Is it just me or are there way more "homeless people" all of a sudden right before Christmas?

Coincidence?
I don't believe in coincidence.

About this time several years back I was in a chili's stuffing my face with a double patty, double bacon triple cheese burger and I was looking out the window and saw a blind lady begging for money.
I actually started to feel bad for her when she walked away from her post poking around with the white cane. I noticed her walk and her cane sweep was unlike any other blind person I had observed as she appeared to walk way too normal then appeared to avoid obstacles with out the cane. I figured maybe she can see a little.
Then that bitch telescoped her cane, took off her glasses and got in her brand new Chevy Silverado pickup and drove off....

 

Saw something similar years ago. I was on a lunch break and swung through an ATM to get some cash. There was a guy I passed on my way into the parking lot begging for money - broke, destitute, etc - on the sidewalk. Guess it was lunch tome for him as well, beause as I exited the ATM lane I saw him getting into a car I couls never afford.

Number of times I've offered food to people claiming to be begging so they could buy food - countless. Number that have taken me up on my offer to buy them food - zero.

 

I feel like I have a pretty good eye for real homeless people.

We had one who had been on the corner for more than a month on and off. I heard him asking contractors for work. Not your usual pan handler. Happened to see him at dusk walking a good ways from the corner and wondered where he was headed. Lost sight of him. Like he vanished. I found him well after midnight sleeping in the entry of a deserted KMart. Called some friends at the radio station and they found him a better place to spend the holidays.

He's been replaced by a very bundled up woman. Keeps her face covered like it's freezing out when it's near 50. Nicer shoes than I have. Leans her back against the divided highway sign at the corner. Doesn't speak to anyone, doesn't move. I thought she was a fat mannequin at first. I'm thinking she's an entrepreneur out to make a quick buck.

Makes me wonder what affect a real mannequin tied to the sign would have on the local population. Would certainly make the news, probably get me a citation (...and they'd know it was me.), but it would raise community awareness of any real homeless people.

 

Face covered up when it's not cold out?
That should tell you all you need to know.

 

Homeless around here stay home when it gets cold.

 

Mixed opinions on the homeless, have known too many who for one reason or another became homeless due to either addiction problems, mental health issues, for lack of better terms, ageing out in our present system, medical issues, just plain bad decisions, and a host of other reasons. System used to handle them better, extended family would take them in, mental hospitals would care for the worst, addicts were not seen as someone with a medical problem, but with a moral problem and sort of a tough love approach used. Know people my age, 81, who are in nursing homes as a place to live, no real health reason to be there, but they can not afford to rent a place to live nor have the transportation to get to the Dr, get groceries, etc, so by default they end up in some form of assisted living or nursing home. While some use the homeless gig to make money, in my limited experience, most have some other problem that prevents them from living a normal life. In my mind the biggest problem is that it has become an all or nothing system, once you slip beyond some tipping point, you become homeless and it becomes very difficult to get back to a normal type of life. No home, no address, no job, can't get job without address, clean clothes, transportation, all the other factors, then when you get to the shelter for help, it is orientated to handling the addicts, crazies, and just plain lazy who are in a crisis mode all the time and you fall between the cracks. In semi rural New Hampshire, you have to leave and go to a larger area with some sort of organized system to handle the homeless as there is no support system in place. There is a reason that certain areas have a homeless crisis, any attempt to solve the problem will attract people from other areas as while sleeping in a tent in Seattle might seem nuts, being allowed to and not being in 3 feet of snow and 0 degrees in New England, it is a viable answer for the addict who is not going to change his ways.

Like so many of the problems in our society, we have kicked the can down the road, made a business of middle class people "helping" and being paid to do so, and ignoring the reality that some people, for physical, moral, health reasons, or IQ, just aren't going to make it, but in protecting their rights, we have thrown the baby out with the bath water.

 

During my brief LEO career, we checked out a shelter made from pallets behind the K-Mart and found clothes, wallet, nice watch, and expensive shoes. Went to the address on the license that was through the woods behind the K-Mart. The owner of the wallet answered the door in his panhandling clothes and verified he was the owner of the articles. He was the local panhandler, lived in a nice home, left his wife every day as if going to work, changed and begged all day. Told us he made more than doing his previous job, but his wife didn't know.

I have offered many "homeless" jobs or meals over the years and have yet to have one take me up on it. just last week I was approached in the Lowes parking lot by a lady who needed money to feed her kids. I offered to meet her at Food Lion and buy her some groceries, but she couldn't because she had to meet someone.

It's a shame that the scammers have hurt those who really are in need so badly, but I refuse to give a penny to a beggar anymore.

 

Yeah, they all came down here. Thanks BT!

Actually we have a few but not near the problems California has. So far, at least, they're not taking dumps on the sidewalks.

 

Have several I noticed down in the big city.
1 works the corner of I-10 and Ambassador Caffery,Noticed him one day changing into his work clothes next to a brown Jeep Cherokee...hahaha shyster mofo !!!
2 more that works under the overpass on I-10 and La.Ave.
Saw one hiding beside a barricade trying to light up and smoking something in a coke can,Wonder what that is?

