Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected]
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected].
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
~~Honestly? Just give the $200 to the shelter to spend on whatever they think they need. As someone who used to volunteer at a no-kill shelter, everybody wants to donate a bag of dog food but no one wants to donate cash. After a certain point, we were throwing away old stock of unopened dog food because we ran out of storage for it.~~
Edit: completely misread the part about helping people specifically not in a shelter. My main point still stands though, I think most unhoused people would take the cash over material goods.
...bro
?
Reread OPs post
Your edit is still...
You know we're not talking about dogs here, right homie?
And if yes... You don't really think there are homeless shelters that are... Not "no-kill", right?
Yes, but the point still stands. Everyone loves the grand gesture of walking in and plopping a 20lb bag of chow on the counter or heroically presenting a homeless man on the corner with a brand new The North Face coat with tags on it.
I'm speaking from an American perspective for this next part, so if OP isn't from America they can disregard it, but the whole gift-giving ritual (which this is) makes people feel embarrassed for giving cash outright, like "oh, you couldn't think of anything to get them?" It's a difficult truth to swallow but the truth is that most community closets, food banks, etc. are more than stocked with the goods themselves. Homeless people in most of the country have at least some access to these basic goods. What they don't have is money to save for either A) their specific needs that only they know about or B) some sort of safe housing arrangement.
Same thing I saw when I volunteered at a shelter. Americans love the warm feeling they get when they give someone less successful than them a physical item, but the second you tell them the cash would be more useful they get indignant. It shatters their illusion that they, and they alone, were making some huge expenditure.
You know sometimes it's better to say "oops I was wrong"