Woman Asks Homeless Man 'Why Don't You Have A House?' After He Berates Her For Not Having Change
She has now backtracked and rushed to his defense after commenters completely misunderstood the situation.
Tik Tok In this day and age, between For You Page algorithms, and billions of Internet users, there’s really no telling how far a simple video or post could spread. There are things we can try to do to attract attention, of course, but sometimes, we don’t choose fame, it finds us.
We’ve heard this important piece of advice for those posting content on the Internet for ages: we never know when a post could go viral, and who can see it. For one TikTok user, this advice became a hard-learned lesson.
One woman’s video about an argument with a homeless man went viral and attracted hundreds of comments so cruel, the original poster had to shut them down herself.
She posted that a homeless man berated her for not having change and she hit him with a harsh reply.
Her relatively small account on TikTok recently drew in over five hundred thousand views in less than two days, all in response to one simple video where she joked about a heated conversation she had had with a homeless man she regularly brings food to.
In her video, she recounted her daily encounter with a homeless man to who she gives food “almost every morning.” On this particular day, however, he had apparently gotten frustrated, and asked her: “why don’t you ever have change, you piece of s--t?”
In response, the Tik Tok user had fired back: “why don’t you have a house, you piece of s--t?” The audio accompanying the video carried a boastful, humorous message that said: “when they go low, I go lower.”
The video lacks any real meaningful context into the TikTok user’s life or relationship with the man and was clearly intended to be a lighthearted recounting of a frustrating encounter that would probably be seen by a couple of hundred people at most.
However, within the day, the video attracted more and more views, and soon took a dark turn as the comments began to pour in.
Hundreds of other users with no context to the video were quick to applaud her response, giving examples of times they had dealt with “ungrateful” or “entitled” homeless people. With almost no context, and no relationship to the relatively unknown TikTok user, it seemed like the crowd of the Internet was just looking for an excuse to share their horror stories.
“He had to be humbled,” one user wrote. Some encouraged her to humiliate the man by eating food in front of him the next time she sees him. Others laughed and speculated that he wanted the money for hard drugs.
Very few of the comments express any sympathy for this man, or the houseless population at all, and largely rely on stereotypes to make their jokes.
In fact, an estimated 43% of people experiencing homelessness are employed, but due to minimum wage jobs and high cost of living, are still unable to keep up with personal costs. Others who struggle to find employment are also barred from doing so via systemic issues such as address requirements for applications, gaps in education or employment history, and lack of access to everyday resources such as hygiene or food.
The mental stress that homelessness inflicts on a person cannot be understated, and even those trying their best to get by are still demonized by the general public, their bosses and coworkers and friends, as the comments make clear.
However, the comments didn’t stop there. They quickly began to turn away from sharing stories and began lashing out at disabled people in general, using ableist slurs as their weapons of choice.
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Horrified by the behavior, the TikTok user then turned off comments and made a follow-up video.
“I’m just adding some context to the situation,” she began, “because I think some people are a little f---ing confused.”
She explained that she had moved to her new area in November, and ever since then, has built up a “rapport” with the homeless man she discussed in her video. “I’ve had full-blown conversations with this guy.”
She has talked to him frequently, offered to look over resumes for him, and brought him food from the nearby deli when she has money to spare.
“I’m not super well off,” she emphasized in her explanation. “I have to pick between eating and getting on the subway. Like, I’m sorry I don’t have rich parents like the rest of the people in New York.”
She pointed out that his comment hurt her because of how long they had known each other, and she has every right to feel that way, but it won’t change her decision to keep helping him out where she can.
“I’m still gonna bring him food… also, I saw [him] on my way home, too, and he’s not mad at me. He’s not mad at me.”
She also explained her reasoning for turning the comments off of the original video: to protect her loved ones from seeing ableist slurs. “You guys are using literal slurs on my post,” she accused, “and my sister who is in the next room is autistic.”
She emphasized that her feelings were not hurt by people upset at her comments to her homeless friend, but the decision to turn off the comments was done to protect her friends and family from having to see language meant to hurt them on her videos.
Hawthorn Martin is a news and entertainment writer living in Texas. They focus on social justice, pop culture, and human interest stories.