Footie

Today we watched a video about a homeless man called "Footie" who was essentially given an apartment for free by an organization called "Pathways".

The organization aims to help the chronically homeless, who typically suffer from mental disabilities and addiction.  This subset of homeless people seem to be very difficult to work with, and I applaud Pathways for taking the steps to help them because they are the homeless who are easily forgotten or uncared about by the rest of society.

While I was watching the documentary I felt somewhat irritated at Footie's reaction to the entire situation at first. In response to someone offering him a house without requiring him to change at all he left and got drunk, making the people who gave him such a generous offer search for him in the city. That is a very sad thing. How could anyone in Footie's situation treat such an offer with such little respect? Why should I support Pathways in trying to help this seemingly ungrateful type of homeless person if they're not going to appreciate it?

Granted, it did seem that Footie was happier in his home and that he had clothes in his drawers, and he did say thank you once. But who wouldn't be happier? It's just that it seemed like he expected all of these things for himself without showing any sort of gratitude toward the people who helped him. That irritates me. Assistance should never be an expectation, but a gift that needs to be appreciated.