Your spare room and a homeless person
Discussion
Nope. Multiple issues with this. I personally think you'd have to be nuts to have a stranger move in to your house, homeless or not.
You could always take a lodger in and with the cash donate to a homelessness charity. Edited to say that a lodger may well be someone known you you. Or at least a professional person with references.
You could always take a lodger in and with the cash donate to a homelessness charity. Edited to say that a lodger may well be someone known you you. Or at least a professional person with references.
Edited by WinkleHoff on Thursday 2nd January 19:23
Extreme example, but my first thought was the incident involving Aaron Barley:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/...
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/...
Undirection said:
Most of us have spare rooms that are warm, safe and clean and yet hundreds of thousands of people are sleeping rough. Would you offer them your room, just to sleep in, overnight? If not, why not?
Interesting thread. I have given it some brief thought. As a single living guy with a 3 bed house and an un-used dining room I have plenty of free space, but sadly I doubt very much that you could trust them enough.
I'd find myself sleeping with one eye open or even not at all. Its likely that at least some would be on some sort of habit and you might find yourself with things stolen or worse.
My friend works at a local New Life church and runs evenings for the homeless. Over Christmas a couple of these homeless attempted to steal the TVs. What they did was open windows and then returned later. The CCTV picked them up.
They are now serving 12 weeks in prison which is probably what they were after.
Its a genuinely nice idea, but in practice too risky. Shame.
I had the same idea about 10 years ago, OP.
I considered inviting a specific local homeless person to stay in my spare room overnight one cold winter, clean their stuff in the washing machine, have a bath etc. I didn't do it in the end.
They are still homeless, which indicates that there is an element of choice in the matter, and I recently learned that among other misdemeanours, they are solely responsible for several car break-ins locally to fund a rather enthusiastic drug habit.
In hindsight, it would have been a disaster.
WinkleHoff's suggestion that you take in a lodger (or use AirBnB) and donate some or all of the rental income to a homeless charity seems like a far better idea.
I considered inviting a specific local homeless person to stay in my spare room overnight one cold winter, clean their stuff in the washing machine, have a bath etc. I didn't do it in the end.
They are still homeless, which indicates that there is an element of choice in the matter, and I recently learned that among other misdemeanours, they are solely responsible for several car break-ins locally to fund a rather enthusiastic drug habit.
In hindsight, it would have been a disaster.
WinkleHoff's suggestion that you take in a lodger (or use AirBnB) and donate some or all of the rental income to a homeless charity seems like a far better idea.
Undirection said:
hundreds of thousands of people are sleeping rough.
Really? https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45983897
No, didn't think so.
As above, no I wouldn't, for the same reasons as above.
h0b0 said:
Algarve said:
Someone I knew, maybe.
Some random hobo begging in the street or plucked from under a bridge? Not a chance.
Despite what my school aptitude test said, I have managed to keep a roof over my head.Some random hobo begging in the street or plucked from under a bridge? Not a chance.
I agree with Algarve, somebody I know maybe but still not a certainty
Undirection said:
Most of us have spare rooms that are warm, safe and clean and yet hundreds of thousands of people are sleeping rough. Would you offer them your room, just to sleep in, overnight? If not, why not?
I’m not in any way belittling the problem of homelessness but it’s actually several thousand sleeping rough. The numbers get confused because people with a roof over their heads are still counted as homeless. Basically homeless and rough sleeping aren’t the same thing.And to answer the question, no. Rough sleepers in this country more often than not have other issues
I've seen enough forensics files to know that befriending a homeless person and welcoming them into your house is how you end up tortured then murdered.
Then again, it can work out the opposite way too.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Wasn't the guy that shot up the church in Texas someone that was helped by that church?
Then again, it can work out the opposite way too.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Wasn't the guy that shot up the church in Texas someone that was helped by that church?
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