We must do better to help those in need

WALKING the streets of Melbourne one evening last week, I walked past a homeless man staring into his cap on the ground. It had 60c in it. His gaze never moved, he didn’t break eye contact with that cap, head hung low, just staring into it. Everyone walked past him as if he didn’t exist, ashamedly including myself. I returned around four hours later, my stomach full of food and beverage from a work function. That same person was still in the same spot, crouched down, staring into his cap. He now had around $1.50 in it. I put some money in his cap but felt helpless to do more, I didn’t know what more I could do. There are now seemingly so many people living on the streets in ever-increasing numbers. It seemed everywhere I walked, someone was around the next bend in the same situation. I know the same thing happens here in Tasmania but I guess I am not confronted with it on the scale that I saw the other day. I’ve heard it all before, where people say things like “many of them are conmen”, “many are druggies”, “many have mental health issues”. No matter what their personal circumstances, people should be made to feel that they matter and that society cares. I don’t have the answers, I only wish I did. All I do know is that as a society, and as individuals, we need to be better than this, we need to do better than this. I can’t get that man staring into his cap, out of my thoughts. And I can’t help but feel guilt.