Beggars, homeless, street drinkers & drug users in Sheffield!

[cuttsie]

On 18/10/2023 at 12:30, Mkapaka said:

There’s 2 or 3 beggars took to sitting in sleeping bags lent against a bin outside sainsburys on barber road in commonside.

 

students and passers by regularly give them hot drinks, food and money.

 

 

There are still good  people around , there for the grace god go I .

[FoxLady]

I was in a Sainsburys store the other night, and watched a likely lad literally sweeping countless boxes of soap powder- tab things  into his large 'bag for life'. Brazen as hell, he then walked straight by me, smiled, headed for the Argos store bit of the building and bypassed all of the (unmanned) tills and strode past the self-checkouts.

I informed two female staff members within a few seconds of him heading for the exit. They made the right tutting noises, but other than that, were completely disinterested.

Assuming soap powders were his only score, he's maybe netted a couple of hundred quids worth?

[HeHasRisen]

7 hours ago, Baron99 said:

between Aldi & Poundland, (

Lidl and Poundland, surely? 

[cuttsie]

3 hours ago, FoxLady said:

I was in a Sainsburys store the other night, and watched a likely lad literally sweeping countless boxes of soap powder- tab things  into his large 'bag for life'. Brazen as hell, he then walked straight by me, smiled, headed for the Argos store bit of the building and bypassed all of the (unmanned) tills and strode past the self-checkouts.

I informed two female staff members within a few seconds of him heading for the exit. They made the right tutting noises, but other than that, were completely disinterested.

Assuming soap powders were his only score, he's maybe netted a couple of hundred quids worth?

was he a Street drinker , a beggar or a drug user . or just a shop lifter .

A shop worker told me that they no longer confront the shop lifters . He also said that women with shopping bags were the worst ones to spot . He said it happens all day long .

[pfifes]

6 hours ago, cuttsie said:

was he a Street drinker , a beggar or a drug user . or just a shop lifter .

A shop worker told me that they no longer confront the shop lifters . He also said that women with shopping bags were the worst ones to spot . He said it happens all day long .

There are too many cowardly/lazy security guards who make a show of ‘doing their job’ by intimidating innocent shoppers who wouldn’t dream of pinching stuff whilst the real criminals help themselves and get more and more brazen acting more like looters than shoplifters.

If the security guards were as big and brave as some as they think they are, they should be tackling the real villains not picking on soft targets.  I’m sure there are some good security guards out there so don’t want to offend anyone, but there are just too many cowardly and lazy ones.

[Irene Swaine]

20 hours ago, cuttsie said:

There are still good  people around , there for the grace god go I .

A fool and his money are easily parted. If you keep feeding rodents, they will keep coming back. These beggars are unable to verify their situation and most of them have somewhere to live and food to eat. These so called do-gooders are making our streets anti social places by encouraging vermin to litter them. It needs to be made a fineable offence to give money to beggars. 

[cuttsie]

2 hours ago, Irene Swaine said:

A fool and his money are easily parted. If you keep feeding rodents, they will keep coming back. These beggars are unable to verify their situation and most of them have somewhere to live and food to eat. These so called do-gooders are making our streets anti social places by encouraging vermin to litter them. It needs to be made a fineable offence to give money to beggars. 

Go and join em , You might learn to share and share alike , thats my experience with the home less , those with the least are the most giving .

Vermin ?????? Well there is no answer to calling fellow human beings who are down on their luck vermin ,

Have a nice life .

[hackey lad]

2 hours ago, cuttsie said:

Go and join em , You might learn to share and share alike , thats my experience with the home less , those with the least are the most giving .

Vermin ?????? Well there is no answer to calling fellow human beings who are down on their luck vermin ,

Have a nice life .

Most of these people are not down on their luck .

[Anna B]

9 hours ago, Irene Swaine said:

A fool and his money are easily parted. If you keep feeding rodents, they will keep coming back. These beggars are unable to verify their situation and most of them have somewhere to live and food to eat. These so called do-gooders are making our streets anti social places by encouraging vermin to litter them. It needs to be made a fineable offence to give money to beggars. 

Such a lack of understanding or compassion is very sad.

Have you ever actually spoken to a homeless person?

The one I spoke to today had recently split up from his wife, she had taken possession of the house with the kids, so he was on the street. He had been made redundant (which had caused most of the problems) and had no savings to fall back on. His benefits had been stopped due to his 'change in circumstances' and unlikely to recommence any time soon. He'd been on the street nearly 2 weeks and was already close to breaking point.

 

Sure, it may have been a line, but he struck me as very genuine, I think you can tell the difference if you talk to people. He wasn't 'vermin,' a drug addict, alcoholic or any of the other easy lazy labels some people give to avoid having to care for a fellow human being. He was just a person at the end of his tether and in dire need. I pointed him in the direction of the church at the top of the road, or the Archer project and gave him the bus fare. 

 

The people who deny homelessness are probably the same ones who denied the need for food banks not so long ago, and refuse to acknowledge that severe poverty is right along side us in our society. And none of us are that far from disaster even if we like to think we are. That safety net we assume will spring into action if we ever need it has all but been removed. At best it is overworked, very slow to respond, and deliberately difficult to navigate by which time the damage has been done. Once you hit the streets it is very difficult to climb back.

Edited October 29, 2023 by Anna B

[pfifes]

5 hours ago, Anna B said:

Such a lack of understanding or compassion is very sad.

Have you ever actually spoken to a homeless person?

The one I spoke to today had recently split up from his wife, she had taken possession of the house with the kids, so he was on the street. He had been made redundant (which had caused most of the problems) and had no savings to fall back on. His benefits had been stopped due to his 'change in circumstances' and unlikely to recommence any time soon. He'd been on the street nearly 2 weeks and was already close to breaking point.

 

Sure, it may have been a line, but he struck me as very genuine, I think you can tell the difference if you talk to people. He wasn't 'vermin,' a drug addict, alcoholic or any of the other easy lazy labels some people give to avoid having to care for a fellow human being. He was just a person at the end of his tether and in dire need. I pointed him in the direction of the church at the top of the road, or the Archer project and gave him the bus fare. 

 

The people who deny homelessness are probably the same ones who denied the need for food banks not so long ago, and refuse to acknowledge that severe poverty is right along side us in our society. And none of us are that far from disaster even if we like to think we are. That safety net we assume will spring into action if we ever need it has all but been removed. At best it is overworked, very slow to respond, and deliberately difficult to navigate by which time the damage has been done. Once you hit the streets it is very difficult to climb back.

I think most people ARE sympathetic to street people.  Note I don’t say ‘homeless’ because they are not all homeless.  However, all clearly have chaotic lives with complex issues to deal with.

In the last twenty years or so, I’ve seen the city centre change from having a handful of people asking for spare change (who likely were homeless) to having a large groups of intoxicated people in certain areas, aggressive begging, fighting and shouting.  Ive seen them passed out and having soiled themselves in the street.  I’m sure most people understand that no one would choose that lifestyle.

However, the solution to these people’s problems does NOT come in the form of loose change given directly to them.  In my opinion this has contributed to making this problem worse by enabling addictions and discouraging them accessing support. Note that this is not the same as saying the street people are ‘vermin’ etc.  Anyone who genuinely wants to help should give to charity for people in this situation.