This is an age-old debate. How much should you do to help the homeless?
There are those who say the more you do for the homeless, the more you will have them around. When you provide them with meals, clothes, shelter, it just gives them more reason to not do anything differently, goes the argument. So, yes, if you want to have homeless in your community, help them all you can, and they will always be there. If you give them what they need, they don’t have motivation to earn it.
Then, there is the other side of the argument. Those who have should help those without. Feed the hungry. Clothe the poor. Lend a hand to the weak. There are men, women and children who need food, who need clothes, who need a roof over their heads. And if no one helps them, how will they ever break free of this cycle they are in? By donating money, time and goods, we can improve the lives of those around us and, in turn, improve the community we call home.
We bring this up because the story of Suzanne Pearson in our Sunday paper raised that question. She gives clothes, blankets, pillows and hygiene items to the homeless. Now, for the most part, no one objects. It’s nice she raises donations through friends, family and her church, Koloa Union Church.
Pearson found not everyone was pleased when she started giving to those in the homeless encampment behind the Haleko Shops Complex. Now, it’s not that people who work there are against homeless. But when those are the folks behind the vandalism, theft, litter and other problems in the area reported to police, it’s easy to understand why those at Haleko Shops Complex would prefer not to have a homeless encampment out their back door, and why they objected to Pearson bringing them donations each week.
So, what’s the solution?
Help the homeless or leave them alone?
Help them, and they may stay. Leave them alone and they may move on and look elsewhere to pitch a tent.
In this case, we would opt for leaving them alone. While we advocate for helping others in need, when you have people who work at Haleko Shops Complex voicing concerns about a homeless encampment, and reports bear out the police have been called numerous times, it’s a situation that can’t be ignored.
People like Suzanne Pearson have big hearts, and this world could use more like her. They want to do what they can for the homeless and, in our view, that eventually will lead to an improved situation for all. God bless her.
That said, we can’t discount police reports that indicate this homeless encampment is responsible for activity that hurts businesses in the area. And if there are those who ask you not to help the homeless because it is hurting their businesses, we should respect that request, not discount it.
Here is what we suggest. Help the homeless if you can. It might be just what they need to take a few steps in the right direction toward recovery, and they won’t forget that someone reached out to them. But don’t help them to the point where they surrender personal responsibility for whatever situation they find themselves in, to the point where they no longer feel the need to take the steps to make a better life. Some will stay where they are no matter how low that may be.
You know the old saying: “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
How true.
You’ll have to decide which one works for you.
In Honolulu there are some businesses and parks which have signs “Do not feed the birds.” Sounds cruel and heartless. But the reason is that if you feed the birds then more and more birds will come, and they will drop their poop all over the place including car windows, table tops, and even peoples’ heads. There was a movie: “If we build it, they will come” meaning if we build a baseball field, then people will gather there to play baseball. Nice. But the same concept works for things we don’t want. America and Europe have built a large and lavish welfare system, attracting illegal immigrants who want to get the goodies we intended to provide to local folks who are needy.
America and Europe are welfare magnets, attracting economic refugees from Mexico, Honduras, Africa, etc. who come by the millions, overwhelming schools, low-cost housing, medical services, etc. and crowding out local people who need the help. Some U.S. cities and states are declaring themselves to be “sanctuaries” where federal immigration officials are blocked from deporting illegal migrants including criminals. So of course those sanctuary cities and states will attract more and more illegal migrants and criminals who want free social services or easy targets under a guarantee they will not be deported. Isn’t that ridiculous!
The problems described by editor Bill Buley in one small part of Kaua’i are seen on a large scale nationally and internationally. Our charitable impulse to help needy people must be balanced by our awareness that we have limited resources, and we want be sure our help goes to truly needy people who will appreciate it and who will not cause trouble. If a creature bites your hand when you offer food, you should have enough sense to stop offering food to that creature. This is why helping needy people is something that should be done strictly at the local level, by individuals and churches who have personal knowledge of the people being helped, in order to judge who is worthy of charity and who is not. Help needy people in person, face to face; never by impersonal methods like mail or telephone or taxation.
Suzanne Pearson, Pat Hillegonds and so many like them are the salt of the Earth. If all of us were like them there would be no homeless problems anywhere in the world.
After college I worked at a soup-kitchen in Washington DC, serving meals to the homeless just four blocks from the nation’s capital. I met some amazing people who took me on life-changing adventures, like spending a week living on the streets just to see what it was like. It is actually terrifying how quickly you can forget your personal history and all of your skills and successes when you are just looking for a safe place to eat, sleep, toilet, shower, and clean clothes. Life on the street is traumatic and stressful, so it is easy to see why so many homeless sleep in public and use substances to self-medicate their stress.
