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What would you do if a scraggly homeless person knocked on your door, and all he asked was for a sandwich, a bottle of water, a bath, and perhaps a beard trim? (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago by over_clox@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

151 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've actually skipped work just to help a homeless guy get his beard trimmed. Bought him pizza too. Kinda hard to get anywhere in life when you look like shit.

Be kind to the homeless, they just need a helping hand here and there.

What would you do?

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[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 34 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Fix him a sandwich, get him some water, and tell him I don't let strangers in my house.

I've done just that, twice in the twenty odd years I've owned it. Before that, my dad owned it and had different rules about who had access to resources, so I would have followed his, if it had arisen.

But! I would offer to bring my spare trimmer and hook him up on the porch, or a shave if he wanted. That used to be part of my job, and I miss the hell out of personal care. I'd also offer to let him use a mirror instead though.

I'm hard core about no strangers in the house, period, ever. Don't care why they want in, don't care who they are, if I haven't said it's okay, nobody comes in. Hell, there's people we know that aren't allowed in. I've got one cousin in particular that will get his ass beat again if he shows up. But someone we don't know, that I haven't vetted? Hellll no.

Shit, I'd rent a motel room for a homeless person before I'd let the cleanest, best dressed stranger in my house, and I'm on a fixed income.

But, I'm actually known to be a soft touch for food and beverage. It's a thing. If I know you well enough to let you in, you will never go hungry at my house. If I don't know you well enough to invite you in, I still won't let you go hungry or thirsty, but I'll ask you to move along with the supplies. I'd have to have my family be starving before I'd refuse basic food and water to someone.

[–] 0_0j@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I've got one cousin in particular that will get his ass beat again if he shows up.

Chuck? Is that you?

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

Sorry, but no.

[–] lud@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm curious what you mean by fixed income.

Do you mean a non hourly salary? Is that is what you mean, why does it matter?

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Fixed income is a general term for someone that can't change their income because it is provided by a social safely net. In my case, that's the US disability system, SSDI in specific. You get a monthly income and that's that. There is some wiggle room for other income, but if most of the people on SSDI could do enough work for that, they wouldn't qualify for SSDI in the first place.

But it also refers to retired people on social security, and sometimes even people that get income from a pension.

In other words, the amount you get is not only "fixed", there isn't a way to increase it reliably.

There in the US, even the maximum SSDI amount you can get is below the poverty line. We're lucky in that there are three adults on various SS programs, so we do have a little disposable income at the end of the month, but we're talking maybe twenty or thirty bucks.

[–] lud@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Thanks for explaining.

I always thought it exclusively meant that someone had retired and were on pension but I doubt there are many if any that old on Lemmy.

The term doesn't really exist where I live. Or at least as far as I know.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

Yeah, lemmy skews towards middle aged and lower for sure lol

But, no worries, you asked a genuine question, politely :)