Drug/drink addicts around the town centre, begging, urinating in public. General A.S.B

[Smokyk]

Does anybody else have a similar problem locally to them? I live in Catford (S.E London) and I'm honestly sick of the sight of it.

Whenever I go to my local Tesco I'm hounded by drug addicts for money. I can't sit down on a bench for 5 minutes to rest my legs without being approached (I'm 8 months pregnant)

There are a group of drinkers that sit near the Costa all day every day, spilling booze all over the place and pissing up the walls in full view of passing children (including mine) making the area smell like a urinal. There are signs saying it's a no drinking zone but they take no notice.

Yesterday we walked past one of these men openly smoking crack at the side of a shop making no effort to conceal it.

Another bloke, drunk as a skunk and in a group of several tried giving my DD (2) a high five and terrified her.

How tone deaf need you be to approach a lone pregnant woman with a toddler when you're out of your head and in a group?

I've been asked for cigarettes and verbally abused when I've said I don't smoke.

One of the well known beggers even harasses people inside cafes.

It's absolutely disgusting.

What is the answer? A petition? Or do us normal locals just have to accept it is what it is? I can't move.

As for 'on crack' . No not any more and it wasn't my drug of choice. Go me! Trust me if you are out there you need something.

I'm lucky, I'm in an apartment now.

@DetroitNeedsADog

Privileged spoilt behavior. Have some empathy. One of those men could be your kid in a few years time, or you if you lost your home due to dv like I did

Privileged and spoilt to object to seeing people smoking crack on the streets and urinating on the pavement...I've heard it all now.

@DetroitNeedsADog

Privileged spoilt behavior. Have some empathy. One of those men could be your kid in a few years time, or you if you lost your home due to dv like I did

I do have empathy but i regularly see discarded syringes etc on the streets where i live, nobody needs to see that.

Oh but @x2boys. You're so lucky to see used needles discarded on the pavement. How wonderful you can show your kids how different people live...

Said no one ever!

They need to legalise drugs so that proper funding can be put in place for support. Substance misuse is grossly underfunded and often relies on charity.

@DetroitNeedsADog

Privileged spoilt behavior. Have some empathy. One of those men could be your kid in a few years time, or you if you lost your home due to dv like I did

Stop being an idiot. You're not fooling anyway. Enjoy wallowing in your own filth if you must but don't expect the rest of us to join you.

@DetroitNeedsADog

Privileged spoilt behavior. Have some empathy. One of those men could be your kid in a few years time, or you if you lost your home due to dv like I did

Excuse you, I have lost a home due to DV in the past. Infact fleeing domestic violence is what landed me in this shithole 250 miles away from the place I called home.

You know nothing about me or my background, if you did you certainly wouldn't be throwing around "privileged"

@DetroitNeedsADog

As for 'on crack' . No not any more and it wasn't my drug of choice. Go me! Trust me if you are out there you need something.

I'm lucky, I'm in an apartment now.

I think there would be a lot more sympathy for these men if they wouldn’t harass women, expose themselves to toddlers and pee on the street. THAT is the issue, not addiction in itself. Women and children have the right to be safe. Your addiction does NOT give you the right to terrorize them out of public spaces and blame it on the addiction. Funny how it’s always about having empathy for those with an addiction but having ZERO empathy for a woman with PTSD getting harassed every time she goes out.

You don't think I have PTSD from losing my home and being out there with no choice but to prostitute myself? My past addiction, thanks. Mind your language, my sobriety was hard won.

if you are out there you need something

You're assuming they're all homeless?

I think you should start minding your own language for how you talk to the OP.
Shame on you for the victim blaming.

Yes, you are immensely privileged if you are offended by the unhoused and the things they are driven to do. Enjoy your coffee while people are living outside suffering and having to cope with a society that judges them for their suffering. Waste of time explaining to people like you.

If you don't like seeing needles campaign for harm reduction services in your area. Fix the problem.

I don't know, I'm more sympathetic towards them than see them as vermin

Going to Tesco is privileged behaviour?

@Blanketsnpamphlets

Your first post said they’re pissing up the wall when you didn’t get enough sympathy it changed to your daughter being exposed to male nudity. Which is it? Is your daughter the wall?

She’s not going to know what crack is she’s certainly not going to know someone is drunk when they high five her either. It’s a shame other people’s chaotic lives make you feel uncomfortable for those 5 minutes.

Good luck with your petition though.

Oh please. So you'd love seeing all the above would you?

Yes exposing yourself to toddlers is something you’re driven to by homelessness….

Indeed there’s no point in further discussion…

@DetroitNeedsADog

If you don't like seeing needles campaign for harm reduction services in your area. Fix the problem.

Why should she? And FFS, one person isn't going to change the system to such an extent that they see a significant change in their local area. My advice is move if you can op

I live on the street behind a P3 and have to walk past the alcoholics who gather in the area every day. Honestly it doesn't bother me, makes me sad and grateful for my own life and that's what I teach DS.

@DetroitNeedsADog

Yes, you are immensely privileged if you are offended by the unhoused and the things they are driven to do. Enjoy your coffee while people are living outside suffering and having to cope with a society that judges them for their suffering. Waste of time explaining to people like you.

OP didn’t spit on a sobbing homeless man made homeless through redundancy.

She was intimidated by men who select vulnerable victims to harass for money in order to pay for a drug habit they chose, initially at least, to partake in.

How on Earth do you walk away from this thinking she is the oppressor and somehow enjoying a superiority trip?

Detroit you're clearly upset by my post and it appears to have hit a nerve, although I don't see why it should have as I'm sure that even when you were homeless you didn't behave in this way. Unless you did, well.. then I don't know what to say to you.

The vast majority of these men in my area who beg, steal and abuse people in the street are not homeless.

This isn't an attack on homeless people.

I imagine the genuinely homeless people get sick of them too!

I work in the worst part of a large city centre and have never seen this. There are countless street sleepers, many of them clearly under the influence of substances (usually mamba) but they tend to sit on the street alone or occasionally in pairs, either practically unconscious or quietly and usually politely, asking for change/cigarettes etc. When I refuse the standard response is 'thank you for speaking back to me anyway.' I've never seen group drinking or any really anti social behaviour. There is always a very strong police presence though and the officers interact a lot with the street sleepers, as do workers from various charities, so perhaps this helps.

@DetroitNeedsADog

Yes, you are immensely privileged if you are offended by the unhoused and the things they are driven to do. Enjoy your coffee while people are living outside suffering and having to cope with a society that judges them for their suffering. Waste of time explaining to people like you.

You're assuming you are the only person on this thread with experience with homelessness and addiction. Well, you're not. But I don't think patting people on the head however anti-social their behaviour is and telling them that it's not their fault and they can't help it does them any favours.

And if, as going by your user name, you live in the US can I just point out that people living in Catford aren't "immensely privileged".

No. It really is an attack on homeless people

I haven't always been a well behaved homeless person while I was out there. Abused by my father, on the streets at 17. Bad drug problem to cope with the pain. Prostituted. I might well have yelled at a few people, pissed and shit myself in public and shot drugs in bathrooms. I was damaged and suffering. These are someone's loved ones. Help them, don't judge them.

That's all the energy I have for this

Get a fucking heart, woman

It's not a nice area and there is a hospital on the main road...I don't particularly like walking around there with my children although clearly I remind my DC that they're immensely privileged and lucky if they do see someone mainlining heroin