>

Lol I’ve worked with homeless people and experienced a lot worse than what you described. But I can say that the majority of homeless people are harmless and I wouldn’t generalise a huge group of people based off of a few negative experiences.
I drove trucks over the road for fifty years, and panhandlers were always just part of it. I am not so naive as to think that they might not take whatever money I give them for food and spend it on getting high. But I always asked myself, what if he IS hungry and I walk on by. I decided years ago that I would give someone enough to get some food, and what they did with it was not on me - that’s between them and their God. I might not make a difference in anyone’s life, but I may have helped a few get through the night. And that’s about as much as I could hope for. >

Hell, even if they do spend it on drugs maybe it's so they can be numb enough to sleep on the streets.
We don't know how other people deal with this hell-ride we call life, and it's not our place to judge. If they need a little help though, it's not shameful to extend a hand >

Youre looking at this the wrong way. Its not that people are homeless, therefore they need drugs to help them deal with the pain. Its the drug abuse and bad decisions that lead them to being homeless and living on the streets.
Yes we can judge because thats the vast majority of the situations. Heavy drug use will put you on a downward spiral that often leads to homelessness. Its up to the user to be strong enough to stop before it gets to that point. So by giving them money, you’re helping them finance their bad decisions. Dont be an enabler. >

Or you might just realize that here they are in a bad spot, and at this point, how they got here really isn’t the bigger issue. Hungry is hungry, and it won’t kill me to give them a meal. I don’t know which person did what with the money, but if you actually give a hungry man a meal… >

If someone asks me for food, I will never deny them a meal. Drug addict, bad decisions, or whatever the reason is. No one deserves to be hungry. Actual cash is another story tho… >

They’re pretty ok where I live. Avoid the screaming/drugged out crazies, but the rest are just regular people. Buy them a burger and chat with them for a bit. You’ll hear some pretty wild stories and have good conversations. >

I don't do that because the homeless in my area get clingy. I gave a guy i saw at the bus stop a few packaged foods a couple of times and then he started getting demanding asking for more and saying i should give him cash too. Stopped giving.
My coworker used to buy a crazy lady breakfast. Then she started coming into our work place randomly to tell coworker she was hungry and wouldn't leave. Called security on that one. >

I rarely go to the same person more than once or twice (what you described does happen very often if you work as an individual, even homeless people who go to my soup kitchen will recognize me and ask me for more stuff on off-hours), but I have a friend who sells cool stuff he found/makes and is a great dude, and camps sort of right below my apartment. Never had an issue with him, he’s got great character, very hardworking and helps the other homeless people around here. Good guy in bad circumstances. >

I mean my parents taught me that a lot of the homeless population was experiencing exactly what you described. I don’t think I can solve homelessness but I don’t see any issues in donating to local organisations or letting them have safe areas in the city >

Just be careful that they are actually genuinely working towards solving the problem. Unfortunately a lot of organizations are part of the “homeless industrial complex” and are incentivized to not solve the problem and instead by perpetuating it in a slightly different manner so they are well positioned to receive more funding to “tackle” the new developments of the problem >

I'm surprised you're downvoted. 
We could only really solve homelessness with social security, providing people with homes and basic income. So as long as we think that people have to be useful to deserve to have home and food, there'll be homeless people. >

i'm a recovering addict and spent time on the street in my youth 
my experience (though it has been many years now) was that there are definitely some homeless who will approach and sometimes accost you on the street for money - because of mental illness and/or aggressively trying to score booze/drugs, etc
but there are scores more who just had one bad turn of luck too many (bankruptcy, bills, illness, etc) who try like hell & go out of their way to avoid making any contact with "normal" folks out of pride or shame they might feel - so you're much less likely to run into them
and so unfortunately yes, the ones we are most likely to encounter paint a picture that isn't necessarily an accurate representation of who many homeless really are - it's just the belligerent/strung out/desperate ones who are most noticeable 
i know that once i was on the street maintaining my dignity became full time work (either that or i could abandon it altogether) and that i was very fortunate to cross paths with people who helped put me on a path towards independence - but i was very lucky (and still young) >

I'm not an expert on the homeless but, in my experience, the majority of homeless are (essentially) invisible. They shower regularly, have clean clothes, practice personal hygiene, and are usually working or going to school. 
With that said, homelessness acts like a degenerative disease. People who fell on hard times can start drinking or doing drugs to cope, or the stress can result in mental illness. Once you can tell someone is homeless from a block away the odds of them just having fallen on hard times are low. 
I believe we need to focus more on the invisible homeless to prevent the chronic homeless. In my opinion, extremely basic crisis housing (an apartment the size of most bedrooms) would go a long way towards managing homelessness. >

exactly. fucking. this. 
The guys out there trying to just survive and not be a burden is huge but they aren't the ones you meet because they don't run up on you asking for "a few bucks for gas to get home."
a friend of mine who's homeless now (though he's camping on my property the last six months) is absolutely homeless because of a bad accident he was in with his ex that resulted in a huge PG&e bill for knocking down a power line and then a botched surgery that's left him struggling to walk. His foot became infected living outside and walking on it constantly and when the emts picked him up he told them he didn't want opiates for the pain so they shot him up with ketamine against his wishes (I guess this is an opiate alternative in NV emts can use). Now he has a debilitating stutter and serious memory issues. 
One bit of bad luck leads to another until suddenly a previously productive member of society is struggling to survive with his dog. 
He wasn't able to get hooked into social services because every other week he was getting his phone stolen while he slept. It's taken weeks of getting him put back together, getting him doctor's appointments, getting him back on meds, and he's doing a lot better but he might never be the same and without help he would never have been able to even access the help he needed. 
I didn't mean to write so much, it's just such a shitty situation and he's just one man in a sea of homeless persons. >

If you don't like homeless people he is literally your problem. A social safety net prevents small mishaps from removing tax paying productive humans from the workforce. additionally this often leaves them absorbing far more resources when they hit emergency rooms for easily preventable illness. 
If you enjoy people living in squalor around you and higher crime rates (literally problems that are society's) then sure, let's leave people who fall through the cracks to struggle on their own. 
So many edgelords out to pretend they don't care about the problems they literally spend their time complaining about. >

While I agree that the majority of them do need more help that one individual can provide. Your post suggests that you shouldn’t be kind to them, kindness costs nothing and they absolutely deserve kindness. >

I would love to see you be kind to a homeless person who throws their own actual shit at you while spitting at you and screaming expletives because you won't/can't give them change. Like OP said, times have changed.