, then when pulled up on the stinking attitude, claiming to have been on the streets yourself.

While you're tucked up in your king size bed with your feather down duvet and pillows, with your lovely little bedside lamps and maybe some lavender spray to help you off to sleep, just bear a thought for someone who is finding a place on the street to bed down in their sleeping bag, shoving their backpack down to the bottom of said sleeping bag and leaving themselves publicly humiliated by their poverty. Just have a little think about it. And if a can of cider helps the sleep, think about the bottle of wine you had tonight to help you 'nod off'.

Whoyagonna
I am sorry that you didn't find help when it was needed but it is more difficult to come by when substance abuse is at play.
I didn't decide to limit that help but charities and government have done that and they must have their reasons why.
Your experience is of course different from mine ( and I'm happy not to have been in your shoes ) and it wasn't a level playing field. However, NOBODY can help a person who can't or is unwilling to accept help and play by the rules. If it means turning up sober, clean - it must be done ( I can't even begin to comprehend the difficulty of ditching hard drugs but then we are touching on a different theme. )

Don't be so harsh about it either - my experience doesn't invalidate yours and vice versa.
I've come to believe that throwing money at the issue or different politics is not going to help. Millionaires and billionaires die alone sleeping rough and scoring drugs. All that money but...

Oh and of course it's essential to communicate your concern about homelessness to your political representatives. Obviously the homeless are not a big voting constituency so they need to have their interests supported by the rest of society.

How rude of you to assume I was on drugs. I didn't qualify because I'm not English. Get that into your thick skull. I did not qualify for any charity. Nothing to do with me being clean/sober/drunk/stoned. I did not qualify for any assistance.

Berating people for wanting to help the homeless, then when pulled up on the stinking attitude, claiming to have been on the streets yourself.

Because I have been there and seen it all for my self. I know my experience doesn't match the agenda favoured by those on the streets via substance abuse issues. Because, god forbid, people will stop giving money to beggars for their next hit and I deserve to be barked down for that.

To the OP
If you really feel you want to help a person on the street, try and find a way that doesn't involve cash ( I agree with posters of maybe asking what the homeless person might need ) or donate and/or volunteer at homeless centres. That way your efforts are most likely to help on a persons' way up rather than get them down faster.

Gaudeamus - I find political reps tend to see homeless as a plague, like rats, rather than human beings to be helped. Bringing down the tone of the neighbourhood etc. They don't care. Homeless are a scourge to politicians. They don't see them as humans. Just a scourge.

How rude of you to assume I was on drugs.

You mentioned your overdose so I take an exception to being called rude.

Much like Willsa, you can surely go to the many charities and problem solved eh? If not, surely you're choosing this lifestyle. Lol. God above.

It was on paracetamol.

I'd love to know where all these alleged homeless shelters are?

1. You need ID.
2. You need to be in receipt of benefits.
3. You need to have been in a borough for at least 6 months.

And that is from the two charities who did make contact.

There still must be something else to it as I'm not English either and didn't see homeless shelters accepting people based on nationality.
But I'll happily accept that I was "lucky" with my homeless time, it has tarnished my perspective and I don't have a clue.

Good luck with life and greater forces willing I hope it will never happen again.

You mean you think I'm lying?