{"id":3746,"date":"2024-05-01T08:40:20","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T00:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/?p=3746"},"modified":"2024-04-03T08:06:07","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T00:06:07","slug":"6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/2024\/05\/6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Things You Can Actually Do to Help a Homeless Person"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Image from Canva Pro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Have you ever felt guilty whenever you encounter a beggar or a homeless person? What do you usually do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some people may be so used to seeing beggars in the streets that they simply look away.<\/em> For some, their hesitation to help comes from the idea that homeless people are usually drug addicts or alcoholics who would only use the money to buy harmful substances for themselves. Others say that since they already pay taxes, it is the government\u2019s responsibility to help these people.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there are people who may not actually know what they can do to help their less fortunate neighbors.<\/em> They may give them some money, but the thought of their short encounter may haunt them all day, filling them with guilt that they just couldn\u2019t give enough.<\/p>\n

How do you actually help a homeless person?<\/strong> Should you or should you not try to help them directly at all?<\/p>\n

Here are some specific things you can consider when trying to help a homeless person:<\/h2>\n1. Treat them with respect<\/h3>\n**** People deserve to be respected whether they are rich or not.<\/strong> The Bible clearly says that discriminating other people because of their financial condition is a sign that we are not loving our neighbor.<\/p>\n " \u201cMy brothers, show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. For if a man with gold rings on his fingers and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, \u201cSit here, please,\u201d while you say to the poor one, \u201cStand there,\u201d or \u201cSit at my feet,\u201d have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs? \u2013 James 2:1-4 (NABRE)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 2. Pray for them<\/h3>\n These are trying times.<\/strong> And we may not always have enough money to give to every homeless person we see. But even in the most difficult days, we can always pray for our brothers and sisters in need.<\/p>\n " \u201cAnd a man crippled from birth was carried and placed at the gate of the temple called \u2018the Beautiful Gate\u2019 every day to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms. But Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, \u2018Look at us.\u2019 He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them. Peter said, \u2018I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, [rise and] walk.\u2019<\/strong> Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong. He leaped up, stood, and walked around, and went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God.\u201d \u2013 Acts 3:2-8 (NABRE)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Who could possibly know what your prayer can do?<\/em> With God, nothing is impossible. We were not meant only to help others with their material needs but with their spiritual needs as well.<\/p>\n 3. Give them food or any immediate need<\/h3>\n Other people say that it would be better to give to social and charitable organizations that help the poor rather than directly giving alms to them.<\/strong> This would keep them off the streets and the money you give may be better spent in more effective programs for the homeless.<\/p>\n In my personal opinion, however, although we should not neglect supporting charitable institutions, it wouldn\u2019t hurt to give to people who are directly asking for our help.<\/em><\/p>\n When there is a beggar who approaches you saying he has not eaten for days, how could you simply turn away? If you have a biscuit or a packed food that can satisfy their immediate hunger, why not give it to them?<\/p>\n 4. Donate to verified charitable organizations<\/h3>\n As previously mentioned, we should consider donating to charitable organizations who specialize in helping the poor.<\/p>\n By giving them our support, they can come up with programs that can help the homeless more effectively.<\/p>\n 5. Don\u2019t judge<\/h3>\n No matter what other people are saying about the poor, let us not judge them.<\/strong> And let us not assume that every homeless person is the same as other ones.<\/p>\n Why judge when you don\u2019t know their whole story?<\/strong> Even if you someone know another person\u2019s misfortune, you can\u2019t possibly know everything about him or her. Only God knows and we should let Him be the judge.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you judge people, you have no time to love them.\u201d \u2013 Mother Teresa<\/em><\/p>\n 6. Assist if you can in giving them a job<\/h3>\n If you have the ability and the resources for it, why not assist the homeless in finding a job?<\/p>\n You can coordinate with charitable institutions or Church organizations to help other people make a decent living and finally get off the streets.<\/p>\n What would the saints have done?<\/h2>\n Whenever we have a dilemma about giving or helping our neighbor, let us turn to the example of the saints.<\/em> How did they help the poor people around them?<\/p>\n We already read about what St. Peter did to the beggar asking for money. And we can read some more from the lives of other saints.<\/p>\n St. Faustina once gave food to a poor young man in tattered clothes and discovered that he was actually Jesus in disguise!<\/em> She later heard these words:<\/p>\n \u201cMy daughter, the blessings of the poor who bless Me as they leave this gate have reached My ears. And your compassion\u2026 has pleased Me, and this is why I came down from My throne \u2013 to taste the fruits of your mercy.\u201d (Divine Mercy in My Soul 1312)<\/strong><\/p>\n Jesus is indeed among the homeless and the poor. What are we going to do today to imitate His mercy?<\/p>\n " \u201cThen the king will say to those on his right, \u2018Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink<\/strong>, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.\u2019\u201d \u2013 Matthew 25:34-36 (NABRE)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n You may also want to read \u201cWhy It Makes Sense To Give Until It Hurts\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \n Jocelyn Soriano<\/em> is the author of Mend My Broken Heart<\/strong><\/a>, Defending My Catholic Faith<\/strong><\/a> and 366 Days of Compassion<\/strong><\/a>. She also writes about faith and writing<\/em> at Single Catholic Writer.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Get the book from Amazon.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n See Jocelyn\u2019s books from other digital stores.