To tell healthy, fit looking, well dressed beggar to get a job?

[duvetcovereddissident]

He is not a local beggar, all of whom I know, and he does not in any way look homeless. He looks to be about 30, healthy and fit, - much fitter than me! Well dressed and clean - much better dressed than me!

He is sitting outside the door to the local supermarket, and put his leg out in front of me as I tried to enter and asked for money.

Less than 6 feet to his left is the door of a cafe, with a sign on it saying "waiter required - apply within". I know those cafe owners, and I am sure that if he had gone in there and asked for a trial shift, rather than settling down outside the supermarket, they would have taken him on for the day to see how he did. They have needed a new waiter for months.

I have every sympathy with homeless and rough sleepers, and people down on their luck. I just think this is a scammer though. He has arrived in the area looking for somewhere to beg, and will probably be going home tonight. He isn't a local man, as I said.

I once volunteered for Crisis at Christmas. People who sleep rough generally don’t look any different to you or me. I couldn’t distinguish between the volunteers and the visitors.

Are you mad? That's a surefire way to get yourself decked.

Security will move on the aggressive beggar once they're told he's causing a nuisance. Don't put yourself in A&E by voicing what's on your mind.

I have worked in homeless shelters for decades, and I just don't believe this one at all. I am normally for erring on the side of taking someone's word for it. But you can go to far! There are criminal gangs just working the streets with intimidation and demands, as well as victims I want to support.

Perhaps he could go and get himself a job. Perhaps there were reasons why that wasn't possible. You had absolutely no way of determining this simply from looking at him, and frankly, you should be ashamed of yourself for being so horribly ignorant and judgemental.

It is awful that homeless people have to deal with this kind of crap on top of actually being homeless.

Are you really this bored OP? 🙄

He only had to walk 6 feet to the left! There was an immediate job available right there.

So you are familiar with homeless shelters but thought it appropriate to tell a complete stranger to get a job 🤔

We'll just redirect someone who you know is definitely homeless towards that job. Who people give money to, isn't up to you.

He may be couch surfing (hidden homeless) or recently homeless, and not all illnesses and disabilities are visible.

Sounds like a professional beggar. They are everywhere

Wow, it's amazing you could do a full assessment of his physical and mental health at a glance without knowing anything about him or his circumstances!!

Perhaps you could volunteer your special powers for good causes, you could become the world's most efficient PIP assessor for example?

IME the phony ones, the ones with criminal gangs behind them, are very good at looking the part. I don't know who this chap is but I doubt he's one of them.

“I have worked in homeless shelters for decades”

you haven’t though have you

You really have no idea about his life. He may look like a healthy and fit young man but what about his mental health? He could have all sorts of problems that you know nothing about. Maybe he's schizophrenic, maybe he suffered years of abuse and neglect as a child and isn't equipped to live a normal life. You sound very judgemental.

There was a job available a few seconds away, and he was apparently more than capable of doing it. Perfectly physically able, no issues walking, using hands, sticking legs out to bar people's way! No speech difficulties. Clean and well dressed.

I agree with the OP. I would have mentioned the job application to him to help him

Funny how these professional beggars, who are everywhere, were around in the 80s, sort of vanished during the late 90s/early 00s (when we had a government who invested in the poorest in society and in prevention), and are now mysteriously back.

Nasty and judgemental.

So he tried to physically bar your passage?

Blimey, it’s getting perilous, trying to buy a cup of coffee in England these days.
( see Starbucks Southampton for further information)

you have no idea what it going on for him none!! So yes YABU

How would that stop him washing up?

If anyone had put their leg out in front of me to ask for money I'd have told them to fuck right off.

I couldn't care less how they were dressed.

How do you know he doesn't have a mental health issue or other hidden disability? You must realize that many people with mental health issues can appear "normal" (for stretches of time, at least). How horrible for this man if that is the case, to be judged this way by people like you.

You sound pig-ignorant, to be be honest. Educate yourself.

Maybe he doesn't have an address or the documentation needed to get a job?

How do you know he hadn't tried to find work? You know absolutely nothing about him.