At lunch today, I was talking to Mike about how badly I feel for this homeless man who sleeps under the awning of the building behind ours. I have the want to leave him a jug of water and some food but I'm afraid of turning this business into a homeless haven by leaving it there. Another thing is that if for whatever reason the guy DOESN'T sleep there, the food I leave will just be sitting there for the owners of the business to see the next day and then it might get the man in trouble for sleeping there. They open around 10am so I could possibly get there before they open in the event that the man doesn't come by. I just feel so terrible when I see him come up late at night and I'm sure he can see into our apartments and see people eating and drinking and having themselves a good time without giving it another thought. I don't want to go down there at night because I don't know this person and it might not be safe for me. I definitely have to put that thought ahead of all others.
I know I shouldn't feel bad for what I have because we worked hard to get here. At the same time though, no one knows why the homeless man is living the way that he is. I know most of the shelters here are full to capacity leaving a lot of homeless people no other option but to sleep outside. I have purchased copies of Real Change before and we have given our leftovers to homeless people before. We have also given money on certain occasions. I know we are helping in some ways by doing out part but I can't explain why I feel so empathetic towards this one man in particular. I haven't even seen him up close. I have only seen him from my window either setting up camp under one of the covered parking spots or the awning of the building.
I know what I want to do but is it necessarily the right thing to do?
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