One of my neighbors complained about some abandoned shopping carts being left in the neighborhood. This is undoubtedly the result of a neighbor who has no car. Now, if we could only get them to return the cart when they're done, instead of pushing into the nearest patch of knee-high weeds.
I pointed my neighbor to CartTronics which makes a device that locks the wheels of a shopping cart, when someone tries to remove them from the store's parking lot.
While searching for other companies with similar products, I wandered across the Homeless People's Network site. Another Google later, I found the Dallas Homeless Consortium which led me to both the National Coalition for the Homeless and the Texas Homeless Network.
This gives me the impression that resources are available for homeless people who want help. Many of them appear to NOT want help, preferring to steal a shopping cart (I'm sure they're not free) and then complain that Society Is Out To Get Them. I suspect there's no easy solution. I still see people with cardboard signs (often near the freeway offramps) claiming to be homeless and asking for money, even though the Dallas panhandling ordinance has been in effect since May 2003. I suspect most police (rightly) feel that they have better things to do, and only act when someone complains. I just can't help but be suspicious of these people, suspecting that a majority think this is easier than holding down a (minimum wage) job.
Reminds me of a line delivered by a 20-something a few years ago: "back in Ohio, we didn't have homeless people. We just called them [bums]."
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Re: panhandlers ... and there are some "businesses" whereby a person "hires" a bunch of people to panhandle and then gives them a slice of the take. I vaguely emember reading an article about this a few years (2-3?) ago, perhaps in the Observer or the DMN. Jolly, eh?
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