By Nanci Dixon
Today, as we were driving in the Phoenix area, I noticed a young woman who, at first glance, appeared out of place walking across the street with a blanket around her shoulders. I looked slightly closer and, much to my shame, just dismissed her with, “Oh, she’s just homeless.”
The closer we got, I realized she only had on one shoe, one sock and was walking across the street. A bus driver appeared to not let her get on the bus at the corner. As we got even closer it was evident that she had been beaten up. Her 20-something face was bruised and battered. She glanced at us as we waited for her to cross the street. A glance not asking for help, not expecting any.
We drove on. I asked my husband if we should go back, help her somehow, give her $20 or $50. He said, “She will just go back to him. Some men should not be allowed to be with women.” We did not know her story.
I cried. We drove on and still I think of her, one broken face out of the enormity of homelessness, battering and pain. I think of her and am haunted by my inaction.
We have had so many people help us out on the road. There was the guy who pulled our RV to his house to help us fix it when were miles from anywhere. A truck that ceaselessly honked until we pulled over as our rear RV tires shredded behind us.
There was also the police department that directed the tow truck to park our RV at a bank over the 4th of July weekend. That same bank was running an extension cord out their door to us.
There were the five guys who helped push our slide in when it was stuck out at a state park.
People took action when we needed help. Why didn’t we? This was more urgent than needing power to our RV. It was more urgent than handing a dollar or two to someone with a cardboard sign on the corner.
As we pass by homeless encampments across the country, I can turn my head away, but I still know it is only by grace and circumstances that I am not in their situation.
I am so insulated from homelessness, lack of food, want, and violence. If our house burned down we could sleep in our RV, not on the street.
I camp in the woods because I have a choice.
I thought of the many folks at RVtravel.com, those who have truly become friends through the years, and wondered what others would have done. I reached out to Emily, the editor of RVtravel.com, and she sent me an Instagram link for someone she follows who does reach out to help. Here is Just Knate’s Instagram account.
Below are a few YouTube videos of the work Knate is doing. If he can turn around, why can’t I?
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The catch is so many of these homeless people are drug addicts. My first reaction so seeing her missing shoe would have been she’s so high right now she doesn’t know she’s missing a shoe. I’ve seen many in my city walking down the street semi-dressed and acting high as a kite. To give these people money is nothing more than giving them another high.
There are no words or actions that can resolve our homelessness. It doesn’t matter how much is spent, built or assistance each state, city, county, municipality does and try. They say this and that but it’s no solution, they don’t have a clue. Actions taken are nothing but a band-aid fix with no long-term solution. Hell, you have homeless that don’t want any help and prefer to be left alone, how are you suppose to address that? It’s getting worse with no end in sight. All of the articles written and shared on this website alone tells you that. And no, it’s not political! This is a “serious problem and we need serious people to help solve this problem”. Great article Nanci. Happy holidays!
Awesome article, with so much bad in the world, it’s inspiring to see real folks doing what they can to help others. So many of us take for granted the simple things in life, like a roof over our heads, food to eat, and a way to support yourselves. God Bless those who can and do help those in need.
But for the grace of god go I. I have said it before we are all one health scare away from homelessness. I have seen people with signs by our local Walmart looking for a handout while Walmart has a sign out looking for help. Is it wrong for me to drive by and not help out. I guess instead of giving people money that they may waste. I could always buy them food or put gas in their vehicles.
I’m discovering there is a big difference between people with a sign asking for help and those that are truly homeless. As you said most of those that carry a sign asking for a handout are usually not homeless. Not very many that are truly homeless beg for handouts. They are just trying to survive with whatever they have.
We have been handing out “blessing bags” to those that are truly homeless this week rather than sending out Christmas cards and exchanging gifts, and they are very grateful and thankful. For me there is not a better feeling than to see them smile and know that someone cares about them.
Blessing bags are a HUGE help to those who need it. The entire problem of homlessness is so complicated. Asking God for discenment when we give is all we can do.
About 30 years ago a TV station in Huntsville, AL did a story on homelessness. The reporter spent several days interviewing homeless people, I was still working as a skilled tradesman at GM. Several people were questioned about begging, it was revealed that they could beg for 5-6 hours a day and make more than I was working 12 hrs and not paying taxes, plus living in homeless shelters at no cost to them. All they had to do was look down and out for their free lifestyle. With everyone advertising for help there really isn’t any legitimate reason anyone should be homeless unless they want to be. So I don’t contribute to their lifestyle.
