Barbara--I really appreciate your posts (this one and others on other threads) Very thoughtful and helpful. For me, giving him some money is mainly a way to just get it DONE and over with, and I guess, somewhat to assuage my guilt. His sister helped me with this by telling me that she'd allow him to live with her IF he isn't drinking. So then, he does have a choice outside of homelessness, but it would actually require sobriety on his part. If he won't choose that over homelessness, he deserves his fate I suppose.