The Salvation Army is having a hard time finding bell-ringers to help collect donations. I always assumed that it was a volunteer position, but evidently they get paid $6.50 an hour, not too bad to just stand around and ring a bell, and maybe say thank you a few times. But evidently it’s not enough for homeless people to get off the asses.
Excerpt from AP report. (Sorry I can’t find a link)
Even at $6.50 an hour, good bell-ringers are hard to find.
The job is posted at the Helena Job Service and Jones hasn’t received any interest among residents at God’s Love, a homeless shelter.
Bob Ruth, who has worked at God’s Love for a dozen years, said the shelter’s residents don’t appear interested in the job, even though they are given two weeks to find work and some of the money raised by The Salvation Army might eventually help God’s Love.
“I’ve tried to get them to ring the bells, but they say it’s not enough money,” Ruth said. “I guess they don’t have any interest. It bothers me when they won’t do anything.”
What would be the motivation for these people when they get what they need by doing nothing. It may be likely that if the homeless had money on them, they would be robbed or otherwise victimized by other non-working homeless.
For some of these people no amount of money would be sufficient. We had a local homeless man who was seen by a local radio talk host and put on the air to explain his plight. He received several very decent employment offers and turned them all down. Even though he could have moved out of homelessness it wasn’t worth it because he was already getting enough to survive while doing nothing.
Why stand in front of a store and ring a bell for $6.50 an hour when you can stand on the street and hold a cardboard sign that says, “Homeless. Need Help. God Bless.” and make $30 an hour?
Actually, it is far better than that. I read a story ten years back about the street corner guys pulling in $45 to $60 grand a year. When you consider they only work the rush hours and pay no taxes…
“I’ve tried to get them to ring the bells, but they say it’s not enough money,” Ruth said. “I guess they don’t have any interest. It bothers me when they won’t do anything.”
That is the part that bothers me.
I don’t think they were asking the mentally ill people to help out.
Where did you get the info that the majority of homeless people are mentally ill to the point of not being able to support themselves in any way?
I’ve heard this quite often and am not 100% convinced it’s entirely the truth. I woudl agree that there is a large portion of the homeless population that is mentally ill, maybe even a majority, but a good portion of the homeless population is not mentally ill. That being said I also don’t necessarily believe they are just lazy either, just don’t have a clue as to how to make it thru life, or the tools to do it successfully.
Of course this is my number one reasoning against wellfare in general. Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.
Yes exactly. Giving them a fish allows them to sit on there ass and do nothing, but without the skills to catch a fish they can’t eat so people feel obligated to continue giving them fish.
I’ve long thought that a “Welfare” system that consisted of removing the individual/family from the environment they are in, usually one that propagates the welfare mentality, and putting them in an environment that gives them skills they can later use to make it in the real world would be far superior to the current system. I’ve always envisioned a kibbutz/college environment where the families where responsible for their own welfare via some level of farming and then using the extra time for education and job preparation.
I work with the homeless every night at work … in my experience there are a few classes of homeless: 1.) The disfunctionally mentally ill 2.) The functionally mentally ill 3.) The lifestyle homeless (who rationally choose homelessness as a way of life). A common factor I see in virtually every homeless person is addiction to alcohol and/or drugs. Off hand, I probably ‘know’ 30-40 homeless people, and I recognize by sight 100+ … I can’t think of even one who isn’t an active alcoholic.
It’s sad to see people living in this state, and I must admit that sometimes I find compassion a hard commodity to come by. When a person refuses to help themselves, refuses to make different lifechoices and abuses every resource available and blaims you (the cop, paramedic, fire fighter, ER nurse, etc) for their problems … well, I’m sure you can imagine.
I don’t see a solution to the problem. Liberal social workers, charitable Christians, do-gooders of every persuasion …
My statement that the majority of the homeless are mentally ill is based on anecdotal evidence and not any scientific study. For the past 20 years I have worked two blocks from the White House and I see the homeless every day. 99% of them are obviously mental ill/substance abusers/delusional. I suppose the correct answer to what is the main cause of homelessness would be poverty but that’s pretty obvious.
I wonder if there are any statistics on the success rate of gettng people off the street. It seems that once a person is homeless it’s incredibly difficult to get them off the streets. The “regulars” I encounter have been homeless for a number of years.
99% of them are obviously mental ill/substance abusers/delusional.
I would put mentally ill in a completely different category as substance abusers, and as another poster mentioned, there are levels of mental defect, many of which do not make the person non-functional.
I suspect that many people choose to be homeless, so they can continue to abuse substances. They want to sit on their asses drunk all day.
It’s like the homeless people who beg for money ‘for food or a cup of coffee’ and if you give them actual food, they get pissed.
I would agree that 99% are either mentally ill or abusers, I also make a distinction between mentally ill and drug/alcohol abuser though. I’m not of the camp that says addicition is a disease anymore than I believe that being fat, a thief or other type of malcontent is a disease. Plain and simple it’s a choice, maybe more difficult a choice for some than others but none the less a choice.
The truely mentally ill crowd is the crowd, that in my opinion, truely deserves our societies compassion and resources. Most of these individuals will suffer their entire lives and typically can only be partially aided with the use of drugs and therapy. OTOH the addicts can choose to quite using, and as stated before this may be a very difficult and painful choice for many.
I wonder if there are any statistics on the success rate of gettng people off the street. It seems that once a person is homeless it’s incredibly difficult to get them off the streets.
Not sure about getting people off the street but the recidivism rate for abusers is EXTREMELY high. If memory serves some of the “succesful” programs are at 75-90% one year recidivism rate. IOW only 10-25% of the graduates make it more than a year before returning to drugs or alcohol. I think that rate is likely even higher for homeless individuals.