Homeless:  Here & There

Coming from San Francisco where I lived in SoMa and worked in the Mission District I had my fair share of experience with, crack heads, drug dealers, gang members, mentally ill psychos and of course homeless people.  Moving 7,000 miles across the world, I have left most of the crack heads, drug dealers, gang members and mentally ill pysychos behind but still deal with a fair share of homeless.

Bangkok is much much bigger than San Francisco and I haven’t been to most of it but so far I am guessing that San Francisco has far more homeless people per capita than Bangkok but there is a big difference.  The homeless people in San Francisco are mostly a mixture of people with mental illness and drug addictions which is far difference from the homeless in Bangkok.

Homeless in Bangkok

There are a fair share of homeless people along the Sukhumvit which is the are with the most cash flow in the whole country of Thailand.  You would think that the majority of the homeless would be in an area where the most money is walking around so overall there are very few homeless in Bangkok compared to San Francisco.

The primary difference I see is the homeless in Bangkok are truly homeless while the homeless of San Francisco have far more options to improve their life.  You see people with missing limbs and other deformities literally lying face down in the middle of a busy sidewalk and they appear to have been there all day.

I would say the ratio of people giving change to the homeless is about the same in both places.  I myself, often will give small change if I have it handy.   I have something I call “Homeless Packs” which I make for the homeless.

Homeless Packs

In San Francisco I would create Homeless Packs of stuff which I didn’t want anymore.  I would usually put some old (but nice) clothes, cleaned, and folded in an old backpack and put some other goodies in there and give it to homeless people I walk by.  I figured it was better than the city’s stupid homeless meters and the idiots who give them money right in front of a liquor store.

My last homeless pack I gave away was on the last day of living in my apartment.  I had 12 or so beers and 4 bottles of wine and some hard liquor which I stuffed in a computer bag which weighed about 40 pounds full booze.  I told a homeless guy by my work that I had a secret mission for him.  His smile when he opened the bag was priceless.  I saw him on the block about 40 minutes later and he told me he passed the mission.

Since all my belongings fit in a couple pieces of luggage now and I hardly buy anything the only thing I have to give away is money.  It works out great because unlike the homeless people in San Francisco, the homeless in Bangkok are actually starving and I would think that any money I give them will go directly to food and water to stay alive rather than a 40 at the local liquor store.

I take all my coins under 5 baht, some Malaysian Ringittes for good measure and throw them in a little plastic bag.  One, 2 and .5 baht coins are pretty much an inconvenience to have in your pockets anyways.  The first homeless pack which probably had 150-200 baht I gave to a little kid who was begging at the BTS entrance of MBK.  He looked pretty shocked when I gave him the pound bag of money but I looked back and a minute later he gave it to the homeless guy across the way which I guess was his dad.

I have heard about the parents or adults using the kids as ‘bait’ and seen it in Manila but I guess it exists all over.  I remember last time I was here at Khao San Road there were these little kids who came up to you with laminated note cards which said something like, “Hi my name is XXX, I am gathering money to attend college, I want to be a doctor.  Could you please help?” which I guarantee had a guy sitting in an apartment counting the money.

I had a spill of small coins a few minutes ago so I decided to blog about homeless packs because on Monday on the way to Thai language class I have scouted out a homeless lady who I will give my newest homeless pack Monday night.

Last 5 posts by Mike Behnken

• Places to Visit in Thailand: Sukhothai - January 15th, 2011
• Part III: Places to visit from Pokhara: Sarangkot - January 15th, 2011
• Things to do from Pokhara: Part II - Sunrise at World Peace Stupa - January 8th, 2011
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• Places to Visit from Kathmandu- Nagarkot: Part II - November 19th, 2010