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A few days ago, a guy approaches me asking for something to eat, or some money, I forget his story.  I say wait here, I'll bring you a sandwich in 15 minutes (it was near home).  I walk home, fix a sandwich, throw in a cold Coke can, and some crackers.  I got back, he's waiting, and he asks me, again, for money.

I don't carry cash around.  I tell him that, he gets a bit smarmy telling me he really needs money.  Sorry, I don't have cash, I walk off.

He's cussing me out as I walk off.

I think he threw the sandwich in the garbage can.

A few days ago, a guy approaches me asking for something to eat, or some money, I forget his story.  I say wait here, I'll bring you a sandwich in 15 minutes (it was near home).  I walk home, fix a sandwich, throw in a cold Coke can, and some crackers.  I got back, he's waiting, and he asks me, again, for money.

I don't carry cash around.  I tell him that, he gets a bit smarmy telling me he really needs money.  Sorry, I don't have cash, I walk off.

He's cussing me out as I walk off.

I think he threw the sandwich in the garbage can.

Substance abuse problems are an ugly thing. 

I'd like to see some posts on solutions to racial inequity. Is that too much to ask?

In your usual vein, more and better training. A friend works in an industry that slants pretty white. His company would like to hire diverse, but the candidate pool is always shallow and usually does better. There's an org that offers specific training for minority groups that gives a little leg up, but it's a small one. 

I wish I knew some way to make poverty easier to grind out of. Obviously the legal system is for punishing, but something that punishment puts someone in a cycle of financial setbacks that inhibits a road to prosperity (think court fees, fines, etc.)

Another tough spot is housing. How do you create places where people can live safely/somewhat cleanly when they start from nothing?

I wish I had a lot of really good suggestions, but of course if I did, I'd probably be working in a field to try to bring them to reality in a big way. 

. . . I think the challenge is that help can only come from 'the people' and the government can't just wait around and hope for that to happen. 

Almost like you have $5 in your hand and there's a homeless person outside a restaurant.  You know giving them the money probably won't genuinely help....do you wait around, hoping someone give them some food (actual help) from the restaurant or do you just give them the $5?  You don't want to walk away, but you don't want to stay and look like a jerk. 

What does a government do when the only genuine help and the path towards equality can only be provided by the people?

But what if "government help" is a major reason that the homeless person is homeless?  (And, in real life, that is often the case.)  Is more of it going to be the fix?
We've had major government help since 1966 (when the War on Poverty/Great Society programs began coming on line) and the poverty rate is now what it was then--it bumps along between 11% and 14%.
It's not only blatantly discriminatory policies like FHA redlining that have hurt poor people in general and black people particularly, it's also "good" legislation like minimum-wage laws, which make it harder for less-educated, less-skilled, less-experienced workers find work.  That impacts black people disproportionately.  And there's the Wagner Act--organized labor's "Magna Carta"--of the New Deal.  It dictated that businesses contracting with the federal government must pay the "prevailing wage."  That meant the union wage.  And most trade unions excluded blacks.  Awhile back I read an analysis (the details of which I now unfortunately forget) showing that that policy is still adversely affecting black Americans.
In general, many federal welfare programs have discouraged work and encouraged single-parent families, which are exactly the wrong incentives for poor people in general and especially for black Americans, where the lack of a father, married to the mother, in the home helping to raise the children, is at the heart of many social ills.
I'd be willing to try a negative income tax plan like Milton Friedman (Mr. Free Market) advocated ca. 1970.  Basically, the government sets a certain amount of income for a given family size, and if the family income is less than that, the government pays 80% (or some other percentage) of the difference.  There's help, but there's still an incentive for the breadwinner(s) of that family to keep striving for more income.  And it would eliminate vast swaths of the welfare bureaucracy, which may be a major reason that it didn't make it through Congress back during the Nixon administration.  Those welfare workers are unionized, and they vote, and their unions donate to political campaigns.
I'd like to see some social stigmas return.
For fathers who don't bother to marry the mothers of their children, and then abandon them to go spread their pollen elsewhere.  (Oops!  That would describe some large proportion of professional athletes, our idols.)
For unwed mothers in general (on principle) and especially for young, poor unwed mothers.  Cheap contraceptives are widely available, but we subsidize bad choices, encouraging more of them.
For parents who can't manage to get up in the morning and feed their children, leaving it up to the schools to do the job instead.

I once was "poor", in quotes because while I was constantly short of money, I had parents as backup.  I discovered that when you have no backup, being poor means having to take on credit card debt.  Your old car breaks down, you have to have it to get to your job.  OK, you run up credit card debt at 22% interest.  Any minor hiccup means you have to give something up or go further into debt.  You likely owe someone for some ten year old car as it is, and he'd love to repo the car on you.  The you lose your job and have to find one you can walk to, making maybe $8/hr instead of $12.  It spirals out of control quickly without a break.

So, maybe to try and better yourself you take night classes while working to become an RN or something, but that costs money.  You're doing everything "right", but just need a break.  That's the person I'd like to help, but they are too busy trying to get by to know how to seek help.

I really admired the kids at our HS who came from "nothing" and ended up being something.  They often had a mother pushing them.

We do have negative income tax today of course.

Earned Income Tax Credit?  Does it work as I described Friedman's plan?

Earned Income Tax Credit?  Does it work as I described Friedman's plan?

Not exactly.  But it's there.  One could argue it should be expanded and enlarged.