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Originally Posted by J pold
I just started working Downtown ...
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But what really bothers me are they way some people treat homeless people downtown, most of time I see people just not respond when someone asks for spare change just pretend like they are not there which absolutely ridiculous IMO the least you can do is respond, treat them like you would any other person if they where not homeless, but what is worst is the who feel the need to belittle them, the Common response is “why don’t you get a job?” how can people actually say this to people? Who are you to tell someone you don’t even know how to live there lives?, they are asking for your help and you shoot them down and make them feel inferior, ...
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I moved here in 1996, and until 2004, my work had me walking
from client to client all through downtown.
What you see as rude and insensitive, is what I see as normal reaction.
Why? It's the same homeless people in 1996 that were there in 2004.
Even today, 2006, I can still see the same ones out there! *10* years!
Sure, a few have disappeared, but you can't tell me the one across the
street from Ceilies (sp?) hasn't been there for many years. Or the one
in front of the AMA office. Actually, he had a friend one block away,
and when you walk by them, you smell funny smoke all the time. They
used to hang out near the Starbucks on 8th, but they must've moved
on now. Or the guy who always has a cut/scrape/scar and wanders
down from the park next to Nexen (8th & 8th) to beg for money
for a while.
Then there was a guy who everyone was scared of, he would ask
for money, and if you said anything but "Yeah, sure" he would go
off and start cussing and swearing and yelling at you till you
disappeared. (over by TD Square, don't know, he would disappear
for a bit, then come back, disappear, come back, finally never
came back)
You know, I didn't have a problem buying the guys "homeless" newspaper
for a couple bucks, he's at least trying something. I didn't mind the
times when I went to buy a train ticket, and there was this guy
holding a few books of tickets, and he charged ticket cost + 25 cents.
Give him the quarter, why not, at least it was enterprising and showed
ingenuity. I watched, and others too would do it, probably thinking
the same thing. Don't know what happened to him either, hopefully
someone gave him a job, he was a helpful guy, would hold the train up
(by holding the door open) if you were running. ;-)
Another guy, who got written up in the newspaper, would keep one
of the areas under the railway bridges clean, and people would give
him money to do so. Another enterprising person they didn't have
a problem with.
But to walk by a few corners, day after day, year after year, and it's
the same people, asking for money, over and over, even though
you've said no many many times. It gets frustrating, I felt like screaming
many times, "I've been by here 100's of times, and you still can't
figure out I DON'T WANT TO GIVE YOU MONEY?!?!?!"
A co-worker of mine went off on one beggar when he looked down,
and saw the beggar was wearing a pair of new $100+ Nike's. My
co-worker knew the price because his son had shown him a pair.
So he asked the guy, "Why should I give you money, when you
have $100 shoes on, and I'm wearing $20 Walmart specials?!?!"
At this point the bum goes off, so co-worker did too.
ers