"Love thy neighbor as thy self"???

Re: the homeless not wanting to go to shelters ...

In addition to the rules there is also often theft, fighting and mandatory wake-up/sleep times. You also become "part of the system".

In the religious organization's shelters there is often mandatory attendance at sermons.

Some homeless just don't want to go this way. I can't say I blame them.
 

QuickSilver said:
Many of these homeless are mentally ill. They are the people turned out in the streets when the funding was eliminated for State facilities across the country. Many are paranoid schizophrenics who don't trust anyone or anything. Of course they are not going to trust someone wanting to put them in someplace.
Click to expand...

I worked in a hospital clinic at one time and worked with patients with these diagnoses, and many of them were homeless. They would come to the clinic for meds but for the most part refused to be sent to shelters or group homes because of trust issues and the desire not to be warehoused with strangers not of their choosing.
 
Difficult issue. "But for the Grace of God, there go I....." I understand the words, "Love thy neighbor." If I took to too literally, the lady up the street......... :>)

I Googled the Mayor and each of the Commissioners of Ft. Lauderdale. The Mayor is a lifelong politician. He was the area's representative to the State House of Representatives before being elected Mayor. On the Council are two attorneys, both principles in their firms. One of those attorney's firms was started by his grandfather in 1925. Also on the Council is the retired Chief of Police, along with the owner of a large area construction firm. Most of them have served as officers of the local Chamber of Commerce or other civic organizations.
This is a "monied" group. It takes money and influence to win public office, even at the local level. The allegiences are to others who 'run in the same circles'... not to the less fortunate of the Community.
Many communities have designated areas where homeless or less fortunate can go for meals and/or shelter. Those facilities do have to meet local and State health standards for food preparation and serving.
Is this an issue of the monied elected officials just not wanting the homeless assisted in hopes they will move on? Do the local businesses just not want to admit there is extreme poverty in the Community? The political "mantra" in many areas, today, has been to cut taxes by cutting social services. Has aid to the homeless been reduced to where there is no place for them to go for food? We don't know the answers to those questions.
Then you get into the area of liability. If the City allows someone to feed the homeless, what if a number of them are sickened or die due to food poisoning, etc.?? Could the City be held liable due to allowing the feeding on public property without oversight in food safety? We live in a litiginous society.

My "sermon" is that we should take care of our own. Not one of us knows when we might fall on hard times and be needing assistance from our fellow man. If the City won't fund shelters and dining facilities... where are the local churches? Where are the local "philanthropic" organizations? Ft. Lauderdale is not only a large tourist area, but is also home to many retired people. Where are the volunteers who have time they could give to assist in an organized effort to feed the needy?

I will not fault the City Commission until I know the full story of how and why the ordinance was enacted. It's much too easy to toss arrows, without knowing who is actually the enemy.
 

Lyn said:
I worked in a hospital clinic at one time and worked with patients with these diagnoses, and many of them were homeless. They would come to the clinic for meds but for the most part refused to be sent to shelters or group homes because of trust issues and the desire not to be warehoused with strangers not of their choosing.
Click to expand...

Ever see the classic homless person with the shopping cart filled with junk and wearing 3 or 4 coats in the summer? You can bet your bottom dollar this is a Paranoid Schizophrenic. These people need compassion and help. They are not being willfully uncooperative... they are mentally ill.

I did my Psychology rotation in a very large state mental facility. I worked with this population for 16 weeks. The opinion is that they are dangerous.. yes.. they can be.. but more often, they are the ones preyed upon out on the streets. They prefer to be left alone to their hallucinations and delusions. The facility is now closed due to funding cuts. Where did they all go? I'll bet you can find many of them out on the streets in Chicago.
 
Grumpy Ol' Man asks good questions including "Who is my neighbour?" and "Where are the local churches?".

