To think I hope this makes you think

[dontyouforgetaboutme]

But despair not. After a lovely evening with my old school friends, my best of friends, who'd travelled far and wide for our really lovely dinner in a very good restaurant in central London, I gave a beggar at Waterloo a twenty. I know she was conning me. I asked her repeatedly but she knew she was onto someone in the frame of mind to give. I told her I had to take this out of other budgets and to please spend it on food and a roof over her head. I know in my heart of hearts she won't. That she'll spend it on drugs. But AIBU to hope that some of my words sunk in and she'll think about that £20 and that as it was a sacrifice for me, she'll reconsider her options.

I'm being a dafty aren't I.

Yep. You just spent twenty quid on drugs

Why did you give a stranger you didn’t trust money you couldn’t afford to lose?

I'd suggest you look into supporting charities like shelter or crisis tbh if you want to give. They seem to help people at different stages of their journey, but you know the money will go on food or a bed for a night. If you give cash to someone then once it's given, it's theirs, up to them then.

Yeah, you've been total mug.

Are you drunk? You lectured a homeless woman and then gave her some cash while telling her, a homeless woman, about your budgets?

Couldn't you have just bought her some food? Burger, fish n chips, Domino's pizza?

To be honest if I had to sleep rough on the freezing streets tonight I’d probably choose drugs over food as at least I wouldn’t have a clue what was going on and would give me some relief. Maybe try not to be so judgemental?

Nopw ir will go on drugs. I will never guve cash to homeless people. I will buy food or gift cards. Or if they have a dog, food for the dog.

If I was on the streets I would want to get as high as a kite aswell, instead of a bloody burger!

Yabu for judging her. Yanbu to give but do so without judgement or conditions ffs. She's homeless! I've been homeless- a gram warms you up for longer than a burger sadly. It's a horrible trap, it's hopeless and terrifying and god awful.

I don't think the op was being judgmental Lulu, she was trying to help.

Wow you were a bit of an arse!

Now spend it well, woman living on the streets in winter, as it came out of my weekly food budget from which i can even afford meals out in restaurants.

I donate monthly to this organisation-
www.mungos.org/

Better than risking your money being spent on drugs.

Either give her money or don't. No need to lecture her. Have you been drinking?

WTF. You gave £20 you can't afford to a homeless woman and have her terms in which to spend it? That's not conning you, that's you being daft.

Isn't there a number you can call in London if you see someone sleeping rough?

You sound pissed and sanctimonious. Quite an achievement.

You lectured a homeless woman on your way home from a ‘very good’ London restaurant meal about how much of a sacrifice your £20 was from your ‘other budgets’?

DH works for a large homeless charity and says in his experience, people are homeless because they do drugs not the other way round

I know a lot of homeless people through work and every single one is an addict

It's actually easy to get help near me if you are genuinely homeless and clean, the issues are that shelters require you to be clean and detox require you to cut ties with people. Both

I work for a homeless charity. Not all homeless people are on drugs or abusing alcohol, but yes some are.

She may use your money to buy drugs or she may use it for something else. You'll never know, but don't worry about it.

Once you've given, that's it. Detach yourself, you havent bought yourself the right to patronize the recipients. If I had to sleep out tonight I'd want a stiff drink at the least.

Unfortunately mean those who do drugs are in vicious circle but it's wrong to say people choose drugs to cope with homelessness. They chose then regardless

HallowTalk you could download the streetlink app which allows you to report a rough sleeper and an outreach team will endeavour to find them/help them

www.streetlink.org

You lectured a homeless woman on your way home from a ‘very good’ London restaurant meal about how much of a sacrifice your £20 was from your ‘other budgets’?

Seriously. One of the many awful things about being homeless or otherwise needing "charity" must be the lecturing you get from some.

Sorry link for StreetLink is

www StreetLink.org.uk