A friend of mine is homeless...not sure what I can do

[Iwantittoend]

This friend of mine that I've known since high school was kicked out of his house last week. To make a long story short, he was big into drugs in HS. He was in and out of juvie for awhile before getting his life straightened out about a year ago. Still though, his parents hate him for what he was and still think he is that stupid kid. Last week he got into an argument with his parents, and it got so bad that they kicked him out. Now he's out living on the streets. My friend also has another friend that is out on the streets with him. So two guys I know are out roaming the streets with nowhere to really stay. They have camped out in the woods for the past couple nights in the freezing cold weather.

 

I picked them up today after I heard about it, got them food, and drove them to one of their friends house to stay overnight, but then it's back on the streets tomorrow. I'd offer them a place to stay, but there's no way my parents would go for it. I feel bad about it because he's a good guy that ran into some problems.

 

Is there anything I can really do aside from what I've done?

[Crazyaboutdogs]

No. I am willing to bet you are not getting the whole story. If he had really changed I doubt that his parents would have kicked him out after an argument. Maybe he threatened them, maybe he is still on drugs, who knows. Your friend needs to get his life back on track..he has to want to do that. His parents probably couldn't handle him anymore. If he had really been a better person, I doubt very much that they would have thrown him out.

[big greg]

The only thing he can do is have enough "want" for things to be better that he goes out and makes something for himself. Without that motivation from inside, he won't make it off of the streets.

My boss hired an alley bum last year as a good gesture to try to get somebody off the streets. The guy lived out in the shed behind the building, and he got paid 300 bucks a week. He was a nice guy, but he lied to us all about having to pay these fines to the courthouse or something, but after about 6 months the guy was still living out in that shed and didn't have a penny to his name. Turned out, he just used all of that money for drugs and not something like getting his own place and starting a stable life.

 

Maybe you can bring him home, cook some dinner.. and just sit down and have a serious talk with the guy and tell him what he needs to do. Once the streets suck you in, it's HARD to get out.. and it's sad that some good people end up getting sucked into that.

[Hope75]

I wonder too if you are getting the whole story- it isn't likely his parents threw him out if he was clean and really trying.

 

However, you can look into your area to see if there are homeless shelter/work programs for homeless people, and refer him there. He will have to be clean from drugs and alcohol to stay at most of these programs, but they may be able to help him.