Tired of the performative beggars and alcoholics this time of year

[Onand]

Is anyone else sick and tired of the huge number of ‘homeless’ beggars, alcoholics and addicts that descended on the streets since the Christmas rush started this year?

Manchester is rife with them- this year there is a particularly ropey bunch of alcoholics/ addicts that are obnoxiously ‘sleeping’ or sitting with their bags pointing directly out into the street instead of being against a wall, they’re building ‘dens’ in shop doorways which stink of human faeces and piss, dealers go from spot to spot, dogs forced to sit in uncomfortable situations (often not even their dog as the same one gets passed from beggar to beggar).

It’s a self perpetuating problem because soup kitchens serving buffets set up and cater meals for them whilst they’re generally being a nuisance and making the streets look an absolute shitty mess. Why are they tolerated? People need to stop giving them money as it just encourages them to keep doing it when there are services in place to help them.

Bah humbug I know, but It’s beyond grim.

My god this is possibly one of the most vile posts I've seen on here in a long time. Op...I have no words. Unpleasant does not cover it.

You can be concerned without de-humanising people. These are people and the question we should be asking is ‘why?’ It’s happening and what can we do about it.

If you go out regularly during the year you know who are genuinely homeless and who is shipped in to professionally beg. We have one homeless lady in our posh market town. It's her genuine choice and the community do everything they can for her. She has been taken in, removed and is honestly wanting her life due to her MH

Our big town has four genuine homeless beggers. Who are also high as kites and aggressive. There's a hostel or in town centre. They don't live there. Hostels are both calm with quite people outside.

The random men walking around are shipped in by minibus. You see them getting picked up.

I only give to street beggers if I see them off the high street past 11pm and I know that goes on their addictions. If your genuinely on a side street at 11pm all you have is getting off your face but generally I'd rather give to a charity that prevents this situation. Who carrys cash anyway?

This is potentially just a rage bait post.

Exactly! It’s actually appalling especially on a women focused website like this - so many people are rushing to minimise other women’s real fear of intimidation.

As someone who doesn’t drive and only takes public transport, I run into it a lot since they are often at bus /train stations or on the actual bus or train.

I used to volunteer at a drop in shelter for homeless and most were lovely and I can’t see them behaving aggressively. But there are a LOT on the streets who use intimidation and there’s a reason they approach me less when I’m with a man.

Ones in our city centre used to go back to hostel in the evening with bags of bottles. Dog was passes about between them during the day.

Beggars are not homeless as in street sleeping and homeless like that are not beggars in majority of cases.

I know people think they help by giving money but they just help the addicts to keep JUST above that rock bottom that they need to hit to get out. At the same breath they condemn drug delaers, but somehow supporting the business by "well if they buy deugs with that money.. I would also want to be out of it of I were on streets" is fine.

I think people are being disingenuous. Everyone knows that large numbers of people aggressively begging, being drunk and high in the street, and pissing and shitting against walls feels horrible and unsafe. Everyone knows that large numbers of them are intimidating. Everyone knows that giving them money doesn't solve a single thing. Saying that they are all the fault of the Tories doesn't make you a better person.

I doubt they'd welcome them in their own neighbourhood.

I wish people would be a bit more honest.

Homelessness is everyone's problem. In the UK, there is no need for anyone to be homeless. The government could resolve it but choose not to.

The vast majority of homeless people are very vulnerable. Many are care leavers, suffer from mental illness, have been victims of childhood abuse, and etc. Not everyone is lucky enough to grow up in a loving family with a good education

Addiction to alcohol and drugs are illnesses and should be treated as such. Have some empathy and check your privilege.

You will get ignorant people clutching their pearls but you are right.

I have BEEN homeless and real homeless people hide and don't draw attention to themselves, thats why bodies often aren't found for weeks, months or sometimes even years. Its very vulnerable to have to sleep somewhere protected where any stranger could have access. You don't ever do it in open, high traffic, public areas.

Homeless people sleep in the last places people think to look, for me it was under bushes/hedgerows in cemeteries (closed/walled/gated, shielded from wind and next no traffic fall at night... at worst the odd goth who frankly never hurt anyone). I knew one guy who lived in a dumpster behind a factory (which I always thought was so risky as you could end up in the crusher but no passer by knew he was there). Abandoned buildings are common spots but they are usually far more dangerous, they attract needle using drug addict (so always a risk of getting accidentally pricked) and often develop a build up of unsanitary conditions from people using them as toilets as well as attracting non homeless trouble makers who wants to smash things.

Also homeless people spend all day inside places like shopping centers or libraries, they are warm, dry, have facilities like toilets. We don't sit in the cold all day then sleep rough, we would die very quickly of exposure if we didn't spend the day warming back up.

The people that sit in sleeping bags on streets are alcoholics and addicts (non homeless) and they make a fortune playing on people being privileged enough to not realize its fake. They then go home to their council housing to warm up, sleep, eat when they get too cold/bored. I have known MANY of them in my life time (on the street you get to know everyone) and its a chosen lifestyle where as homelessness is the opposite.

