BeauxLarney

San Antonio to El Paso

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Now is there a way he can screw that up or do others do that?

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He could trade the card for crack for all you know.

A resourceful street person can make much better use of the money you spent on the subway card deciding themselves what to purchase - if you had given him cash, you could have given him slightly less cash than you paid for the card and bestowed the same benefit upon him.

Personally, I no longer put the burden of whether the money will be spent responsibly on myself. That's their problem. They asked for $1, I gave it - if they use it to make their lives worse, there's nothing I can do about it, and certainly no homeless guy ever thought to himself "I better clean up, that last guy didn't give me a $1 because he thinks I'm on drugs"



The evidence now shows that homelessness itself causes drug and alcohol dependency In "housing first" programs where homeless people are given a place to live without the requirement they first get clean are finding that after they become housed - they are much more likely to become clean.


But the truth is - if you really want your money to do the most for homeless folks, it is best spent donated to a charity that deals specifically with homelessness.