My tour guide to the streets was a brilliant Vietnam vet who everyone called “Alexander the Grate,” because of the steam-grate where he usually slept. We had many long conversations. Ultimately he told me there is only one real solution to homelessness, because government programs never really match all the different needs of homeless people. He felt that the only way that homeless people could be truly helped back to their best condition was by adoption. If each of the strong, solid, loving families of the community (who were not struggling to get by) adopted one homeless person into their hanai family, and worked together to help that person back to his/her feet, then the problem would be ended.
That requires courage and patience because homeless people are often dirty, stinky, stressed out, private, untrusting and introverted. It also takes some skill because some homeless people are dealing with chronic mental conditions or substance dependence issues that require more than most families can support. Alex suggested that there needed to be a Match.com set up for homeless people int he community to share their stories and their needs. That way the caring families of the community can search through the profiles and find a person who they feel like they can truly help.
I have tried to do this regularly in my life since meeting Alex 25 years ago. Sometimes the relationships don’t go well, and sometimes they are very successful. Sometimes my own life is too crazy to reach out and help others. One homeless man I got to know was actually a chess master with a brilliant mind. He ended up training me to win the Utah state chess championships twice, before he won it himself. I helped him navigate the applications to get financial assistance and get into college. I also helped him gain a lot of acceptance by other people in my small town in Utah, when they realized he was quirky but safe, and interesting to talk to. Many years later my elevated skill level helped me win the Hawaii state championship also. That was an unexpected benefit that I am forever grateful for, as is our ongoing, lifelong friendship.
In Europe, some hairdressers decided to do makeovers and give haircuts to the homeless.
There is a very heartwarming story – which you can find on YouTube, about that experiment.
One man appreciated the help, and now has an apartment and a part-time job – but is looking for a full time job. They were really effective with him.
The homeless are a motley crew. Some may be criminals and I think, having worked for the government, that there are people in the employment of large agencies that should be out “in the field” working to help the homeless rather than sitting in meetings all week. Agency heads admit that there are many in their capital buildings who are “middle-managers” and they are the first on the cut lists. They just are not necessary for the mission of the agencies.
So, here is some advice for our bureaucrats in safe jobs.
Use technology and take pictures of the homeless using face-recognition software.
Some may be criminals on the run or some may be people whose families are looking for them.
I think that many may be severely depressed. And that is why communities may be of help – if they baby them a little.
Even drug addicts may be victims if you look at their family lives and upbringing.
Also, some may already be receiving benefits from the state and caseworkers do not like them to beg or be irritating taxpayers.
Ken Conklin, you are so correct….we just don’t have the money to play Santa Claus to the world.
Good Points Ken.
This whole issue brings to mind the signs posted all over national and state parks: “Don’t Feed the Wildlife”. This is for good reason. Bears, especially, become habituated to human handouts and will actually lose the drive & ability to forage in the wild. Instead, choosing the easy way out–handouts. I have also seen documentaries that show generational implications–mother bears teaching the offspring to break into cars looking for food.
Sadly, humans are no different. They respond to incentives and will take the easy way out if it is available to them…a fundamental reflection of the dis-utility of labor. In economics there is an adage that says whatever is subsidized there will be more of. Unfortunately, the urge towards charitable impulses (subsidies) you mention have only worsened the problem.
RG DeSoto
In this regard, we are the scourge of the developed world. As we edge closer and closer to a two-tiered society, we find more and more people with Trust funds telling people with No Funds how to live! Mr. Conklin seems to be one of these.
In the other industrialized countries of the west, they handle these things differently. Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland stand out as having the fewest homeless; their solution? HOUSING FIRST! A caseworker is assigned to the person/family/couple to navigate the structure and get their lives back on track. And guess what?
IT WORKS.
I know; in my line of work over many decades I’ve been in 100+ countries of the world. The 500,000+ outright homeless on the streets of this country are a national disgrace that need not be, and _were not_ until about 1980, when the tax codes started favoring the wealthy, wages stagnated, and the mental hospitals were slashed of budgets.
We currently have a 700 billion military budget; for 5 billion we could house those half-million currently sleeping in the riverbeds and “Trumpvilles” of America _for a year_. What, should we give up a few missiles and bombs so we can treat human beings as such? Oh, horrors!
Mr. Conklin, remember the words of Dr. Johnson: : “We should not inquire too closely into the cause of our brother’s indigence; we, too have made mistakes.”
And for those who think they have made none, well…yes, many of these homeless have made errors. Yes, many of these people have made mistakes..but sometimes, in life, it all just gangs up on you and you go down.