Some in Swansea do have card readers. I don’t know how that works as to get them you need to be an address, good credit etc 💁‍♂️

Spot on @housethatbuiltme

The big issue has been taken over by organised beggars.
The magazines are offered every morning to people to sell.

but gangs organise minibuses full of people ( often women) and arrive at the big issue office early so they are first in the queue. They then take all the publications.

By the time the chaotic homeless rock up, all the magazines have been taken.

that’s why you rarely see the homeless alcoholics selling it anymore.

Yes, I’m SO sick and tired of all the inconsiderate homeless people making the streets look untidy-especially at this time of year when our towns should look beautiful and Christmassy.
You’d think they’d have a bit of consideration for the “normal” folks and go and be homeless in secret, somewhere hidden away.

🙄🙄🤦🏻‍♀️

Check your privilege op.
Im sure you put this up for a specific type of action which frankly I find shameful

Ex prisoners, veterans, survivors of domestic abuse and child abuse, addicts, divorces are all on the streets. It's freezing and not something most people choose. The majority of street homeless have mental health problems.

I'm sorry to hear these people affect your delicate sensibilities. Perhaps you should petition for more support so they no longer bother you.

Of course no one wants these things to be happening in their neighbourhood. But to label all homeless people as having made the choice to be so, according to the OP, and others on this thread, without a shred of empathy, or it would seem, scant acknowledging of the reasons that people could find themselves in this position, is what I find totally appalling. Who knows what life could throw at any of us!

@housethatbuiltme thanks for your insight

I’m sorry you went through that and thank you for sharing.

I do have to say though that ‘lifestyle choice’ shows that you don’t fully understand how most people end up in that cycle of addiction.

Yes, absolutely. And there are some thought provoking explainarions on this thread of the complexities of addition and homelessness.

But equally there are a LOT of people throwing self-satisfied insults at the OP and belittling her experience of what can be an unpleasant and intimidating situation, especially for a woman.

When hard line liberals hurl out "check your privilege" do they stop and think and realise that they are directly leading to people becoming more entrenched in the views they find so distasteful?

Yes I realise that, but I think this thread shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the issue of begging. And people rush to show how "nice" they are in comparison with the unspeakable person who objects to stepping over people in doorways who are hounding her for money. Have a read of @housethatbuiltme 's post above.

Attitudes may depend on what the experience is where you live.

In my nearest town, beggars are usually the same addicts, who are housed and are begging to raise funds for their next hit. They are sat down with a bowl for the coins, generally fine to chat, no trouble at all.

I visited a big city out of area a few months ago and I was shocked by the scale and aggression of the beggars there, even hassling people coming out of the bank for money. It made me feel unsafe to walk around.

Treating them as human beings, taking the time to chat with them, offering food and drink, I do in my home town. In the city I did not engage. It did not feel safe to.

To fix it is complicated. We need much better access to good quality addiction support services. And social services are on their knees - how many addicts are drowning the pain of childhood abuse that might have been stopped.

We also need a society where people have more hope of a reasonable life. Where drinking / dosing themselves into oblivion doesn’t feel necessary. It’s a big thing to fix but we have to try.

You clearly dont get out enough. Naivety is t a virtue.

I think you are being a bit naive.

The purpose of the wound is to elicit sympathy and so money.

When you see this day-in, day-out, you get wise to it - and annoyed by it. They’re organised gangs out to scam people.

I don’t think it’s offensive to point that out. How can you tackle the problem without acknowledging what it is.

I have worked in two soup kitchens, well they serve a proper dinner. We served a full Christmas dinner this week.

I am of the opinion there but for the grace of God go I. However aggressive begging is awful no doubt about it. Plus there are gangs, mainly Roma. People really need to stop giving money to beggars. I buy food sometimes though there are few beggars where I live. I ask them what they would like and then ring the local independent homeless charity to alert them of them, I know the people that run it and they often send an outreach worker.

I do think posters need to listen to the op and not criticise. Not listening to valid concerns about begging, immigration and other social issues are leading to a rise of the right. The actual right not the Conservatives. Look at other countries. It’s dangerous times.

Whilst some addicts and alcoholics are self medicating and their lives are tragic no one want to see somebody off their face shouting, maybe pissing in the street in front of children. Many are untreatable, I think people just don’t understand that. Even with the best resources in the world some will never ever stop.

Banks are trying to help people without an address to access their services now. Otherwise it’s a vicious cycle you can’t get out of.

I have been punched by a beggar, threatened by a beggar, chased down the street by a beggar. Forgive me if I don't feel terribly "privileged" when I decide not to go into a shop to buy food because I don't know if the man standing in the door asking for money is going to turn nasty or not. (This happened to me yesterday and I had to go to another shop a mile away.)