They already get lots of food and clothing. What they need is drug and alcohol treatment and if they refuse it, then that's their choice. I'd suspect such a gift card would be quickly traded for cash and that cash used for drugs.
This little piece about Skid Row in Los Angeles by a police officer that has patrolled it for nearly 30 years may be of benefit to you:
We have a local shelter here in Denver called
Step Denver (formerly known as Step 13) which takes in people who want rehab on the expectation of being sober while there. I think we need more of these facilities.
Why do you judge all Homeless as drug addicts ? Some people are homeless because of chronic pain and disability, like myself. I do not use drugs. I live in a homeless shelter, and I could use the heck out of some socks! (Even though I use my money to buy things I need, like hygiene and clothing, pay my phone bill etc etc . I could always use socks... Do you know why the homeless need socks so much? I will tell you why:
Picture you are forced to wake up early get out of bed and vacate the premises regardless of its freezing cold out side, or blistering hot. You now have to remain outside with no where to go for hours until the shelter allows you back into it usually around super time. So from 8 AM till 5 PM you walk around the city seamlessly, usually without hope, since you are homeless, usually have Hygiene issues and that makes it hard to find a job. getting a good nights rests is near impossible, from all the dirty smells of feet, and people with hygiene problems who do not bath, then the fact that you're usually cramped into a small dorm setting, with other men who snore, and by the time you finally get some rest you are abruptly awoken to repeat the process. The only shoes you own start to smell because you're forced to ware them all day, and you have no where to rest and take them off. Usually when you buy a new pair they quickly get ruined because your socks and feet smell back, and the problem proceeds.
This is the case for ALL homeless people, including myself.
However, some may be drug addicts, and a lot of time, they result in that due to the nature of their treatment at these shelters. Some people refuse to live in the shelter due to this process and rather live in a tent or on a warm subway grate. Some people do not even use drugs and they have this problem solely for the fact they are forced outside all day, with no where to go. Usually homeless people have no family support hence why they live in the shelter to begin with. And people in my case, where brought up in foster care and forced to go to the shelter when they turned 18 and have found it very hard to transition out of it.
I think it is very unfair you judge people this way.
My approach is this:
Socks, a quick snack, subway token and a 2-3$ gift card to a coffee shop that they can use to buy an item granting them access for a while in a warm setting. You can not sell the card for any type of drugs, and most people will keep the token for the transportation to get home. however no one is the same, and so you must use something God calls
Discernment.
Try to put yourself in their situation for 1 week. become homeless and do not use your money to survive. anyone can do it. Go to a shelter for 1 week and experience what we experience.
Then, and only then can you give your opinionated ideas of forced treatment wasting tax payers money. - Not all drug addict want addiction help, and to force them into it would do nothing for them..
Instead try kneeling to their level and praying for them.
1 Peter 3:12
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