Thank you, Nanci! I don’t know that I would have done anything differently than you and DH did. I would have to face it and only then would I know. Some help we can give, but something must also be done by the person being helped. Sometimes “help” is doing something, but sometimes “help” might be doing nothing. It sure ain’t easy to know what’s right until you get to know someone, at least a little, and that can be the hardest thing of all.
I understand the desire to want to help, but we can’t know of the “why” of any particular situation. Drug addiction? Mental health? An effort to help may jeopardize our own safety. A gift of cash may buy them some food or another fix or…. In the end, the solution to this problem is unique to each individual and therefore only solvable if that same person wants something different. This is true of any welfare program and is why if those programs don’t empower each involved to find a way out, they’re a waste of resources.
First of all-its unsolvable. Sad but irrefutably true. We have them all over the place here where I live- a royal pain in the butt! There are Help Wanted signs on every business. Work opportunities abound. But most of these people are mentally ill, drunks, and druggies. The rest are career hobos, bums and tramps….and that is NOT a new thing- its their lifestyle choice. And a lot of these “homeless” are ENABLED by bleeding heart politicians and their followers. like the sign in the park: “Don’t feed the wildlife, it will destroy their initiative to survive on their own”. In any society, some simply don’t make it. its sad. But do YOU have a realistic solution? I didn’t think so…
It seems to me an aweful lot of the people in the situations mentioned made very poor life decisions and are now suffering for their poor decisions. I’d be willing to bet many of them were given multiple chances to change, but continued to make the same poor decisions. Hard to feel pity for them although at times I do.
Matthew 25;
34 “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.”
It is our responsibility to help and provide what we are able. What they do with what we give them or how we help them is their responsibility.
Thankyou MattD. Yours is the comment I was looking for.
I was saddened by many of the other comments to this article.
Bless you & Merry Christmas!
Amen
Great article Nanci. Whether RV by choice or circumstance, it brings a special perspective that many don’t know they’re missing.
Tough when you are traveling to discern how & who to help in the homeless communities. I carry a couple gift cards or will swing thru a fast food place to get a bag of food. One man just could not step inside a building due to phobia so he would give us the cash (He was not begging ever) to go pick up fruit for him inside. Also volunteer with my county medical reserve corp that goes out as a team to homeless communities to provide legal, medical & veterinary care along with basic hygiene like haircuts & clean clothes. Take care of those in your backyard every chance you get. We have been blessed & it is not horribly difficult to bless others. Thanx for caring
Thank you for this article and this reminder that we can do something to help others.
Let’s stop with the “homeless” pity party. America doesn’t have a housing problem, we have an addiction crisis. As soon as we,as a nation, start treating the addiction crisis, we can finally work on the actual issue.
I live in Florida. Wages for most jobs are about $10 to $14 an hour. A one bedroom apartment is well over $1000 a month. Requires first, last and security to get into it. Then you have the electric and water deposits. Then if you have kids, you have child care. It is not only an addiction issue. Most families are one emergency away from foreclosure or eviction. Our real estate market is fueled by retirees with cash and the lack of affordable housing.
People mention this on NextDoor in our area, San Jose, CA, when they see someone in trouble. They call 911 and ask for a welfare check. Especially in this case as she looked like she had been abused. Not sure if all areas offer this.
Thank you for this article, a very different perspective from what I usually find on this site which is often full of recreational campers complaining about “those people”.
It’s so easy to follow the herd with a host of nasty names and judgmental comments, and you didn’t do that. I was pleased to see most of the comments here didn’t do that either, with a few notable and predictable exceptions.
Often and increasingly nowadays, people are just poor. Costs of everything are skyrocketing and everyone isn’t made of money. One illness or life altering challenge is often all it takes, and there but for the grace of God and circumstances goes any of us.
As a youth in the 60’s and 70’s, I was extremely sensitive to the world’s problems. But I had to learn how to “harden my heart”. Unfortunately, a hardened heart is what I have when I see the people begging for money at intersections in my city. And I see them everyday. I just can’t solve the world’s problems. And yes, I do react with the thought that there are help wanted signs everywhere, at almost every business I go to. I think that with the effort they make standing on the street for hours begging, why can’t that effort be expended standing at a fast food restaurant or a store or a factory, working. But at the same time, I realize there are probably many factors I’m not aware of.
