Suffering in public space: Small solidarity guide for passers -by

A text by Thibaut Besozzi, Doctor of Sociology, Cerep, Burgundy University Franche-Comté (UBFC).This text was initially published on The Conversation France.

Each city dweller crosses people who are Quemant of money in public space or in transport.We do not always know how to respond to these requests, especially since they are numerous and varied.

We often prefer the micro-political of the ostrich which consists in simulating that we have neither seen nor heard these people whom we spontaneously categorize as homeless (homeless).This trend can lead us even if they ignore people in great distress, sometimes generating dramas that could have been avoided.

It is not necessarily that we are insensitive and refuse all solidarity, but it is actually difficult to satisfy all requests, especially since personal justifications, more or less legitimate, do not lack to clearHelp: We do not have time, we cannot give to everyone, we have our own problems ourselves, we do not give money so as not to endorse alcohol or drug consumption, we do not give foreigners, etc..

And even when we happen to help them, we often implicitly select the people we consider worthy of this aid: because Untel is polite, because it presents well, because Untel does not drink, becausethat another has been there, in our neighborhood for years, etc..We in fact define according to moral criteria (which are also socially shared representations) the "good" and the "bad" poor.In addition, we are not necessarily comfortable to help them: how to behave?How to speak ?What to give?How to help?

What help bring?

Anyway, the help you can bring to the homeless takes several forms.We must distinguish institutional aid and spontaneous aid, material aid and symbolic support.

A way of helping homeless people is to engage in a charitable association, as a volunteer, to participate in collective actions (maraudes, meal distribution, clothing distribution, administrative support).By relying on the figures produced by the France Volunteer Organization (2016), we note that the charity sector is the sector in which French volunteers are most involved since it concerns 27 % of the commitments of more than 20 million volunteersConsidered by the study.

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More spontaneously, it is at the time of meeting with a personless person in public space that help reports can take place.Most often, it is a question of giving some money, buying food and drink or offering tobacco to the person encountered.

Avoid condescension

A moralizing posture consists in not giving money to prevent it from serving to buy alcohol or drugs, or, more stigmatizing, to give money by specifying that it is for the dogwhich sometimes accompanies the beggar.It is to deny on the one hand that people are free to manage their budget as they understand, and forget on the other hand that alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases that are imposed on individuals once dependent.

What is more, if this preference is verbalized ("I prefer to buy you to eat rather than give you money"), it is potentially perceived as condescending or degrading by the Domicile thus offended.

So much so that material aid can be done at the cost of harmful stigmatization, as when you give food remains to a beggar who can then feel lowered to the rank of trash.During the winter, the material aid can materialize by the donation of blankets, sleeping bags or warm clothes, when it is not a question of offering accommodation at home for a night or more, which ismore rarely.

A hello, a sign of the head

On the symbolic level, it goes without saying that begging is a particularly shameful experience for homeless people who have no choice but to indulge in it.

They thus display their condition of destitution, their bodily submission (seated on the ground, reaching out) but also their dependence on the meager donations that they quest.This is why some beggars, mobile and standing, hide their activity by meeting passers -by.

In the absence of material donations, it remains possible and important to "give oneself" in order to recognize the homeless by validating the fact that it exists and that we have seen it.Say "hello", nod, exchange a look and a word are all small acts that seem harmless but to which the homeless are far from being indifferent.

These are tiny marks of recognition which take on all their importance given the stigmatization to which the fact of doing the round: these symbolic gestures in a way compensate for the negative effects of stigma.Because it is sometimes expressed in contrast by severe remarks as they were seated on the ground

It must be realized that, even if some homeless people describe the English Channel as a "work", monitored at fixed hours, fixed positions and techniques learned from the job, this is a particularly difficult activity, morallyAnd physically, which provides well -skinny resources to consider that they "take advantage" of the generosity of passers -by ...