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.

Cash in hand then.

Would he have been insured against accidents in the workplace?

She clearly hasn’t because that’s very basic knowledge - you can’t make people work unpaid in the UK

There was a bloke living around the corner from my sister who used to beg at the train station for a living. Had a house, very nice car, sis had to warn us not to give him any money. Some people genuinely are in need, some are just pisstakers.

Oh behave yourself!

He may have an unseen disability, e.g. schizophrenia. I don't think you can judge. The vast minority of people wouldn't want to sit and beg if they had alternatives.

Do you have a source to this drivel Tory Boy?

If you didn’t claim him to be homeless why did you mention you work in a homeless shelter?

Yes, thousands do, are you not aware of this?

Now now, I'm sure the OP is about to claim she's known him all his life and his cat!

Well that would be illegal without checking his documents

Tend to need a home address for a job.

For someone who claims to have a history of working with the dispossessed, you seem quite ignorant of the multiple factors involved.

More illegal than him standing in the door to the supermarket trying to intimidate people into giving him money? I think you will find that is very much more problematic.

Thousands of people who are able to work choose to sit in doorways? Thousands? Are you sure?

Even the ones you speak of who are used by criminal gangs aren't able to get conventional work. They're essentially trafficked slaves and don't usually have the right to work here or the freedom to seek work/help.

What?. It would be a much bigger problem for your cafe owners. Yes.

The OP doesn't care about any potential law breaking by the café owners.

Yes, much more illegal

@noicant, we had one, supposedly homeless, invariably outside M&S with his dog, for several years. I often gave him money.

That is, until he was ‘outed’ by a local paper - he had a flat (owned, not rented) and ££££ in the bank.
Never saw him again.

More illegal than him standing in the door to the supermarket trying to intimidate people into giving him money? I think you will find that is very much more problematic
Of course it's worse for your business owning acquaintances to break the law, than a man begging.

You sound awful and Judy, I don't believe for one second you have worked with homeless people previously, isn't one of the problems to them finding work that they need a fixed abode ? They can't get a fixed abode as they cant get a job, they cant get a job.....and around they go.

He isn't a local man, as I said

How could you know? U less you live in a tiny hamlet with a couple of houses?

I have worked in homeless shelters for decades

nd my other leg has bells on….

I can't believe that someone this judgemental and narrow minded
ever worked with the homeless
You haven't a compassionate bone in your body

I really don't know why any of you are giving this goady twat your time

So was he sitting as per your OP, or standing, as per this post?

Are you serious? Do you really not understand the many reasons people live on the streets and can't hold down employment, that go further than answering a vacancy notice in a cafe?

Keeping clean? Turning up for shifts when you've slept on the street? No bank account / phone / email address?

If a man is sitting on the street floor, asking people for money, it's rarely through choice... And if he's not there because he has no other option, he's there because somebody has dropped him off there in the morning and will pick him up in the evening. (He has no choice in that either. And 3 guesses for whether he gets to keep the money.)

Christ.

Maybe he was just out of prison?

A large amount of ex prisoners end up on the streets .... his clothes may have been in good condition because they were in prison storage!!!

Judge judge judge

This was my first thought too.

You absolutely can’t tell someone’s physical or mental health from looking at them. Or know their financial status. But professional beggars are much more likely to look “stereotypically homeless”

You are probably right!