What is it about people?

[craigie b]

What a night....I was driving home from my friends after having eaten and as I’m minding my own business this guy just falls off the pavement into the path of my car. This led me to swerve wildly out of the way and then emergency stop. At this point I honestly thought I’d run over part of the guy over.

So I check my rear view mirror and the guy who I have narrowly avoided is, rather unsuccessfully, trying to get off his arse and the road. I also note another person who seemed to be walking with the fall guy continue on like nothing has happened.

So, I’m kind of a bamboozled as to why a friend would walk away from a mate who has just cheated death and I quickly realise the guy has nothing to do with the guy I have nearly run over. I get out the car in double time and check that the geezer is ok, which he is - if being in your late fifties, homeless, battered, smelly , crippled, cold and drunk can be considered ok.

I chatted to the guy best I could and found out he had been heading for the train station. Given his state and his inability to walk I figured I couldn’t leave him on his own so I quickly decided to give him a lift. Once I got him to the station, I dug out an old coat from the boot of my car and gave him the change from my pocket....it wasn’t much but at least tonight he will be warm and have cash for whatever it is homeless people do to get through the night.

Anyway, the whole thing kind of saddened me. I mean, this old fella is a mess. I felt he was beyond helping in the traditional sense of helping. What goes wrong in people’s heads that they can allow such things to happen to themselves? I honestly didn’t know if I should phone the police to help the guy out or find a shelter...I just didn’t know what to do with him other than take him to where he wanted to be.

And then there was the complete lack of concern shown by the passer by when I nearly hit the guy...More often than not I have witnessed people merrily walk by people in need of help and it fucking sickens me, because what that says to me is “if I ever need help, then no bastard will stop to lend it”. Christ, I’ve witnessed a guy have a heart attack in the middle of a music festival and not one person other than myself stopped to help the poor guy out (who died ultimately).

Anyway, I dunno the point of this ramble....possibly there is a good morale in it, or possibly it will make you do a kind deed to someone in need. I felt like I helped the guy, if only by showing him some kindness and I think in some cases a bit of kindness is all that you can give to people. I dunno.

[killa]

Craig I understand mate, I mean, you’ve been on the drugs before, it could’ve all gone bad for you. You could have ended up out on your ass begging for change for some gear.
The age range confuses me to, seems you can be in this sort of state at any age, IMO if they are younger….what the hell have you done to end up here?!

I had the same thoughts running through my mind after I time I had done a good deed.
But my thoughts were, have I actually done a good deed or what?
News years 2006, I was walking to the pub we had arrange to meet up, I lived literally two minutes away and came to the pub via the back way, down the small road behind the buildings.
As I got nearer I could hear the music an laughter, I was in good spirits with my missus on my arm, both dressed for the occasion, I see a guy taking shelter under a bicycle park in the building opposite. I go inside and I’m thinking about it.
It comes closer to midnight and I buy a vodka and coke, and another……
I went outside on my own and introduced myself, I thought, he can have the drink, I can ask some questions.
He was a nice bloke, I sat with him having a drink, the rain is coming down pretty hard and he was wrapped in his only sleeping bag. He explains that things happened pretty fast, one thing after another, job, missus, life, family….all problems that resulted in the loss of his flat.
I wished him happy New Year, and then when I went back to the flat I went and got an old sleeping bag I didn’t need anymore so he’d be a bit warmer for the night.
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[Andy C]

Good post

I find that when im at uni at Bath, being quite an affluent place there seems to be a lot of homeless people. I get a knot in my stomach when i walk past them thinking how we can live in a society where these is common place.

When they ask for change, sometimes i will give and when not i will say sorry, at which they look glad you acknowledged them. I don't understand what people think when they just ignore these people and walk on by. What do they not exist just because they don't want to see it??

One day i would like to sit down with a homeless person and hear their story. I feel it would be an insight into what they have had to deal with and how little i would have had to deal with compared.

Im glad you help the guy Killa and Craig, maybe they saw compassion for the first time in a long time
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[craigie b]

[st3v3]

As I walk around town on my way to work, or back, or in lunch, It's amazing how many homeless guys are sat around the various spots silently awaiting the change fall into their caps, I never understood how they can be so helpless, surely they could walk into the dole office, get some form of help, or is it they don't want to? In which case I'm at a loss as to how someone could live a life at such loss, This whole predicament is something I can't comprehend, and to be brutally honest, I'm not sure if it's worth the effort trying, I mean, what benefit would it give me or them? People say it's ones actions that may slowly change society, yet the amount of people that drop quids etc in these hats on the floor for them, they must have a tenner a day.. Yet they're back every day(the ones that don't sleep on the spot)
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[Faraz]

If you had called the police, they would have just arrested him for drunk and incapable.

