What would you do if a homeless child came outside your house?

I would ask them to wait for a while, then I would call 911, and let the authorities handle the matter.

I would give them food but don’t invite them in, and call the cops. Depending on the weather I might give them a blanket to stay warm. The world is too fucked up for me to trust a stranger enough to let into my home. Yeah it’s a child but this doesn’t mean they aren’t being manipulated or forced into acting hungry and sad to be let in and open the door to whoever they are working for when I’m not looking.

I'd give it food. But then doing anything other than calling the police or social services could get you in serious trouble with the police. Although it would be cool to let it stay with you and help it yourself, life isn't a fairytale unfortunately, and that would be seen as really inappropriate nowadays. Besides, it would be best for the child in the long term to be properly taken care of by the authorities.

If someone in real need appears at my door (or even out and about) I will often provide immediate assistance. I've done that all my life (and food is a common item).

In the case of a homeless child asking for food; unless they appeared threatening I would indeed let them into the house and start to feed them food.

While food was warming up or cooking (I have lots of meals frozen in the freezer) I'd be asking questions about where they live and their parents, relatives, etc.

Depending on the response I would then call their parents or relatives, or call the local police to report that I had such a person in my house, was feeding them, etc. and would like to talk to an appropriate public assistance person about options.

If my wife was there we might discuss options. It would not be unusual for us to offer for a person to spend the night until we could reunite them with relatives.

I've actually picked up hitch hikers and taken them home, or taken in people for the night in the past, fed them, washed their clothing, and sent them on their way the next day with several days of food, and perhaps some spending money. I have reunited a person with relatives (we met about half way) to get a person to care and safety within their family as well.

I have several times picked up people off the side of the highway (where someone else kicked them out of a vehicle between cities) and took care of them (usually going out of my way to get them to a safe place they know). 2 of these cases had me calling the police in the next major city and arranging to be directed to an appropriate homeless shelter for the person (and in one case when the officer asked me if the young lady was a minor I had to tell them I did not know - and it was possible; and the officer arranged for me to get her to a homeless shelter where they could handle minors if she was one).

I believe that the reason I'm on this earth is to take care of people. As long as they do not threaten me - I do what I can.

I've never had the police or social services criticize me for assisting and ensuring a person gets to an appropriate safe environment. In fact, they complement and thank me for caring and doing what I am doing. Anytime I've asked to talk to someone about options... they have always talked about options with me. No one has ever told me I could not have someone stay overnight until the next day when normal social services could become involved.

Has there been some "interesting" situations. Yes (I had one person tell me that I'd treated him very fairly without judgment and he turned over his guns to me for safe keeping during the night so I would not worry much. I returned them to him the next morning (I'm used to handling guns), fed him a good breakfast, packed a few days of sandwiches and other snacks, and drove him 40 miles to an interstate he wanted to hitchhike on to get several states down the road where he had a friend he could stay with).

I feel I have been blessed by all the responses on this.

Do good... it pays off in many ways...

Poke him with a large stick until he moved along.

Sell them off for scientific research.

put em to work choppin firewood

Feed it and call CPS. Then talk my wife out of wanting to adopt it.

Thanks!

Bring him/her in from the cold, feed him/her. call CPS and the COPS then let them take over.

I'd offer some food and I dont know call the red cross or something.

Food sure but they ain't stepping one foot in my house.

I would ask where the parents are and depending on the situation I would allow to stay a couple of days in my house.

If a homeless child came outside my house, I'd offer him or her a tissue to clean up with ;-)

Sell him/her into slavery.

Hand the thing a trash bag as a blanket and give it a space under the house to sleep, toss some kitchen garbage under there for it to eat. Spray it with a hose to get rid of it the next morning.

I would ask them to masterbate somewhere else next time.

Why the hell does everyone in this comment section called the kid, "it"? That "thing" is a fuckin human being without a home, and you have the balls to call them a fuckin thing?

Now, like most of the comment section, I would call CPS after feeding it a PB&J Sandwich with Chocolate Milk.

Work out which welfare service to call, then call them. It’s common sense really.

My dog would probably attack it before it got close to my house 😈

Depends on a lot of factors.