Homeless
Posted: Thu 1 February, 2007 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Thoughts 1 Comment »Most people won’t be surprised by this, but on occasion I can be very uncharitable. Not just when watching things like Relocation Relocation (and Dear GOD, Relocation2 brings out the uncharitable bastard in me) but also when faced with – in particular – Big Issue sellers.
I don’t know why – I think that the Big Issue is a fantastic idea- but I just never give money to the people selling it. I’ve done work with a charity for the homeless, and I do a fair amount of work with other charities, with more coming up over the duration of this year. But when it comes to actually giving money to people who are homeless, I just don’t.
A lot of it is that I really don’t like the idea of paying people to remain homeless – of giving money to someone because they’re homeless, and perhaps of contributing to a tax-free income. At least with the charities I deal with, I know that the people who benefit truly are homeless. When someone is just on the street, well, you don’t know. I’ve seen a couple of “homeless” people, even in Cambridge, who pack up their begging gear, stick it in a car, and (I assume) then go home. It’s a tax-free income based on peoples guilt.
So I don’t know. In some ways I feel like I’m really cynical and uncharitable (and OK, I am) but not all the time. And at least I try to balance that out by doing some good stuff with places where the money and work will go to the truly deserving people.
I was under the impression that Big Issue vendors (those with the easily-faked ID cards) are carefully vetted. I was approached by one at Liverpool Street Station with the message that as he’d sold all his allocation he couldn’t sell me a magazine, so would I be prepared to just give him the money anyway. He was a little taken aback when I explained that when I buy the Big Issue I do, in fact, read it.
It’s also very absorbent and can, therefore, be very useful (but you probably didn’t want to know that).