Yeah well, as usual, there's a flipside to the coin as well.
Many of those ppe are not really that poor. For some of them it's just the easiest way to get by.

Like.. Imagine the following situation:
An old lady has an appartment in the center of the city that she got for free during Communist rule. Now times have changed and she gets like ~100-150 USD of retirement benefits.
Yet her appartment is valued at 100-150k USD. She offers a room for rent, but being as she is, tormenting occupants and constantly bi%&amp; about everything and constantly increasing the rent with the excuse that "oh this is a great appartment in the center of the city, you MUST pay more...", many people move out and she can't get by on her retirement benefit. So what happens is she just supplements her income by doing her daily stint on the street.

Bottom line is, some of those "poor little old women" actually have more assets to their name than many Western Europeans!

I know it sounds harsch and hard to believe, but yeah well, I've seen FAR worse while living in Sofia.

There are many dark sides to Sofia, alas :/

p.s. I don't know if you've noticed, but it's extremely fashionable in Bulgaria to complain about "having no money", "there being no jobs", "pay is too low" etc. And yet those same people drive their expensive cars, the cafes are full to the brim, and many business centers in Sofia can't even find employees, although they offer a starting salary of ~1000 USD or something..

p.s.2. Sorry if my post is somewhat radical/cynical :) I just feel that one should always state the truth, no matter how politically incorrect it may be.

AND WHO KNOWS, MAYBE THOSE POOR WOMEN REALLY ARE IN NEED, SO HEADS UP! WHAT YOU DID IS ADMIRABLE EITHER WAY!