There's this homeless guy in my town, I see him every day

You could greet him everytime you come across him. Find out his name and then learn his story, ask around. See if he'll tell you, then you can find out if he should be helped or wants to be helped. I think you might feel better if you helped at a homeless shelter, or maybe get him a drink even.

>>17604056
What if he's severely mentally ill and starts stalking me though and tries to kill me

I'm scared he'll gain some mental attachment to me and expect too much from me and get upset if I don't give him more, I don't know

>>17604061
Just carry on. You could give him some food every once in a while as it'd be nice, but doesn't matter much. Being homeless sucks, and at times I didn't want help as you do get used to things being shitty in a way. Small luxeries only last so long and then you have to get reacclimated to not having things. That may have just been me though.

>>17604056

No. Having a mentally ill homeless person fixate their attention on you is a nightmare. I had it happen to me several times by just working in a cafe in a big city and giving the bare minimum attention to them required by my job.

Prepare to be intruded on, stalked, and asked for favors. I've had the staring thing happen to me too. Turned out when anyone tried to interact with the guy he'd quickly turn violent. Ended up having to ban him from the store and keep the phone around anytime he showed up on the block.

Honestly when it comes to homeless people you just have to ignore the potentially dangerous ones and be very kind to the people who are just having a rough life. It's sad that you're better off ignoring someone's existence, but when you can't do anything to help them and they'd be a toxic element in your life, it's the only option. Yeah, it's harder to deal with when the problem is right in front of you, but there's plenty of people with sad lives and you've know they exist all over the world. tt's kind of naive to have a moral crisis just because one of those people happen to show up in front of you.

>>17604084
Thanks I needed to hear that

This is what I've been thinking exactly as you wrote it I just thought I was being a bit of an asshole, but no you're right

Jesus I hope he doesn't become fixated on me. That's my main fear, that I become some element of his mind that he thinks about. It's a weird thought

>>17604044
>I started crying when I got home and just wanted to scream "Why doesn't anyone help him" mainly directed at myself - why can't I help him.
>>17604061
>I'm worried if I help him he'll rape and murder me or something because he's maybe insane or something

sounds like you figured out "why doesn't anyone help him", glad we could help you work through this

>>17604044
The local cops know about him. They have decided he's harmless, and they have tried to help him find a homeless shelter, etc. If he hasn't taken their help, all they can do is keep an eye on him.

Oh, and he almost certainly was NOT staring at you, just looking aimlessly at nothing and you were in his way.