Homeless man shamed on Facebook inspires community support: 'They changed my life in a few days'
After a woman’s angry Facebook post berated a homeless man for sleeping in a McDonald’s, community members stepped up to donate supplies for him and his child. And now, the man says, they are no longer without a place to live.
The man, 21-year-old Simon Childs, was sleeping between his shifts at McDonald’s in Fayette County, Ga., according to WSB-TV 2 Atlanta. He had recently lost his mother and is raising his young son on his own.
The woman, unaware of his situation, took to Facebook to write that seeing Childs there was “just another reason for me to leave Fayetteville.”
“I was in the McDonald’s in the middle of town and I saw this guy sleeping in the booth,” the post, written in a private group (and therefore hiding her identity from public view), said. “I go and tell an employee that someone is asleep in their booth and her response was ‘oh yeah, we know hee hee, it’s ok’ and I said ‘not really but whatever.’”
A woman took a picture of a man asleep at a McDonalds and complained on Facebook, and how the community responded changed his life forever.
"I'm not homeless, not now, thanks to her."
@ 11 #Nightbeat pic.twitter.com/OFQ6iYRu5r— Matt Johnson (@MattWSB) June 24, 2019
WSB-TV reported that Childs was hurt when he heard about her Facebook post.
"It kind of hurt to see my picture up there, you know? I thought it was something negative and nobody would care about it,” he told the channel.
But, her negative post turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the man, who returned to work shocked to see donated supplies, including diapers for his son and clothes for both of them, from community members who saw the post.
“They changed my life in a few days,” he told WSB-TV. He added that he doesn’t even hold a grudge against the woman who wrote the original post. “I’m not homeless, not now, thanks to her.”
According to WSB-TV, a reporter spoke to the woman off-camera, discovering that “she never intended to shame any one person in particular and she posted it in a private group.”
The Atlanta channel spoke to nearby restaurant co-owners Xavier Thomas and Theo Thomas of Fusion Chefs Eatery — who decided to reach out to Childs and let him borrow a car to get to and from job interviews.
"It definitely will help him get around and give him a better opportunity," Thomas told WSB-TV.
Childs has since received job offers and is hopeful for the chance to find something stable and permanent.
Neither Fusion Chefs Eatery nor representatives from McDonald’s Fayette branch and McDonald’s Corp. immediately responded to Yahoo Lifestyle’s requests for comment.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
Ashley Graham says a man spat on her husband for being black: 'It's really heartbreaking'
Community furious after racist comments about Muslim sixth-graders' class photo surface online
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