Classically the answer to those questions are that the neighbour is both the man who lies broken on the road and the one who stops to tend to his wounds and who then sees that his needs are met while he is healing. The church is those people, whether they attend church or not, whether they even profess Christianity or not, who offer the cup of water, or soup, or a simple hot meal to those who need them. In Fort Lauderdale, the people who see a need and seek to fulfil it are made breakers of the law while the law makers themselves ???? As Grumpy Ol' Man says, do we know what they are doing about this problem and is what they are doing enough that they are entitled to stop others from trying to help?
 
This is just a difficult situation all of the way around.
The homeless shelters are there to help people, but if the homeless do not want to go to the shelter, then you can't force them to do that, either. My husband worked at many homeless shelters, and when he was working at the Seattle Mission, they would go out and take soup, sandwiches, and sleeping bags when the weather was cold.
If the homeless wanted to go to the mission for the night, they were taken there, and if they refused, then they gave them the food and sleeping bag to at least make the situation as good as possible for these people.

I can see that it can't be allowed to just let people be fed on public property maybe, but if these people are associated with a church, then it should be fine to feed the people on church property, or another privately owned place.
The Seventh Day Adventists have a small food bank here, and they were also making a mid-day meal which was served at the place where the food bank is.
I don't know if they had to get a health inspection like a restaurant does, but if these people truly want to feed homeless people, then these are certainly doable things that they should consider.
Many other organizations are able to help care for homeless people and feed them; they just have to follow the laws to do it.

I usually do not give money to these people when I see them standing around asking for cash. I have offered to take them to the local shelter (which they always refuse), and I have also gone to the closest fast food place, and come back with sandwiches when I was able to do that.
That way, at least I have offered to help, and not just give them money to spend on drugs; I know it goes for a meal for them.
 
I find the "love thy neighbor as thy self" quite impossible, something not within the human grasp.
 
Dame Warrigal said:
The answer is take it indoors. Perhaps the authorities would like to sponsor something like the Exodus Foundation's Loaves and Fushes Restaurant



Exodus not only feeds people, it has expanded services to provide dentistry to improve their chances of getting a job and to provide a service to children who are falling behind at school because of poor reading skills. By working on their literacy levels they hope to avoid these children falling into poverty as adults.

The poor and homeless need practical help, as well as food when they are hungry.
Click to expand...


Then the next question is, who will pay for the rents, the insurance and security? Pulling up on a curb side for a couple hours is free.

Keep in mind the 'mission' of these folks is to feed the hungry, not solve all their problems. That would fall under the prevue of other agencies I would think.
 
SifuPhil said:
It's not even biologically sound - our species always takes care of themselves first.
Click to expand...


And look at the violence all over the world. Looks like that attitude (take care of yourself first always) doesn't benefit too many.

Consider this:

If my focus was to take care of 'you' and your focus was to take care of 'me', we would both have our needs met AND a whole lot of good will would be generated.

But if my focus is on 'me' and your focus is on 'you', that leaves us with a gap in the middle that would be hard to bridge because of the perceived selfishness on both parts and especially if one party started out with an advantage be it intellectual, educational or whatever.
 
Dame Warrigal said:
I wouldn't get too outraged about this.
Perhaps they were hungry too.
Click to expand...


The article indicated though that they are using social media to find out where free food is available. I wonder when was the last time a homeless person was able to access social media? Like where do they keep their laptops and iPhones if they don't have a home?
 
The last homeless person I met..had just scaled the wall of a local supermarket..gone in the bins..and came out with 4 bagfuls of perfectly edible food...
 
I work in a meaty environment..our firm decided to donate a metric ton of prime Argentinian topside to the local food bank for Christmas..

''Sorry''..they said..''can't have fresh meat''

So it turned out that the homeless people were eating Spam for Christmas..whilst our local dogs home was treating the mutts to topside!!
 
Twixie said:
I work in a meaty environment..our firm decided to donate a metric ton of prime Argentinian topside to the local food bank for Christmas..

''Sorry''..they said..''can't have fresh meat''

So it turned out that the homeless people were eating Spam for Christmas..whilst our local dogs home was treating the mutts to topside!!
Click to expand...


Is that an exact quote?

How many food banks have the facilities to handle a ton of fresh meat?
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top