Hey buddy, spare a quarter

There are a lot of bums, beggars, druggies and losers on the streets here. Nothing surprising there, as every big city has its share of street scum. But there are 2 main differences here. The first is that Vancouver is a very liberal city, with very generous laws about the welfare of the homeless. This tends to mean that homeless from other cities will migrate here because they don't get kicked off the street.

The other main difference is the large number of young "homeless"" here. I use the term "homeless" in a broad sense, as one tends to get the feeling that they have simply opted out. They lie in alcoves and shop doorways, asking for spare change. It's difficult to feel any sympathy for them though, as they seem to be well resourced when it comes to getting tattoos, piercings, drugs and even pets. And then they won't even sit up or say please when they ask for money.

This tends to mean that you adopt a blaise attitude to all beggars. Which is a shame really, because there are some real hard luck cases out there.

Of course there are also the people who are just plain nuts. I don't know what you do about them.