R2OK! Forum Index R2OK!
Contact R2OK! admin

Click here for R2OK! Website


 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

Should we give a home to a homeless person?

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    R2OK! Forum Index -> The Jeremy Vine Show
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
R2Icon



Joined: 10 Sep 2009
Posts: 1444

PostPosted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 12:08 pm    Post subject: Should we give a home to a homeless person? Reply with quote

I’ve often wondered this. We have a few spare bedrooms here at home and there’s lots of homeless people who could usefully use them. I speak to the homeless people of our town quite often- feed them now and again, and feel a bit guilty that I don’t invite them home for a bath and a proper meal and a bed. But where would it end? At what point do you say- well that’s your lot. Homeless people tend to (but not always) have other issues (health, drugs, alcohol, financial, crime etc), so do you take on that as well? Do you try to turn their lives around or just give them a place to sleep and let them get on with it?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ruddlescat



Joined: 16 Sep 2010
Posts: 18010
Location: Near Chester

PostPosted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 1:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Whilst I have great sympathy for anyone homeless especially in winter's freezing conditions my experience is that any help would have to be limited to the minimum period necessary to ensure they stay alive

As you say Rach, most but not all come with lots of problems and I have a close friend who took in such a person but simply could not live with the alcohol abuse and violent tempers which went with it

At one point there was a real danger she might have had to leave her own house so I would be very wary of getting involved on anything other than a temporary basis Sad
_________________
Are you ready for a Ruddles?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
R2Icon



Joined: 10 Sep 2009
Posts: 1444

PostPosted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 1:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

For me it’s not enough to just give them a warm bed for one or two nights, surely that just postpones whatever happens to them next? I think if you are going to intervene in their life, it should be to make a real difference, and for that you’d have to take on all their issues and then help to sort them out- rehabilitate them in effect, back into society. How successful you would be as an individual doing this, is questionable: you could put months; years even, of your life into one person only for them to fall straight back where they came from, the moment you release them into the wild, so to speak. The best way I think is sort the problem out collectively at a society level by providing properly-funded hostels with enough capacity so that no one should have to sleep rough other than by choice. In a nutshell we either need to pay more tax or spend the taxes we pay already in a way that redefines what it means to be a civilised country.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ruddlescat



Joined: 16 Sep 2010
Posts: 18010
Location: Near Chester

PostPosted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 2:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well Rach,if we abolished the foreign aid budget and replaced it with a smaller emergency fund controlled by the Foreign Office to cover one off disasters around the world where our help is really needed there would be plenty of funds available to make sure every British citizen had a warm bed every night

And of course if the Government ceased wasting public funds on pointless military exercises in Afghanistan,Iraq and Libya then who knows - disabled people and cancer sufferers might not have to have their benefits cut

Never a more typical case in my view where charity should begin at home Sad
_________________
Are you ready for a Ruddles?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
littlepieces



Joined: 10 Jan 2010
Posts: 1098
Location: Lowestoft

PostPosted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 6:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have worked with the homeless in the past and some of them are the funniest and warm hearted people there is.Yes there are problems with drugs alcohol and mental health but then again you could say that about life in general
Don't get me wrong i don't think i could have someone from the streets living with me but don't write them off
_________________
I found out how you can hurt an insect.It's the bees knees
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
R2Icon



Joined: 10 Sep 2009
Posts: 1444

PostPosted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 4:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was going to start a new thread on Homeless people cos Jezza was talking about them again today, although today it was about feeling guilty for not giving them money but this thread was just a few down the list - so it's back at the top again. My thoughts haven't changed other than to say , don't feel guilty about not giving homeless people money- money isn't what they need. They need massive investment of time, not of individuls but at large organisation/government level, resources, homes, food, care, education- all the things we need to live and to feel part of something worthwhile. It should be a criminal offence for Governments to leave people on the streets:- we can't claim to be civilised if we allow, turn a blind eye, deliberately ignore those people whom are forced to sleep in a skip behind Asda or Tesco ( other supermarkets are available - but the posh ones lock their skips).

We spent billions building a park to house foreign atheletes for a few weeks, we spend virtually nothing on our own homeless people.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
becky sharp



Joined: 01 Dec 2008
Posts: 6847

PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 3:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

R2Icon wrote:
don't feel guilty about not giving homeless people money- money isn't what they need.

Much to my surprise I was stopped (literally) in town this morning by a youngish, quite well dressed but very nervy man ...ex marine he said....asking me for money for a drink of tea ....I said I would take him for one whereupon he quickly turned on his heel and said he had to be somewhere else. Sad
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    R2OK! Forum Index -> The Jeremy Vine Show All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group. Hosted by phpBB.BizHat.com