> It's a moral dilemma any time we go into Chicago and come across what
> appear to be homeless. Are they truly homeless? If I give them money,
> will it make a difference, or will they spend it on cheap booze or drugs?
> Or, as I've seen from time to time, if they realize the pickings are slim
> on a particular corner, will they go to their nice car and drive off to
> find a more lucrative spot?
What we do is we give to an organization which does help them. Once in
a rare while will we actually directly assist, but we do our giving
through mechanisms that have a filtering process in place. Even at
that, we figure 25% fraudulent cases that actually get through. In our
situation, it's cyclical, but we can see up to 75% of the requests are
fake.
What is tough is that many of the legitimate homeless avoid assistance
due to various mental disorders. Tossing coins and dollars their way
is the only help they get.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
--
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