I’m never really sure how to deal with the large number of homeless people abound on the streets of the Sydney CBD. Today I talked to a young lady who had a sign saying she needed help to get back to Nowra. I asked her if I could buy her a train ticket to get back there. She didn’t want it. I’ve offered to buy food for several homeless men, and I’ve been knocked back because they just want money (I’ve also met very grateful men who asked if I had any money for food and were more than happy for me to buy them lunch instead). Today I saw another homeless man turn down a feed from someone else.

I don’t want to give money directly, as friends who have worked with charity organisations have told me that it just makes their (both the homeless and the charity’s) problem worse. But I know God is definitely not happy with just ignoring the poor either.

What do you do?

RodeoClown: What should you do?

But I did find $2 on the step at Town Hall station!

RodeoClown: winner!

Loose Change AUD $5.80 by Joriel “Joz” Jimenez, on Flickr

I just tipped out the coins I had in my change bucket next to the PC (Jen’s friend needs some change for a market stall over the weekend), and found that I had $123 in $1 and $2 coins. About $150 in total.

That’s a whole lot of milk and bread.

How much cash is in your change bucket?

RodeoClown: worth checking