 

We know spring has come when the 'homeless' kids show up in Ann Arbor. Backpacks, bedrolls, pitbulls and girlfriends in tow. Also they are typically gone by Thanksgiving. The truly homeless can be found in the alleyways and tucked into the nooks and crannies behind bushes and in doorways. I'll buy them a coffee or hot chocolate but never ever cash.
Every year a couple of them die due to exposure once we get below zero for more than a few days.

If they'd take a shower and wash their clothes … they could have a job making 15 bucks an hour in no time. Hell, most of the employers here don't drug test so that's not a problem either.

 

As a former resident of Tampa Florida, the so called homeless are one of three things. A DRUG ADDICT, ALCOHOLIC, or just your run of the mill scam artist. We have a few that visit the more busy intersections in my town I now live in. Never give them the first look, let alone a second when I pass them up. The one's that do rile me up are the one's that claim they are a disabled vet/vet. Every one that has been confronted on Youtube simply are lying and cannot pass a smell test regarding their military service.

 

The Travelers have their own "homeless" scam they run while the main scamming crews are out pulling the big cons >>> the women take a kid - sometimes add a grandpa or a husband - panhandle what they can get at the supermarkets - the "family" changes daily ...

 

Seen quite a few of the ones that are definitely just plain bums . Seen early 20s kids out bumming in new , clean clothes , shiny new sneakers ,,, just plain bums . It's a shame , because , I don't mind giving to the truly needy , but I'm not going to give to all of them ,
hoping to give to one that does need it ,, so basically , I give to none of them . The last one I gave to , sign said he was Vietnam Vet ,, looked to be old enough , so I gave him 5 bucks . If I get to that point ,, I'll make sure I have a copy of my 214 and an ID card .

 

I really loath the fake 'Vets"

You know, the ones - they claims how bad it was in "The Nam" Seriously? :Nam? In-country maybe, but never the 'Nam' (rolls eyes)

Had one mook tell me he got shot 5 times, in the gut, by an "AK-49"

"AK-49?" saz I.

"Yup, pretty bad" sez him.

I really unloaded - beside calling him everything but a nice name I added "Everybody know an AK-49 is an 800mm Viet Cong Anti-aircraft gun...."

I don't give money to people with self-destructive behavior....
.

 

Two pan handlers come to mind that have hardened my heart against all others. One was on a busy exit in West Virginia. This guy must've been at the end of his shift. He got up off a plastic Lowe's bucket, surrounded with discarded water bottles and fast food trash, took a bill from the driver in front of me and as he walked past my door he pulled a 5" roll of bills out of his pocket, slipped the rubber band aside and skillfully added the fresh $5 bill to the roll. Considering that the roll was quite solid, and even if it was all ones, he was making more in a day than I do. I suspect this exit is his regular job, but he has a nice house and car, just out of sight.

The other guy was local. I actually spoke to him and heard his story about how he had been in the Army and worked in Motor Transport maintenance. I suspected that had I been wearing the uniform of a plumber or electrician he'd have altered his story to mirror my vocation. He lived in the woods across the street from my work and knew how to game the system so well that the ambulance drivers knew him by name. He'd sit in the McDonald's or car dealer lobby and charge his phone and laptop, then call an ambulance claiming he had chest pains. Ambulance drivers told me that was how he got a ride across town.

He showed up in the Walmart parking lot one nice spring day while I was having lunch in the car. This was nearly a mile from his camp, and I'd been watching him following other shoppers to their cars with his line about being a disabled veteran who was down on his luck. He tried the "Can you help a disabled vet who's down on his luck?" line on me as he reached us, and I told him flatly "NO." Wife was a little shocked, until I explained that he walks the parking lots doing this for 6-8 hours a day, charges his phones and computers for free on other peoples electrical outlets, heats meals in our microwave, drinks our coffee, bums food from the fast food joints, and returns to his tent camp in the woods after a days work. The only reason this guy couldn't hold down a job and have a home was that it required him to take responsibility for his own situation. He's chosen to live in the woods. He was even pretty good at it. If it hadn't been for his poor housekeeping the city may never have noticed him out there.

Look around at all the beautiful storm water retention ponds and cozy little air compressor enclosures behind gas stations. These are the spots where our city and country homeless live. Not a bad deal if you think about it. Sonic has nice big bathrooms with doors that lock. I fella could get cleaned up nice in there and nobody would even notice. Flush toilets too. The folks living in tents around the retention ponds have beautiful scenic lawns, and a waterfront campsite. No need to have a fire for most of the year here, and there's car dealers with microwaves, TV, internet, complimentary snacks and coffee always available. What's not to like?

 

I worked for a small local chain of liquor stores for 35 years. We have always had a few panhandlers, but the last 5 years were really bad. We really needed a bouncer to patrol the parking lot, day and night, to keep them from bothering the customers. I worked nights and would regularly make a sweep of the parking lot to run them off. I had a gun on my hip and pepper-spray. In winter I carried a super-soaker filled with water, I only had one guy call my bluff.
Most of the homeless are unemployable and beyond help. After a few years on the streets they are unable and unwilling to work, and I pity the fool that tries to help them!

 

We had three of four corners occupied by new panhandlers this afternoon. One even had one of those walkers that you can sit on. She was on top of a 10" median strip with her back against a sign post. No sign and grocery bags hanging from the handles.

Now I wonder when they will go away.

 

You'll be able to tell how profitable those corners are by how long they stick around .