If I was homeless…
Some (not all) homeless people bother me because all I see them do is sit around all day, begging for money or selling the Big Issue.
If I was homeless I wouldn’t sell the Big Issue because I don’t think it’s worth it:
From http://www.bigissue.co.uk/How_We_Work_14.php
In order to become a Big Issue vendor an individual must prove that they are homeless or vulnerably housed, undergo an induction process and sign up to the code of conduct. Once they have done so they are allocated a fixed pitch and issued with 5 free copies of the magazine (or 10 in London). Once they have sold these magazines they can purchase further copies, which they buy for 75p and sell for £1.50, thereby making 75p per copy.
I see people in Milton Keynes selling the Big Issue and I rarely see them make a sale.
According to the Westminister council (2007), beggars in London can make up to £300 per day and there is competition as not all beggars are homeless, many have office jobs and just beg in their spare time.
So if I was homeless and unskilled I would:
- Go to the council and get information on what to do, details of shelters, etc.
- Look for jobs (it is easy to get temp work)
- On days where I couldn’t get full-time or temp work I would knock on peoples doors (houses, businesses, farms, etc.) and offer to do handyman stuff (gardening, tidying up, fixing things, cleaning, decorating, etc.) in return for money/food/accommodation
- Organise work-parties of homeless people to do larger-scale jobs, or to do jobs faster
Some ideas I wouldn’t do (well I might lol):
- Go to affluent areas, look presentable and beg (see this beggars guide)
- I would sit outside churches (especially Sundays) and beg for money/food/accommodation. See how charitable those with Christian values really are
- Try different places of worship to see which people from which religions were the most generous (or aggressive)
- Sit outside take-aways and restaurants just before closing time and beg for left over food. I would alternate between fish and chips, Chinese, Indian, Mexican, etc. depending on what I felt like
- Sit outside shops such as Oxfam and beg for clothes and items before people walk into the shop to hand them in
- Pick up road-kill, cook it and eat it (or sell to other homeless people for money/goods)
- Pick up a stray dog – people are more likely to give money and remember you if you are begging with a pet
- Pick up an instrument and play it (badly) – people are more likely to give money if they see that you are trying to perform instead of just sit/stand there with your hand out
- Do what Derren Brown did (see Derren Brown: How to Control the Nation from 26:10 – 29:45), he ‘earned’ £350 (and a pair of shoes and socks) in under an hour!
- Find empty accommodation and squat in it. Squatting is regarded in law as a civil, not a criminal matter. In 2003, it was estimated that there were 15,000 squatters in England and Wales
For all of the above reasons and these, I don’t give money to people on the street.
If you want to help the homeless:
One way to do it it to just keep paying your taxes. Money from your taxes will go to your local council and the government, which will then go to the relevant areas.
In addition you can also donate money to registered organisations, although some might say that there are too many organisations, so there is wastage in money (in terms of administration), plus as the organisations are getting funds and resolving the problem, there is little need for councils and government to resolve the problem.
Wouldn’t it be more efficient (in terms of money, resource and effort) if there were no organisations, meaning that a central body (government) were tasked to handle the issue?
Or there is Billy Connoly’s idea – the homeless can eat the most dangerous prisoners, then they could live in the prisons. That would solve 2 issues at once!