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-- Homeless girl on Avenue & Bloor

Homeless girl on Avenue & Bloor

hi everyone,

I wrote my first exam yesterday, and walking on the way there, I saw a homeless person with a dog on the corner of Avenue and Bloor. I didn't really care for the person (as I was thinking about my exam), and I didn't have any change. I usually deposit some change for the homeless.

When I was done my exam (didn't do too well), I was walking back to Avenue and Bloor, and the person was there still. Again, I had no change and I was quite pissed with how my exam went, so I didn't even bother looking.

Today, I was driving up north, and to my amazement, that homeless person was a young girl, probably in her mid-teens, and since I was there for a red light, I looked closely. I felt bad (extremely bad) because I thought that I should probably have made an effort to get some change and give it to her. I didn't believe how young she was, and on the street with her dog as well.

If it were some old drunkard with beer bottles around him, I wouldn't have thought much of it, but usually with young people, I feel really bad. I don't see many young homeless people, and I really wanted to do something. After I drove my little brother home, I came back to that corner with a pocketful of change, but to find that she was gone.

I don't know if you guys have ever seen her, but I am quite a sheltered person and I rarely see such young people who are homeless. To think that she has a poor dog she needs to feed as well!!! I feel horrible

im not saying this is the case in this situation...

but in a lot of the cases...street kids have perfectly good homes that they can go back to but choose to live on the street (for whatever reason...usually i find that they're pretty stupid reasons though)

mainly the groups of kids who are always on queen between university and spadina

i can't stand them


dont' get me wrong though...there are the heartache stories that make you feel sorry for the person...but these are far and few between

quote:

Originally posted by Kid Lax im not saying this is the case in this situation... but in a lot of the cases...street kids have perfectly good homes that they can go back to but choose to live on the street (for whatever reason...usually i find that they're pretty stupid reasons though) mainly the groups of kids who are always on queen between university and spadina i can't stand them dont' get me wrong though...there are the heartache stories that make you feel sorry for the person...but these are far and few between

Was About to say the same thing. I totally Agree With Kid Lax. Many of them have a choice but there are youths amongst them who ar running away from battered homes. Yet most of them choose to be there.

This is one of the horrible things about Toronto that I don't think that I will ever get used to. Everyone tells me that I will get used to seeing homelessness all around but I think its pretty heartless to "get used" to something like that.

By the first apartment that I lived in, there was this group of homeless people that would hang out outside the Shopper's Drug Mart and I would have to walk by it everyday and it never got easier. I avoided going to the Shopper's Drug Mart as much as I could and avoided that stretch of sidewalk but I also think that trying to avoid it is just as heartless. I don't know why, it really tears me up. I know that a large portion of those people are actually sick and are not taking their medications and a lot of the young people are just being stupid, but still there are some people there that just are lost and have no where to go. I can't imagine how bad a person's life must be to have absolutely no where to go and no one to turn too. I mean, I have family that could spare room for me, and friend's of friend's that could always help me out in some way. Imagine being that alone?

quote:

Originally posted by StereoPrincess By the first apartment that I lived in, there was this group of homeless people that would hang out outside the Shopper's Drug Mart and I would have to walk by it everyday and it never got easier. I avoided going to the Shopper's Drug Mart as much as I could and avoided that stretch of sidewalk but I also think that trying to avoid it is just as heartless. I don't know why, it really tears me up.

I know what you mean, totally. I've moved to a new place downtown and on Bloor, there are some homeless people that I see every day. I nod to them and they smile back at me, but I feel so uneasy about it. I am not going to walk blocks away to go around them because I don't want to be late for class (nor do I want to leave my place particularly early).

Perhaps because I used to live in an area that was really secluded and exclusive, and now that I'm downtown, I am seeing more. I never came downtown this much, except for class, but ah well.

I'm not going to hide from the fact that I'm sheltered and ignorant; I also know that there are many who choose to run away because they had a silly argument with their parents. However, how can those who live on the streets, especially those who have to deal with winter after winter, not deserve compassion or even a thought? It's sometimes too harsh, them having to survive outside whilst I am housed, fed, and taken care of by others.

i saw her yesturday as i was going from the shoe musiuem and to the garden musiem of porcylin.. acrooss from the rom..


i hardly ever cary money wit me but the dog seemed so week just as she did i felt sorry for her and only thought "what did she doo, why did her perents not help her, couldnt' she be in school "

for some reason i have a hard time accpeting things like that

and then i have my dads point of view of.. get up and do somthing of your self..
but then i know sometimes thats not always eazy..

i think the situation with homeless people is quite interesting. first of all there is usually the perception that homeless people, being without homes, are "tough" and "have been around the block a few times" (literally too lol) and therefore you should feel "inferior" because you have a home and are therefore "sheltered" and "weak" and "conformist" or whatever. wtf? since when did a person who lost his/her home or ran away from it (or never had one in the first place) supposed to be "better" than me because i'm "regular" and have a home?

i'll quote nietszche on this (from Thus Spoke Zarathustra):

"it is annoying to give to beggars and it is annoying not to give to them." (thus his solution is to get rid of them entirely )

you will notice what i mean if you've seen plenty of homeless people. there are always the arrogant homeless guys who feel like they're on a pedestal and that they deserve to be given money to. for example there is this guy on bloor, between st.george and bedford, that stares into your eyes like he wants to overpower you with his ego, and exclaims "How about some change?" in a tone of voice that says, "i deserve to have your money, give it to me right now." arrogant.

