Icy blast cleans the streets of the homeless in Poland..

Quite a bit actually, united we are powerfull.


Ive had groups camping in new developments in Wrcolaw.

Try walking around central London after midnight, homeless people are literally everywhere, sleeping all over the place.

Banks have much space that can be used to accommodate homeless alcoholics.

Good man, Irishguy11 - there should be more people like you out there.

Yes.

" teflcat: Do you think a homeless alcoholic, in temperatures of minus 20C thinks about alcohol?"
Most certainly: unlike cocaine and heroin, alcohol withdrawal can and does actually kill.

Some homeless people actually want to live on he streets (probably some kind of mental illness though). i saw a program about this once and many homeless people refused warm shelter.

Someone should help them.

One winter, while eating at Cegielnia (the restaurant in Wro, not the village), I saw a drunken homeless guy outside, who had himself spotted something he found interesting buried in the snow. For five ponderous minutes, he reached towards this treasure--whatever it was--yet never actually seemed to move any closer towards obtaining it. His bent frame teetered over the bushes, his outstretched hand quivered, but he never managed to actually scoop anything up. Later, after we'd gotten our grub on, my girl and I saw this poor wretch around the corner at Szermierz, in a heated argument with some student standing at an ATM. The homeless guy obviously wanted a share of the the funds the student was withdrawing, and the student didn't feel like sharing. Even later, (this guy got around), I was surprised to see our unsteady friend wandering aimlessly across an intersection, holding up traffic and stopping to examine everything of interest on the ground. I think, in a city of comparable size in America, a fella this blatantly blotto would have been pulled aside by the police, and probably have been pulled in for public intoxication. Such measures may seem like draconian harassment, but in light of the freezing weather, they coulda save his life, as well.

Don't you just love this sense of social duty.

Why you being sarcastic, mate. Pull these people off the streets and into a public shelter of some kind, that way they won't be hanging around harrassing people at AtMs. Give them some menial labor. If the govs do that for prisoners, it's the least they can do for homeless. People with nothing to do trouble finds.

they are not very happy to stay in shelters because it is not allowed to drink alcohol in the shelters - for the same reason they will evade jobs (if you direct them to some menial ones) and in that they differ from prisoners (who are actually quite keen to work especially outside) - most of those people who are homeless and don't have serious alcohol issues have permanent places in various centres be it state run or charity (domy opieki społecznej etc)

Why would cops allow them to hassle people at ATMs? This indicates system failure.

simple - people don't report it (because these guys are not really a threat - if you feel threatened than it's just your perception) - then what do you expect: a policeman at every ATM? - locking them up for just approaching people (not possible according to Polish law)?

For harrassing people at ATMs only to spend any money they acquire on booze. If they needed the money to eat or pay rent it would not be as bad.

if you were on the streets PP, you might want some dope or booze to take the edge off your misery.
The way to make a beggar really happy is to give him a ready rolled joint..;)
I say 'him' as it is usually men... I wonder why that is?

I haven't seen such people being violent - they may well be obnoxious and that's it - it's up to them what they spend the money the get - as it is up to you if you give them any money - if you really want to help someone like that by providing them with some food (or a warm drink) why not go buy some food for them, return and give it to them - this solves the problem of the perceived fraud they make with the money you give them - I personally don't give money to beggars but if I can I often buy them some food

Yes I can be a bit sarcastic from time to time. Sorry about that.

I am moving back to my country after 13 years of living abroad and one thing I really miss is the sense of community service. I don't agree that it's always somebody else's or the government's responsibility to make things better. If you can do something for your community, you should.

You are right on these two points, but the rest make sense only sometimes. Here is what happened to me in one year only, in one place only, in Toronto, where I usually waited for streetcars to get a ride home.

+ I was once threaten by a bum with a cane for daring to offer a hot food, instead of money, in the fast food place - 5 meters away from the streetcar shelter where he approached me.

+ One of my such offers was refused on the grounds that the man "was vegetarian". The same place and few other ones (in the vicinity of 50 meters) were serving veggie meals as well - which he obviously ignored.

+ Same place again: I bought a good meal to an evidently hungry man and he thanked me profusely. That made up for the two previous failures.

I wouldn't buy them food because that is what shelters and charities are supposed to provide. As for them being violent, they could become that way if desperate enough for a drug or drink. People are nervous about ATMs anyway. This is why. You know how easy it would be for some bum to bump the money out of someone's hand then amscray? Police wouldn't do much about it, either, after the fact.

first of all a true years-long alcoholic only needs two shots of vodka or two beers to get really drunk (it's physiological, perhaps it's because of the liver damage, but I know what I am talking about) - bad cheap fruit wine or liquor costs some 6 złotych a bottle - and the bottle is enough for two guys to get wasted - so no they don't get desperate - this is not the case of drug addicts who need 40 złoty for a daily dose

also years-long alcoholics have really degenerated nervous systems that don't allow snatching someone's wallet and darting away

People have free will. If some of them want to drink alcohol and stay outside when it's -20C degrees I don't see any reason why they should be arrested...

oh, man - you would't call the police to collect an unconscious person from the street even if they are just dead drunk? especially in this cold

I didn't say that.

I hope so :)

yeah, its a tragedy, and tbh how dare you say that any homeless person is one of lifes failures. you have no idea of how that person came to be homeless in the first place. its not always down to drugs and alcohol. because i had over 2 weeks off over xmas, i volunteered to work 2 night shifts at the church down the road.the local paper appealed for people to work the 11-8 shift, as they were lacking in volunteers for those hours.i heard many stories, and yes i saw people who were obviously the worse for wear, but everyone deserves a hot meal and a friendly face. not only at xmas.hope to god you dont find yourself on a park bench anytime soon :)

So people who are pyschotic and out of touch with reality should be allowed to stay out in the cold just because they are ill? If they were well, they would not choose to be out. Same goes for alcoholics. They have no free will. Their illness makes choices for them.

the thing is they don't want to be kept inside - just wandering around is their modus operandi - if you lock them they will scream and even become violent (in their own fashion) - if you don't lock them they will try to wander away - (the more such person is drunk the more difficult is to keep them in a warm space unless they fall asleep) - the solution would be to bring them to sleep (injection) - but I am not sure if this is allowed by the law and for sure it is not indifferent to health (no sleeping medicine is harmless in the long run AFAIK)

Yep, that's the problem. For a good example of why the solution to this problem is more than just 'get them off the streets' have a read about the Homeless World Cup (yes it does really exist).

if you are homeless, you dont have a choice BUT to be out.

It turns out that the Polish Homeless World Cup team are comparatively far better than the Polish national team!


homelessworldcup.org/groups/poland/posts/poland-in-profile

Also, Poland will host the 2013 Homeless World Cup, to be held in the city of Poznan. Now that might be something for a few of us to get involved in. Any interest from anybody here?