Originally Posted by
jjj111 
I think we have to balance on a fine line in responding to this post. Clearly this person crossed a line and became very personally invested in trying to build some kind of honest (and possibly intimate?) relationship with a homeless teenager in a short amount of time. I don't think that means that we all have to refuse to acknowledge the homeless, or that all homeless people are money-hungry users. I personally feel there's nothing wrong with giving a little cash to a clearly needy person on the street now and then, and certainly as Ann has pointed out, giving to a charity that serves the homeless is also a good option.
Thank you. I was homeless a few times and a runaway minor as well. I did not grow up in foster care and I am now in a position where a few hundred dollars will not even be noticed as deducted from my bank accounts. I do also give to others on the street. Last Christmas I picked someone at random in the supermarket and paid for their Christmas groceries.
I did have drug abusing friends when I was a teen and this incident caused some of those awful feelings of those days to resurface. I do remember one good friend who called me a few years after I broke off our friendship, who wanted to apologize for how he had treated me and he thanked me for what I had done to try to help him.
With regards to my current situation, I wasn't told he was a runaway from foster care at first. I was told he had checked himself out of state custody, which he said he could do at age 16. There were no ulterior motives on my part. I was taking him at his word that he was living in homeless shelters and surviving day by day. I thought maybe he could use the support of someone in a positive way, yet that turned into what it turned into. And I came here because I didn't want to belief that it was drug related, but the more I think of it, the more convinced I am that it was.