Homelessness in Gainesville
Posted: November 9th, 2007 | Author: frynchfry | Filed under: Society | 6 Comments »I’m thinking of doing a piece on the sham homeless people in Gainesville. Most of you or alteast us G-ville folk, have probably heard about Gainesville being voted as the most unfriendly to the homeless town in the US like a year or so ago. There’s another issue behind this besides snobby government. I heard about something probably over a year ago that disgust me in this topic. Apparently there is a whole organization of people in Gainesville that make a pretty decent living as beggars, and when I say decent living I mean these people have nice houses and cars. These people go out with shabby clothes and cardboard signs and pretend to be homeless, and rake up enough to live a middle class lifestyle through the charity of others. While you may say, "Great, people do give money to the homeless after all" that’s not the case. These people are not and have never been homeless. They are too lazy to get jobs so the run a scam of being homeless. This sickens me. They are tons of people in Gainesville who really need the money and charity and these people take that away from them. Not only do they take from the people who really need it, but because many people know about this scam we become hesitant to give money to those people on the side of the street, because we don’t know whether they are scam artist or really homeless. Sometimes these people are easy to spot, like the guy who stood on the corner of University and 13th avenue for months, but each week he had a different sign. Every week the sign had a different gross misspelling of "God Bless" and sometimes it was spelled correctly. Most of the time it’s not that obvious. It’s because we don’t want to support the homeless that we are "unfriendly" it’s because we don’t know which beggars are really homeless and we don’t want to give away are money to the fakers who probably have better houses than we do. I’d like to look into and write about this.
Yeah, homelessness is definitely something extraordinary in Gainesville, I have been really brainstorming and getting involved with helping with this issue. I have seen both sides, dialectically seeing that these people need to straighten there lives and a get a job because my monetary help really isn’t helping, and also that these people’s shortcomings are not their fault and that everyone needs a pick-me-up now and then.
For the past two weeks, I have been helping this woman who claims she is homeless and has AIDS, I still believe that she does, however me and a friend have invested over $50 in helping her out, paying for this court case against a person who supposedly is raping her consistently in Tent City ( the homeless ground in gainesville.) After spending more time with her and having her continually say "this is really the last time" she needs money for the case, my friend and I have become increasingly skeptical. I still want to help her out, we have told her anytime during whenever we will try to give her a ride to wherever, and she has used that offer more than once at like 12 in the morning. But, just the other day we told her that we could no longer help her out financially. I feel bad about it, because she says she still needs to do some payments or something, but I can’t help but feel like she isn’t telling the truth. I really don’t want this to effect my desire to help these people, in the bigger sense of hoping to end poverty I know it never will, but helping out individuals like this used to seem like such a beautiful idea, now.. not so much… thoughts please.
This happens a whole lot around town. People come to my church all the time asking for stuff. The pastor (also my father in law) will not give them money but instead will give them a ride or buy them food or whatever they claim they need within reason, sometimes he will take them to a bus stop and make sure the money he gives them goes towards the bus ride. It’s really hard to tell who actually needs help and it’s frustrating to get duped. Definitely annoying when you suspect that the five dollars you give is gonna go towards alchohol or drugs instead of food or something essential like that. I think the best plan though by far not the easiest is summed up by the old cliche "if you give a man a fish he’ll eat for a day, if you teach a man to fish he’ll eat for a lifetime." There are some good organizations around town that use the teach a man to fish policy. Many of the churches in Gainesville participate in IHN (the Interfaith Hospitality Network) which houses homeless families and helps them try to get jobs. The families, uses 2-5 at a time, stay in each church for a week and then rotate to another church each week, a think it’s month for each set of families. These families are given meals, childcare, and rides to jobs/interviews/career center for the parents and rides to school for the children. I believe it occurs twice a year. Obviously it only help a limited number at a time, but it gives real help. There’s so much more that can be done though and I’ve know doubt Alachua county has the funds, seems they just find redoing 39th ave every six months more important. That is serious problem.
As far as your thing goes, would it be possible for you to actually go to the alleged court case with this woman? That way you could find out what’s really going on and whether your being duped a lot.
i’ve heard that story about the rich "homeless" people as well. i believe it. i remember the guy on 13th and university, i gave him money often cause it was on my way home from work.
i know that a huge population of homeless people are mentally disabled so they can’t maintain a normal job or find a stable place to stay but a lot of them aren’t . a lot of them could find a job just not one they want. one of the cooks at the restaurant i work at used to be homeless until they got a job there. the criteria for cooks and dishwashers isn’t very high and they get paid decently. they are a lot of people on the streets that could help themselves out a lot more.
I know. I think the biggest problem is that it’s just so much easier for them to stand on the street with a sign than go to work. There should be more programs to actually help people do things for themselves. Maybe this should be one of our missions?
It is difficult to find time to make it out to her alleged court dates, however she shows me many documents each time that really look legit. I really don’t know, at times I tell myself that I don’t even truly mind if she is pulling my leg, she looks really ill, her body completely transformed from obvious HIV symptoms. Furthermore… its getting cold, I really don’t think she has much more time here. Life is hard, harder for others, for a majority of the world. Who am I to say, "no I won’t give you this money, live out the rest of your life trying to get a job, buy a house, raise a family." Its not in the cards for her, and she didn’t ask to be a saint, she doesn’t have to try to save the world with her last dieing breathe. Who cares if she just wants to buy booze or a pack of cigs, or whatever, she isn’t really hurting me, and its her life to live. If we have the opportunity to make it easier on someone, why not? just because their principles or ambitions don’t exactly line up with ours? they have every right to life and happiness that we do, if we have the chance to give, why not? no really, why not? I’m not so sure of myself sometimes, I really want to make a difference with this.
But anyways, Frenchfry seriously lets do something about the homelessness in Gainesville, small or big, just something, everyday, once a week, once a month, a year, whatever, but lets do something…now. Thanks.
Azion, sorry it’s taken me so long to respond. Last week was a crazy week. But I have been thinking about what we can do, though not nearly as much as I intend to.
First of all, I think you are right in continuing to support this lady in the only way you can. Perhaps giving a man a fish is not such a bad thing in all cases. If the man’s lifetime may only be a few more days, what good is teaching him to fish really going to do for him. But giving him a fish for one day or every day or the few days he has left will make those days much more bearable.
It is not our place to judge anyone on what they do with money. Does it really matter if they spend it on drugs or not? I’m beginning to think it doesn’t. This seems to me a way for them to have a more bearable life. Even if it is not the best way, it is still a way. It seems to matter more that we don’t hesitate to help based on what will become of our help, we should help regardless of any suspicion. Teaching a man to fish isn’t always the best option either. It won’t do any good if the man/woman (I don’t mean to be discriminatory in my use of man, just to use the old adage), if that person only has one day, or only a few days, which may be the case in your circumstance. It also won’t do any good to teach someone to fish that has no desire to learn. You can teach anything you won’t but it only is useful if this teaching becomes is actually learned. Otherwise you’ve wasted time.
If giving a man a fish is the only way we can help, than that is what we should do. If we can teach a man to fish and this actually get him somewhere, than that is what we should do.
I don’t have abundant financial resources, i get by with what I have but don’t have much to share, so giving a man a fish is not so possible for me. But I have other gifts. I can write, and I can create art. Perhaps I can use these gifts instead. Maybe I could teach people to read or paint? Maybe this want help them in days to come, but maybe I can at least make the days they have more bearable. What can you do individually to help (your already doing something and thats awesome)? What can we do together? Seems the together thing has more potential to help the most.