Why didnt Joe and Ratso just go to a Homeless Shelter or a Soup Kitchen?
That has always bothered me when watching this movie, i live in Pittsburgh,PA and there are a lot of Homeless people and drifters here and there are a lot of Homeless Shelters and Soup Kitchens and Charities for the poor and needy too, Why wouldnt Joe and Ratso just look those kinds of places up in the phone book or ask around and go there to get a free meal or shelter for the night when it got really cold outside? Then return to that abandoned building when they were finished there.
But you always see the poor and Homeless drifting around the Homeless Shelters and Soup Kitchens around here and in every other city and small town too, they always know where they are located and go there to eat and get clothes and a bath or other things, Ratso is not an idiot and would have to be aware of this too, he even had his property of the YMCA stuff that Joe Buck complained about him stealing in his apartment, that says to me that he knew that they could go to places and get help and food instead of starving for food every day like they did.
There is also the The Bowery Mission is a rescue mission located at 227 Bowery between Rivington and Stanton Streets in the Bowery neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It provides food, shelter, medical services and employment assistance to poor homeless men, In addition to these services, The Bowery Mission offers a long-term (6-12 month) residential program based on Christian Discipleship, providing homeless men the opportunity to rejoin society as working, contributing members. The Mission was founded in 1879 by the Reverend Albert Gleason Ruliffson and his wife, It was the third rescue mission established in the United States, and the second in New York City, The Mission is currently administered by The Christian Herald Association.
Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo could have easily gone to a place like this and gotten help and food there too, or to Harlem which has homeless shelters and welfare for the poor and needy, i remember in The 25TH Hour with Edward Norton when his character tells a drug addict that is homeless and needs food to eat to go to Harlem because they have the shelter there that will help him out, so Ratso and Joe could have easily gone there too.
And one last gripe, we never see Joe or Ratso panhandling at all either, most Bums and Homeless people panhandle for money on the sidewalks and on the street corners and make easy money doing this all the time, Ratso should have been a king at this craft, and they never eat out of garbage cans which most Homeless people usually do, another trick that Ratso would have picked up after living on the streets for years.