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Have you ever felt guilty whenever you encounter a beggar or a homeless person? What do you usually do? Some people may be so used to seeing beggars in the streets that they simply look away. For some, their hesitation to help comes from the idea that homeless people are usually drug addicts or alcoholics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4905,"featured_media":3752,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[456],"tags":[626,692,30,309,695],"class_list":["post-3746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-divine-mercy","tag-charity","tag-homeless","tag-love","tag-mercy","tag-poor"],"yoast_head":"\n6 Things You Can Actually Do to Help a Homeless Person<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Have you ever felt guilty whenever you encounter a beggar or a homeless person? Here are some of the things you can actually do to help.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/2024\/05\/6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"6 Things You Can Actually Do to Help a Homeless Person\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever felt guilty whenever you encounter a beggar or a homeless person? Here are some of the things you can actually do to help.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/2024\/05\/6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beloved\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-01T00:40:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-03T00:06:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1689\/2024\/03\/Outcasts-4.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jocelyn Soriano\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jocelyn Soriano\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/2024\/05\/6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/2024\/05\/6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person\/\",\"name\":\"6 Things You Can Actually Do to Help a Homeless Person\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-01T00:40:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-03T00:06:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/#\/schema\/person\/3b9c6cc563f0b344d1b4f15610bb9fb6\"},\"description\":\"Have you ever felt guilty whenever you encounter a beggar or a homeless person? Here are some of the things you can actually do to help.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/2024\/05\/6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/2024\/05\/6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/2024\/05\/6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"6 Things You Can Actually Do to Help a Homeless Person\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/\",\"name\":\"Beloved\",\"description\":\"Beloved speaks about relationships, our need for intimacy and our most important calling to love and to be loved by God.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/#\/schema\/person\/3b9c6cc563f0b344d1b4f15610bb9fb6\",\"name\":\"Jocelyn Soriano\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3f852773a16c19053261906a0cd8d8cd?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3f852773a16c19053261906a0cd8d8cd?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jocelyn Soriano\"},\"description\":\"Jocelyn Soriano is an author, poet, and book reviewer. She is an introvert who enjoys a cup of coffee and listening to the cello ****** while working. She wrote the books To Love an Invisible God, Defending My Catholic Faith and Mend My Broken Heart.\u00a0She also wrote books on poetry including Poems of Love and Letting Go and Of Waves and Butterflies: Poems on Grief. She has published more than 15 books and developed her own Android applications including God\u2019s Promises and Catholic Answers and Apologetics. She writes about relationships and common questions about God and the Catholic faith at Single Catholic Writer. She is currently single and happy and she would like everyone to know how happy we can be by drawing close to the love of God!\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/author\/jsoriano\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"6 Things You Can Actually Do to Help a Homeless Person","description":"Have you ever felt guilty whenever you encounter a beggar or a homeless person? Here are some of the things you can actually do to help.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/2024\/05\/6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"6 Things You Can Actually Do to Help a Homeless Person","og_description":"Have you ever felt guilty whenever you encounter a beggar or a homeless person? Here are some of the things you can actually do to help.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/2024\/05\/6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person\/","og_site_name":"Beloved","article_published_time":"2024-05-01T00:40:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-04-03T00:06:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1689\/2024\/03\/Outcasts-4.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jocelyn Soriano","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jocelyn Soriano","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/2024\/05\/6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/2024\/05\/6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person\/","name":"6 Things You Can Actually Do to Help a Homeless Person","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-05-01T00:40:20+00:00","dateModified":"2024-04-03T00:06:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/#\/schema\/person\/3b9c6cc563f0b344d1b4f15610bb9fb6"},"description":"Have you ever felt guilty whenever you encounter a beggar or a homeless person? Here are some of the things you can actually do to help.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/2024\/05\/6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/2024\/05\/6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/2024\/05\/6-things-you-can-actually-do-to-help-a-homeless-person\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"6 Things You Can Actually Do to Help a Homeless Person"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/","name":"Beloved","description":"Beloved speaks about relationships, our need for intimacy and our most important calling to love and to be loved by God.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/#\/schema\/person\/3b9c6cc563f0b344d1b4f15610bb9fb6","name":"Jocelyn Soriano","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3f852773a16c19053261906a0cd8d8cd?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3f852773a16c19053261906a0cd8d8cd?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Jocelyn Soriano"},"description":"Jocelyn Soriano is an author, poet, and book reviewer. She is an introvert who enjoys a cup of coffee and listening to the cello ****** while working. She wrote the books To Love an Invisible God, Defending My Catholic Faith and Mend My Broken Heart.\u00a0She also wrote books on poetry including Poems of Love and Letting Go and Of Waves and Butterflies: Poems on Grief. She has published more than 15 books and developed her own Android applications including God\u2019s Promises and Catholic Answers and Apologetics. She writes about relationships and common questions about God and the Catholic faith at Single Catholic Writer. She is currently single and happy and she would like everyone to know how happy we can be by drawing close to the love of God!","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/author\/jsoriano\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4905"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/beloved\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} " " "