Sometimes you just can't help. But sometimes you can help one or other person. I don't think you can solve the complete problem.

I have a story that is related to this.

Once I had to wait few hours for the train in the night in winter. It was central station and everything was closed. But there are waiting shacks in this central station. It is a little bit warmer in this shacks and clearly all homeless and druggies concentrate in them. I joined them because it is warmer and more fun than to walk around. Somehow we started to chat. It was pretty funny situation. There were few women there and I could see that one of then has biiiig problems with her feet. And she had no socks. I had my clean socks in the luggage and ....Somehow I was hesitant to offer them to her. I mean they were clean, but socks..... But then I imagined myself in her situation. Socks would be definitely good. So I gave her all my socks. In this sense your idea with donating socks is good, because socks and underwear will rarely get donated.

We chatted a little more with this woman. Pretty interesting story. One of her husbands was from USA. She indeed spoke pretty good english. But somehow she managed to fall through the net of social security. And in Germany it is pretty difficult to get homeless. I dug and dug and dug deeper. It was clear that there is substance abuse in place. But then I just couldn't leave the situation like it is. Her feet were really bad. And I just thought, that it can't be that she can't get a bed somewhere. I offered to go next day with her to all social services and try to find something for her. Surprisingly she came the next day to our appointment. At the end result I got her a room in such community accommodation. We stayed some time in contact and at least 6 months later she was still there. I don't know how it is now.

It is clearly not a global solution. But it was a solution for this woman for at least a period of time. And I don't know if it is even possible in your area. It did cost me also at least two days of running around, filling out paper work for her and generally doing things I hate to do even for myself. But sometimes....I don't know.... I just couldn't not offer her some form of help.

You can't solve it globally. But you can vote. You can vote for someone else than Trump, for someone who has some kind of more social views/some kind of program that addresses this problem.

basically homeless is not a money problem, you can give a homeless guy $100K to fix himself and he'll be back on a street in 6 months

no one who hates to be homeless is going to be homeless for more than a few days, many of these people are drug addicts and/or have the wide variety of psychological problems - those could be taken off the streets and fixed up and some of them actually end up being productive members of society

others are lifetime homeless (basically kids of homeless people that you see) - those are probably beyond repair

don't give them money - you'd be simply enabling their addiction, rather donate some old warm clothes, gloves, blankets etc
short of opening a non-profit designed to combat homelessness there's not much else you can do

The most effective way for you to do something to help homeless people is to support an existing agency that is doing work you think is important. For example, it's probably more efficient for you to work with a group like this than to prepare and hand out meals on your own.

If you want to volunteer and work with people in/facing homelessness and the standard soup kitchen doesn't interest you, you could try something like this If you want to address root causes, you could volunteer with a place like this There are lots of agencies serving the homeless/street-involved population in Boston and programs you can support by volunteering or donations or fundraising. Find one that does stuff you care about and get involved. You will be able to do more through them than on your own.

How about a gun update?!?

Cliffs: Sis' BF wanted to give some rusty old shot guns to son. Son was thrilled, I was not.

I took G4S's advice and texted a close friend of mine who happens to be a gun guy. Evan had been pushing for this cuz he knew Gary was very pro-gun.

Gary was not, in this instance. He said the gun was a 30-30 whatever that is, used big ass cartridges and would blow off his arm or something. Then he recommended that Evan get a 20 or something to train with and become procifent at before using the 30-30.

So it seems we are going to BUY a gun, but hold up! Someone (son) doesn't have a job! I told him that I agree with Gary's assessment, even though I personally don't want him to have a gun, I'm in.

with one caveat.

If he wants to own a gun, he has to have a JOB.

"I tried to get a job!" was his answer.

"Yes, you did try and then you stopped trying." said Mom. It's all moot now, cuz guess who threw himself into job hunting with a vengeance. That's right! My baby boy got a job at Target.

He said he had never been so charming in his life. They hired him on the spot!

Silver lining! Plus an employee discount!

Even if I didn't tell Evan about owning a boat load of semi-automatic weapons in the past, I think this would've ended the same way.

Really thoughtful and good ideas. Thank you Gregorio.

You're such a good person, but of course I already knew that.

Also, I tried with the voting and it hasn't worked.

Target doesn't sell guns so the discount is useless.

No one wants to be homeless, esp with the brutal winters (and summers) here in Boston.

And the great programs like those which Gregorio linked are not solving the problem, esp in my area.

Money helps everything, homelessness or not. Of course other issues like those u mention, mental illness and addiction, are part of the picture.

I think even more than money, showing someone who feels hopeless that you care, can make all the difference to someone.

There must be an answer, I just haven't thought of it yet.

Ha! Discount isn't useless for Mama.

you'd be surprised

in my early 20s I worked for a large non-profit that targeted homelessness -
they have outreach workers who are trained to convince homeless to come off the street into their shelters, help them kick the habits, have case workers constantly monitoring their progress with regular psychological evaluations, put them in half-houses of sort with other former homeless under supervision to prepare them for independent life, find them jobs etc

and a ton of people still walked

so if one of the most successful homeless programs in the country with levels of care and commitment way beyond of those in government agencies can't keep people off the street, who can?

Josie can! She just needs to figure out how.

good point

Josie, I think a good place to start would be to eradicate drug and alcohol addiction, mental health issues, bad parenting, and poverty, and then take it from there.

Re: Gun update

Good stuff, and starting him with a .22 is definitely the way to go imo.

Congrats on him getting a job!

"Why do you want this job, son?"

"Definitely not so my mom will buy me a gun."

"Kid sounds grounded. Hired."

I don't think I can solve homelessness. I just wonder what can I do to help those people I see every day. I don't mean solve all their problems, just help.

I do already volunteer the first Saturday of every month, distributing food, not to homeless necessarily but to the poor in the town where I grew up. I don't do a good job. I'm supposed to limit people to 1 or 2 of whatever food I'm passing out but when they ask for more I comply. I'm not supposed to.

I was told to keep to the limit so we'd have enough for everyone which I get, but like I said, I'm not good at it.

Baaaaa!!!!!

Yes, my friend showed me the cartridge size of a .22 vs the 30/30 cartridge and I could see his point. As crazy as it seems, the best decision is get a .22 and a job. Fair to me.

lol

Just make sure it's not an AR-15.

^ Why??

One of my AR's is in .22 (an M&P 15-22) and it's probably the gun I have the most fun with, kids can shoot it with no issues, etc...

Would actually be my recommendation if he's buying a rifle for plinking.

I don't think Josie would like the look of it.

I think their may be a possible solution between the world's homelessness problem and Josie's decision to get a gun. A final solution if you will.

I am NOT getting a gun.

My son who is of legal age and sound mind is, with my approval.

I don't like guns.

Once, a million years ago (early 90's) AK-47s were becoming illegal to own. I had an opportunity to buy a bunch of them (illegally, yes) to re-sell and double my money, which I did.

I still regret it to this day, that there are AK-47s out there in the world that were purchased from me.

Josie Josie Josie
You are such a badass.

Bad to the bone!

Rare capture of Josie back in her gun running days.