Last week I shared my recent encounter with a homeless man, in which I gave him money. In the discussion that followed via the comment section and in actual conversations I had with friends, the subject of drugs came up several times.  It usually went something like this:

I don’t give the homeless money because they might spend it on drugs.

And…

What happens if they spend the money you gave them on drugs?

The drug dilemma can make the difficult problem of homelessness even harder to deal with.  

But let’s spend a moment with each of these questions.

I don’t give the homeless money because they might spend it on drugs.

Is this true?  Might they spend it on drugs?

Yes. The relatively small amount of research I’ve done on this points to about 70% of the homeless being substance abusers of some kind.  Most do not become homeless because of the drugs, they instead become homeless first, and then fall into addiction.  Drug dealers are quick to fill the void of society’s inadequate efforts to aid those on the street.

So yes, they might spend the money you give them drugs.

That doesn’t deter me from giving if I can.  

I would rather give than risk rejecting someone who would use the money to buy a badly needed meal. 

It reminds me of the conversation we often have in America over welfare programs and government hand outs.  Some people would rather help nobody in order to prevent an abuse of the program.  I would rather accept a degree of misuse in order to be sure that everybody who needs help actually gets it.

What happens if they spend the money on drugs?

Maybe they would go hungry that night.  

Or, maybe the drugs would enable them to reach a state where they could get through the night.  Obviously, there’s a great deal of pain and discomfort in living on the street; enough to make a weekend of tent camping seem like a 5 star luxury hotel.  There’s no fire.  There’s no food.  There’s no crawling into the car for cover if a rough storm comes.  There’s usually no cellphone.

It’s just you, the concrete, and the elements.

I’m fortunate to not be speaking from experience, but I can easily imagine wanting to get high or stoned in order to survive yet another night in those conditions.

In dealing with the homeless, I believe our primary goal should be to keep people alive.  If we do that first, we can then move on to health care, addiction and everything else.  Sometimes it might be the drugs that keep them alive until tomorrow.  Maybe the help or break they need is coming tomorrow.  But they have to live until then to get it.

I’m not advocating drug use.  I’m saying that ugly messes like homelessness sometimes have ugly solutions that don’t work as well or as cleanly as we’d like.  We should be willing to accept a few uncomfortable things if we need to, on the way to something better.

I like football analogies, and the one that works here is that of an offense needing to punt in order to score on their next drive; giving the ball to the other team on purpose, in order to stay in the game long enough to win it later.

I’m certainly no expert in dealing with or solving homelessness.  These thoughts are just where I am right now based on my experiences and the things I’ve learned from a close friend of mine who devotes a lot of his time to serving those on the street (more on him in upcoming posts).

I believe we have a responsibility to help those in need as best we can.  I’m not sure what that “best way” is, but the more we avoid judgement and stay open to other perspectives, the closer we will get to finding it.

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