Donate to a homeless shelter, hand them a couple of McDonalds burgers, give them clothes, etc.
What is the best thing to offer homeless people we see on the streets? I am afraid the money I give goes to alcohol.
Food, bottled water. If they have a pet, dog or cat food. Where I live you find a lot of lonely homeless people who have pets. They can usually find a place for dinner, but those places don't usually have food for their animals.
A warm meal and dry socks. Clean dry socks are difficult for a homeless person to have. Having dry socks is very important to them. You'll see the gratitude in their eyes when you offer them a pair or two.
I once gave a handout to a guy in a city park and he got all conversational. He said, "Do you know the devil?" So I said, "Yeah, he's a good mate of mine." And he said, "Well, I've seen him..."
And so he had. It was while he was having a fit of delerium tremens and, of all places, he saw him at the Salvation Army's homeless shelter. Is nowhere safe from Old Scratch?
But I can't answer your question. I occasionally gave money but I didn't make a habit of carrying around food vouchers or taking homeless people out to lunch. It's more convenient to give what you have in your pocket, even though you know it'll go on booze. It's their choice, really.
If you don't want to give money buy $5 or $10 gift certificates for a local fast food place. It is easy to carry and they get food.
Never give money. There was a NEWs station in Tampa that did an article on homeless begging for money and they talked to one man on a freeway off ramp in Tampa, and he said he made over 70,000 USD doing this and when he left he left in a brand new yellow Corvette. So offer food or clothes or pet food for pet *great idea Dragonfly) , anything but money
Depends on the situation.
In all honesty ... In Oregon and Washington, anyway ... A lot of the "homeless" hanging out in parking lots and highway on/off ramps are NOT homeless. They just prefer to scam people by pretending to be homeless, rather than working. Many of them live in upper-middle-class neighborhoods.
Things are not always as they seem .. It is well known that a lot of 'homeless' people make a good living at begging for money. Many college kids do it to pay their tuitions .. And actually even graduate. It's a total scam.. However, sure .. there are the ones who are 'true' street people who are there because they litterally have no place else to live .. And THEY have no choice. Sometimes it's hard to tell one from the other.
So food offerings or donations to local charities that offer food and clothing is a great way to get much needed neccessities to those who need it.
