How do the homeless up north survive brutal winters like this one?

[saddlesore]

  I could add stories like the above stories but I like to be different.
One night, coming home from work, I came across a car on the side of the road.  The guy was in the road, miles from a ramp, desperately trying to get someone to stop. 45 minuets and no one stopped.   I stopped and learned they had a flat and the spare was flat too. 
  The man was with his daughter and her foster son.  They were trying to get up north to give the kid a couple of days outside of the inner city.
  I got air in the tires, found no leaks and started packing up my stuff when this guy, who had a beat up car, shaggy clothes and no pot to pee in offered me $5.  I didn't take it.
  In contrast, on a nice sunny day I stopped to help a guy who had a flat on his convertible caddy. He had jammed his jack under the car.   I cleared it, put his spare on and he and his wife took off... not a word was said ,no thanks, no good bye nothing.
  Over the years my views have changed back and forth and what it all boils down to is we have to choose who we help and don't help. Sometimes those truly in need can be grateful, sometimes not.

Sorry if I went off subject.           




 

[BigAlOfMD]

I'm also very leary of beggers.
Some years ago, I used to commute to work via Valkyrie and observed this one black woman living under an overpass but never begging.
One cold morning, I stopped and handed her five twentys.
She ask me if I was a cop
When I said no, she said that previously the only large donations she got was from cops!!!!