Apparently the Salvation Army treats homeless people like shit?

There's a bit of a vibe about the Salvation Army in my country (England) that they look down on the homeless and see themselves as superior in some way. The homeless people I know (which included myself for a short period) are not especially keen. But then, the same is true of many shelters and charities. Being homeless is such a strange, altered state of reality that I think it's hard for people to understand the motivations and feelings of people who are.

I don't see any problem in giving to charities, but if you give money directly to homeless people and sit down and have a chat with them about general things (and treat them as a human), you'll make a real difference. Although they get used to people ignoring them and pretending they don't even exist, it does make a nice change when someone treats you as a normal person who has problems, the same as the rest of us.