Faraz
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[stinkwheel]

There were loads of people begging in the streets in Edinburgh but most of them were just chancers. You only ever saw them in good weather.

There were a few genuine homeless people too. I always got the impression from talking to a few of them that in Edinburgh, you never had to sleep rough unless you wanted to. There was enough drop-in hostel accommodation to fit everyone in.

It's like one of them who used to camp out in the doorway of an empty shop just down from my flat told me. "I've got the option of a warm bed for the night at the Salvation Army or sitting in a shop doorway getting pissed on cheap sherry. Tonight I'm getting pissed.".

That guy was a right character, one leg and an eyepatch (I shit you not). He was very philosophical about things, it was noones fault but his own that he was where he was. He couldn't be arsed working and he was an alcoholic, said as much himself. He was totally up front when he was asking for money too "Hey mister, got 45p to buy your local alc'y his next can of cheap lager?".

I used to give him my empty irn-bru bottles (20p back on them) and he was forever bumming cigarettes off me. Fair dos to him, he always seemed a fellow who was entirely comfortable with any decisions he had made in life. He was stuck in a rut and knew he could get out of it but just couldn't be bothered.
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[Pte1643]

Interesting thread.

The difficulty is differentiating between the genuine cases and the "Chancers" (as Stink' put it).

There is (or at least, was) quite a well known "Tramp?" in Lowestoft. He used to sit outside the train station shouting abuse at everybody as they passed. There were the generous few that threw a quid his way every now and again.

But at the end of his "session" (for want of a better word) he could be seen walking back to his Brand New Astra, and heading off for home.

I've seen people offer bags of chips to, seemingly begging, homeless people too, rather than give them money. Only to be met with abuse.

Another angle..

On passing the local stereo-typical "Big Issue" seller, I always get greeted with...

"This weeks Big Issue Sir?".

To which I always reply... "No thanks, mate".

To which he replies... "Very Good Sir!".

I'm gonna chuck a quid his way next time, I think, because of his polite manner, more than the fact I actually want a copy of his magazine.

[stinkwheel]

[hellkat]

[Tarmacsurfer]

Bang on, HK. I found was there is simply no one to actually fight, you're faced by this army of grey, faceless civil servants who have no interest in the case other than denying it on whatever grounds they can and getting back to the office gossip and squabbles. The main thing I also found is the casual attitude of "liar" taken toward any benefit claimant. I'm a generally proud guy, it took a lot for me to finally be driven into a position where I entertained the idea of claiming any sort of benefit and to be faced with a flat denial of any human worth simply because you're in a position to need help from the system you've been paying into for years is pretty soul destroying.

[craigie b]

[Handsome]

There used to be a Homeless bloke that slept in the bus stop around the corner during summer about ten years back, he'd got a tatty pair of trousers and a ripped t-shirt and a knackered sleeping bag, that was it...

I took him round a couple of pairs of old jeans a few t-shirts and a couple of jumpers, gave him a flask of tea, twenty quid in change and an old ( in better nick ) sleeping bag and a few pouches of tobacco.

He was there for ages and everytime I went past to go to my Aunties he'd thank me and we'd have a chat for five/ten minutes, a few weeks later the little wankers that live around here thought it would be big and clever to beat him up and steal all of his stuff, he moved on straight after, I'd just sorted him some more gear out when I was told he'd gone...

Soft...Me?...Maybe...
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[colin1]

i used to chat to a homeless alcy ex-smack head who was the brother of the woman who rents the house behind me

in return, he tried to nick my dirt bike, and when he failed, he ripped off the speedo and chucked it

some homeless people arent very nice

when he was younger, he lived on the same estate as my friend matt, and used to help matt fix his push bike

he likes motorbikes but now he has fucked up his life and the closest he will come to getting one, is trying to nick one

Its a stupid waste, as hes quite a bright bloke, so if he had a bit of self discipline and good habits of behaviour, hed be successful in most jobs.

But now he is a troubled soul, who needs substances to soothe his mind and i doubt he cd stick at any job long.
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[thegubner]

There was a tramp who had slept in a bus shelter in Edgeley in Stockport every night for about 10 or more years.


Some fucking scallie twat, kicked his head in one night till he died.

I used to know said scallie from when I worked in a local boozer, and i used to talk to the scallies brother quite often, they are trying to get him out of prison on the grounds that you cant make him out clearly on the CCTV tape. His solicitor also robbed his mum of about 20 or so grand from what I recall.

It was quite sad as every body round there knew the tramp, well not knew him but he had been there that long every one was used to him.