If it was only that simple .
It is hard to get a job when you are homeless. I follow several Facebook van sites. Not long ago someone was lamenting that he was fired from a job at a donut place. He would go there and get ready for his shift. Once they realized he was homeless, they fired him. “We don’t need homeless people hanging around here.” He wasn’t hanging. He was using the restroom to get ready for his shift. My attitude is For the grace of God go I. I help when I can.
Forty (40) years ago I helped… not today, too many lawsuits & nutters.🎅🥳🎊🎉💥
As we go from where our stuff lives in NM to the coast in NorCal I saw a relatively attractive younger woman with a sign asking for food. Her clothing was not in poor shape nor was her car and her hair appeared well taken care of.
I don’t like supporting the homeless on the streets just because of supporting the place where they are but that place makes sense – go where the customers are. But the people standing in the median just gives me the willies as they seem to be in a perilous place.
But, if I had had cash I would have given it to the young woman. I hope whatever caused her to be there is something she can resolve. I understand how you felt.
Hi, Tony. What I have done in the past is, when I see someone with a wearable sandwich board sign on the corner or a sidewalk (day labor), I’ll find the nearest parking lot and park. Then I’ll walk over to them and hand them $20 and thank them for working. You should see their huge smiles. Makes me smile. Have a great day! 😀 –Diane
Sometimes these people along the side of the road collecting money are not homeless. Just there to collect money. Some make more money in a day than we do. Months ago us retires were having breakfast in a restaurant. A dirty smelly guy come in and asked us to buy him breakfast. I told the waitress to give him breakfast. I’d pay. He wanted everything, but I said no just breakfast and coffee. After the waitress gave him the take out food and he left. She said I didn’t have to pay. She smelled booze on him and told me.He has money for booze, but not food. The owner of the restaurant wound not deny a homeless person food. Neither would I.
I will be the first person to admit I judge. It’s not my place to but I do. After 25 years in law enforcement, I’ve seen it all. My perspective on homeless has definitely changed since retirement. The homeless run the gambit from addiction issues, mental issues, physical abuse,etc. All of us, at one time or another have or will need a helping hand. I wish I was smart enough to solve the issue. Not sure that anyone has the solution. Best my wife and I can do is to follow our hearts.
I can’t personally vett and fix everyone’s situation, so I choose instead to make one substantial donation annually to an organization that helps our veterans. I only need to vett the organization to ensure at least 90% of their funding goes directly to veteran services vs administrative OH. A good organization has the resources to vett and provide the best range of services.
While it might make you feel good to give an individual you do not know or understand money, you cannot know if that money will be used to truly help them or buy their next fix or bottle of booze thus enabling and increasing their issue.
I’ll support professionals that I know can help.
I don’t mind helping people that want help, but a few times I have offered to buy a meal or gasoline for someone, and each time they refused and only wanted cash. So how are we supposed to know if we are actually helping or enabling.
A few yrs. ago a local radio station manager talked with a homeless man on a street corner – Walla! He had the deepest, clearest voice for radio he had ever heard. Offered him a job as an announcer, bought him a suit of clothes etc… the man showed up to work and three days later resigned – said he couldn’t live with a routine schedule – so back to the corner! Sad! A talent wasted. Yes I know, it is just one example – I suspect there are a lot of stories like this on street corners across this country. Another case involved a reporter watching a van drop corner workers off and pick them up again in the late afternoon! Go figure!.
Wonderful article. Your reaction clearly shows what a beautiful heart you have. It is tough to know exactly how to help as they are typically complete strangers to us. I keep water in our vehicles for us. If we see someone, sign or not and if it is safe to do so, we will give them water.
We do have personal experience with a homeless family member. He is in that situation by choice as getting a job means the state will garnish his wages for back child support he refuses to pay so he chooses not to work! When he reaches out to his kids, he asks them for money. Really sad for all of them!
Thank you for reminding me to be nice to people and helpful when I can; not presume that I cannot help, Nanci! Don’t beat yourself up over a solitary possibly missed opportunity to help someone. Have a great weekend and safe travels!