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Notes -
Are the only options providing resources directly to the indigent and perhaps inducing them to remain in the area or having them die on a park bench?
Some individuals 'rock-bottom' is death.
Each individual act seems merciful in isolation, collectively, it creates an unofficial support system that makes street life sustainable enough to avoid the harder choice.
This is the same dynamic as the family who keeps bailing out the addict, paying their rent, letting them crash "just one more time." Each act feels like love. The pattern is death.
Higher-intensity services often require something in return, sobriety, curfews, accountability.
The street, subsidized by scattered charity, requires nothing. You've made the path of least resistance also the path of continued destruction.
This isn't cruelty. It's refusing to be complicit in their slow death while feeling good about yourself. The hardest part of love is sometimes not helping in the way that feels most immediately compassionate.
Still, if you see someone actually freezing to death, call for help.
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