one incident will always stick out in my memory. i was walking by the mcdonalds on bloor (just west of avenue), and a homeless guy was standing with his hat extended. he looked at me, and the mere establishment of eye-contact meant, "give me money." however i said, "Sorry, I don't have change." you know what he did? he blurted out, "I Take Bills Too You Know!!" Man, that pissed me off! so what do you want me to do? work my ass off all day then come back to you and give you my salary?!?!?? get a life!

most of these homeless people i see don't even deserve giving money to; i mean, they don't even try. extending your hat out and repeating in a monotone voice, "spare some change please" will not cut it.

another reason why i don't give to homeless people is that many of them are just damn lazy and expect to have people give money to them. another is that most of them have some "catch" or "scam" behind them. either they are lazy or they ran away from home or whatever.

case in point: remember the shaking old lady who sat on the ground at yonge & bloor??? she made headlines after people finally found out that she was making a surprising amount of money from the public, and would each night be driven away in a lincoln or something, by her sons or whoever (forgot the details, sorry).

i've seen so many of these 'scammers' (though not usually on that scale of course) that i'm just wary (and weary!!) of homeless people in general. that's why when i see someone like that girl in front of the church @ bloor&avenue, with a sign saying, "help i am a poor lass from Scotland trying to get enough money to go back home" i just plain don't believe her. if you want to go home then why the hell are you here in the first place? and this young? did you maybe come here with your parents and now have ran away from them so you want to go back to scotland? or are you just lying?

there is such a thing as karma (a.k.a. the law of Cause and Effect), so the homeless must have gotten homeless somehow. usually they have screwed up at one point or another in their lives. that is their problem. i certainly will not get involved with their problems. do you see me standing on the streets and yelling, "i failed my exam please petition UofT to change the mark!!!" people will yell, "wtf are you doing here, do you think anyone cares about your exam or you?" thus if your life is screwed up and you have no home, i don't want to hear your story. too bad, you screwed up. be happy that you're at least alive. that might sound harsh but that's how it is! there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of kids in third world countries starving to death every day because not only don't they have homes but they have no access to food and no access to clean drinking water.

that is how life is - you win some and you lose some! so please don't feel guilty about not giving to the homeless! if you see a flower on a lawn that is crushed, do you rush to help it, straighten it out, water it, try to keep it alive? if you did you would be watching out for flowers all day because there are thousands of them!

likewise, if you want to give money to homeless people you have made a moral choice: now you must go around all day and give money to them all! why should one homeless person not get money from you but another should? they are in the same situation!

you gotta be careful in life...and that means watch out for the homeless. they're more than meets the eye.

In reply to your post, Alccode, I agree somewhat. But the picture you are painting represents probably a proportion of the homeless situation. I would say that it's unfair to pass all (or even most of them) of them off as scammers or pathetic, lazy people.

You just have to take it case by case, and if you want to give them change, do so on an individual basis. No one is forcing you.

quote:

Originally posted by corsten_addict In reply to your post, Alccode, I agree somewhat. But the picture you are painting represents probably a proportion of the homeless situation. I would say that it's unfair to pass all (or even most of them) of them off as scammers or pathetic, lazy people.

haha you are right! i just have a bad experience w/ the homeless in general. naturally i'm cautious/skeptical.

quote:

Originally posted by Alccode haha you are right! i just have a bad experience w/ the homeless in general. naturally i'm cautious/skeptical.

I know what you mean though. In reference to your previous post, i too have had bad experiences with the homeless, one of them being particularly bad when my backpack got torn off my shoulders

I try to keep in mind the fact that some of them had no choice but to live on the street but the hardcore facts are that most of them are there because they can't be bothered to do anything else, or have such low self esteem they believe the street is the only place they can make any money at.

I noticed a few homeless ppl in downtown TO however the homelessness problem there is not half as bad as Brussels where most of them are either drunks/drug abusers or illegal immigrants...

I remember the day i gave up trying to help them: i had bought 2 burgers wasnt hungry for the other one and passed a lady with a sign asking for money for food, so i handed her my (still wrapped and uneaten) burger and she just looked at me and said: "I just want the money"
Me:

After that it was over.

if anything
you could ask them why they're on the street
and maybe give them piece of mind rather than change
or both
but I think street kids just need better parents
it's obvious

but of course a good piece of mind and not something negative

" get off the street ya lil dirtball and go the fuck home...your stink is rubbing off on me "

hehe noooooooooooooo
that would be mean

quote:

Originally posted by KevinEarth " get off the street ya lil dirtball and go the fuck home...your stink is rubbing off on me " hehe noooooooooooooo that would be mean

LOL i can see the reaction from here

i think i'd probably get beaten up before i had a chance to say "JOOOOOKIIIINNNGGG" hahahahahaha

Sometimes I give change and sometimes I don't, depends on my mood and their appearance.

I have to say that some of these people look pretty well-fed and well-dressed for people with "no alternatives". You'd expect that abused children would have bruises, and that the truly broke with no friends or families or food would look sick and skinny and have shitty clothes.

I've had similar experiences to LoCa's. In K-town I gave a few quarters to a bum near my apartment and he was like "thanks, I just need it for a beer." Yeah, great, I'm happy to know that a small percentage of my hard-earned salary has gone towards some total stranger's innebriation. I had half a mind to trip the guy and demand he give it back, but I thought nah, not worth the trouble.

But then again, it's been established that many people on the streets have serious psychological disorders and would never be able to get normal jobs. They probably deserve some sort of help... but then again, what they really need is some kind of rehab, is free money the answer for them?

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