If you feed them they will come. (Homelessness and street begging)

Name: thedevilinme

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Product:	Homelessness and street begging
Date:	24/04/08 (170 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No money, no drugs..

Disadvantages: No money, more crime...

It used to be on odd quirk in my midlands town that many of the homeless people were Scottish people, the rest rarely speaking local ascents - hell; maybe your home town is not good enough for your local homeless people. These days' homeless people are ten fold from what they were in the 80s, no longer just the local tramp in the bus-stop. Alas, with the exploding South East Asian immigration from Pakistan in the last twenty years -and more recently Afghanistan and the Balkans-Class A drugs have swept in through those new routes for hard drugs to hit the streets here like Mike Tyson's fist. Our society wasn't ready for heroin in the 80s and the country is hurting now. You can't grow heroine in Great Britain. But where there's supply there's demand and people addicted have no one to blame but themselves. There are drug problems in every country of the world. If you push a needle into your arm then as far as I'm concerned you're committing suicide.

It wasn't very difficult to create demand in the British underclass. The narcotic 'hit' filled the voided of some working class lives and many became addicted and ended up on the streets, unable or tolerate din normal society. If you have a hundred pound a day habit you can't pay your rent. If you have the same habit on the streets then this is the cheapest place to feed it, a rock of 'Crack' just £15 here, a wrap of heroin even less.

A recent police report showed 77% of homeless people arrested for various offences tested positive for drugs. A similar percentage of money given by the public and the Department of Works and Pensions to those people, one would presume is being spent on those drugs. If your homeless but you have a place in a hostel that's verified by the social security office you can claim £60.15p a week. One would presume some of that is spent on drugs and booze. If you hand over your fiver then they will scurry off and buy crack or booze. I see it every day in Northampton under Europe's most extensive CCTV system. You contribute to their expensive habits. Because you do, they keep them coming back for more, attracting more druggies to the urban centers like rats. Homeless people on Class A have a life expectancy of just 41 years, lower than Zimbabwe.

Most homeless people can get a bed for the night, but not everyone chooses to take one, some banned for being violent and high on drugs so not allowed a hostel bed. Most if not all can get at least one meal a day in the soup kitchen. They are not going to starve to death. London is extravagant for homeless charities. Street workers and do-gooders bring around menu of the beds and menus on offer. In fact homeless charities are some of the most well off in England, second only to that donkey sanctuary in Devon that raked in an incredible 3 million pounds last year, more than three major kids charities put together! We do have strange priorities in this country.

The main reason these guys and girls are on the streets is because of drugs and mental illness - whether they got those conditions and habits on the streets is neither here nor there. Yes there are some hard luck stories and it can happen to anyone. But those who are not addicts on the streets can get help and can get even better treatment than you and me as far as getting council accommodation, a bit of paradox if you think about it. If you are a law abiding citizen and you want starter council accommodation you can forget it. Its mum or expensive private rents as the credit crunch bites. Homeless people, immigrants and single mums have take up 90% of council flats in the last ten years in London.

The Big Issue sellers seem to be a class above the homeless, often people who have some sort of fixed abode and looking to get off the booze, drugs and crime. The magazine is Londoncentric, full of adverts and blatant exploitation, not relevant to provincial towns like mine, yet they are giving licenses to sell it here. The magazine attracts homeless people to town centers and brings the crime-wave with it. Why don't they sell national newspapers instead? 40% of all town centre murders are done by homeless people. These are often mentally ill and violent people by nature. Some 12% of all homeless people re ex forces in the big cities. These guys are trained to kill or be around killing and then spat out of the army and onto Civvy Street. One-in-five prisoners have no home to go to when they leave prison after their bale or housing release conditions expires.

I think its time we stopped giving to these guys and girls so to keep them away from our town centers. Even the guy who created the Big Issue-homeless himself once-tells us not to give cash to the homeless. The down-and-outs will spend it on booze and drugs, as simple as. They will commit crime and harass people to get that money to support their habit. I watched one well know bum in Northampton Town Centre, who regularly abuses passers bye on the street', receive a fiver from kindly middle aged lady to get a 'hot meal and coffee'. He went to the bookies and put it on a horse...any horse. Most of these people end up on the streets because it's the only place they can function.

I think people give money to shift their guilt, perhaps to even feel better about themselves, some even doing it to mock the homeless person. We are all rational enough to know that Theresa good chance they will spend it on drugs yet some still hand it over. By buying the Big Issue you feel that guilt has been lifted some. You know the person selling the magazine doesn't have a bank account and will not be putting the money towards a deposit on a flat. If you were to walk up to a homeless person on the street that looked well capable of holding down a job they would tell you to f**k off. This is what they do and they have ended up here because the rules of society don't agree with them. I honestly believe that if homeless people want to get off the streets then there are enough charities and careers that can do that for them. Drugs and car in the community have made our streets an ugly mess.

Summary: Dont feed their habit