A long time ago, an old buddy Marine pilot told me a story of his outfit getting jumped by the Imperial Japanese on a strip in the South Pacific: They were caught stone cold, and could only get one plane in the air before the field was ablaze with all the other planes. The one guy who got up there tried every trick in the book, and got three of them, but 15 to one was no contest. My friend was 19 years old, and was crying, with a lot of the ground crew after the whole mess when an officer sat down next to him and said, “I know, son, I know. Sometimes life just hands you a bowl of (expletive deleted), and there’s not a (deleted) thing you can do about it.”
Mr. Conklin, pray it doesn’t happen to you someday.
I am appalled by the stand that “we” the editor has taken in this matter and again am reminded of his endorsement of Mel for Mayor….. The question is WHY ARE YOU TAKING SIDES?
I grew up on KAUAI before homeless was even a word much less a concern because of the Hawai’ian lokahi of helping and YES ADOPTING A child, or a Kupuna in need…. I was hania into Kanaka Ohana all over the Islands and am eternally grateful for the love and Aloha and malama I received (back in the day) when nobody went to jail except for an old man on a bender so he could be out of harms way until he sobered up and then the police kindly brought him home….
No one worried about locking their car or house, no stoplights because everyone drove and moved slowly and deliberately….
Where’s the Aloha TODAY?
AND MY FINAL QUESTION…. WHY NOT EMULATE THE CITY OF EUGENE, OREGON AND CREATE DAY CENTERS, SAFE CAMPS AND WORK TRAINING FOR HOMELESS…. who choose to live houseless and allow others to be cared for in the churches and in shelters until they are housed in permanent homes….. anyone remember that saying “it takes a Village” ?
Mahalo Ke Akua for the Hawai’ian people who have ALOHA
Dear PD Asilomar,
One of the strongest foes of a homeless facility to be placed on the mainland was a Democrat friend. He was very high up in the Democrat Party and ran for office. But when a mission was to be placed near HIS business, he was up-in-arms and even went on TV to protest it! So please, don’t call homeless camps “Trumpville’s” because Trump had nothing to do with these camps and has been trying to find people work.
Also, don’t assume that others know nothing about homelessness. That is very presumptuous.
Our family once stayed in a very nice mission – not your typical mission, but a mission, nevertheless.
Ken Conklin may also have had similar experiences.
For $5 BILLION we could also do more to stop the flow toward our welfare. I have seen the welfare screens and all the programs people are on. Of course, it is a huge draw! People make sure their income STAYS low so they can qualify.
Trump is trying his best and some of his supporters are actually Native Americans whose reservations have been trampled by our “visitors” from other countries.
In fact, native Americans have been some of the worst victims of our “visitors” for years – and I doubt you even noticed.
Also, Asilomar, Democrat leaders also favor the rich.
In France, when they began overtaxing the wealthy, the wealthy left. So, the whole country was poorer which even the poor lamented.
So, in my state, the Democrat leaders have made backroom deals with the corporate heads and owners to get them to stay and provide jobs.
And interestingly enough, though the Democrats have been in power for decades, they still have a huge amount of homelessness. Because the homeless generally go to the college towns where people feel sorry for them, and the CHURCHES end up feeding them.
But no progress is made. They are still there.
So, what were you implying about Trump?
Dear Lelani:
I belong to no party at all. I think the issues through, one by one, and decide for myself. The problem, as I see it, is not so much left to right, but top to bottom. As for His Orange egomania, In our present time, Trump AND the GOP are synonymous.
To paraphrase, again, Dr. Johnson,
“I perceive, madam, that you are very possibly a vile Republican.”
Or, perhaps, “How’s the weather in St. Petersburg?”
Asilomar,
For people who regularly do nothing – like the Democrats when actually in power, it is fun to hate the Republicans. But once you or anyone actually tries to own a business it is a completely different view.
The pressure is then on YOU. To follow all the laws made by the government and still make a profit.
In my state, the biggest block of votes for Democrats came out of the largest city which happens to have a huge amount on welfare. Even if people are disabled, they can still work. Or elderly, as we are seeing in Boca Raton, Florida where a 93-year-old woman is working for Crate and Barrel with a big smile on her face. In Japan, a woman who is 106 still does farm work.
And there are Democrats who have wanted the draft (Rangel) and Democrats who wanted a lifetime limit on welfare because people become dependent on it and shy about getting a job. They actually lose skills, fall behind and are afraid to enter the workplace. So, it becomes a terrible trap. And the social aspects – must add another layer to the prison-like existence. Those people are not free. Thank goodness my mother raised on Kauai did not believe in welfare. And she was a Christian.
🙂
Lelani:
Luke 14:12-14
He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’
Matthew 5:42
“Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.”
Matthew 25:36-40
36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Lelani, I don’t know what Bible you or your mother used, but it ain’t the New Testament. I think you need some good old fashioned bible study classes.
And I belong to no established denomination, but what Christ actually said has made a big impression on me.
BTW, I built and ran THREE businesses for 30 years from nothing.