They say you should never bite the hand that feeds you, and that ol’ adage seemingly rang true during an awkward interaction between a Portland influencer and a homeless woman. Recently, street photographer and documentarian Tara Faul, who works with the organisation Truth on the Streets, became entangled in a peculiar exchange when she tried to help a homeless woman who appeared unresponsive.
The Portland-based influencer wanted to make sure that the homeless woman was still alive, so she approached her and patted her on the head to check that she was still responsive. Immediately, the woman wakes up from her slumber, and is not very pleased by the disturbance. In Faul’s own words over on X, “That was a woman and she was unresponsive on the ground for a full minute before jumping on me. Another homeless person also thought she was dying“
In the video clip, which contains the description, “An overly aggressive, love-starved, homeless woman,” Faul stoops down and checks on the woman who is sleeping rough, saying “You all right?” Suddenly, however, the lady springs into life and grabs Faul’s shoulder. “Okay. We’re good. We’re good. We’re good.” Faul utters nervously as the woman scruffs up the influencer’s hair with enthusiasm.
The lady’s actions and behaviour becomes increasingly unhinged, as she continues to ruffle up Faul’s hair, pushing her, and touching her face. It’s enough to make the cameraman and Faul’s colleagues attempt to intervene. “Okay. Stop, stop, stop. Stop!” exclaims one of Faul’s team as he gets in-between the pair in a bid to calm the situation down. “Calm down, calm down. Let go of her.” expresses the cameraman, while the homeless woman vigorously rubs her face on Faul’s hand. The influencer does attempt to reason with the woman, but it seemingly falls on deaf ears. “Are you okay?“
After some “snuggling,” the lady then attempts to lick Faul, though she recoils, stating: “Please don’t lick me.” before adding, “I’m glad you’re doing okay.” The homeless woman then tries to poke Faul in the eye, though she misses. “Why did you poke my head?” asks the homeless lady. “We thought you were overdosing.” responds one of Faul’s colleagues.
Rounding out the clip, is a poignant moment between the influencer and the homeless woman. As the lady continues to roughhouse with Faul, it’s clear that the influencer is visibly irritated. Then, the lady asks, “Why are you annoyed?” To this, the team responds, “You’re holding onto someone who doesn’t know you.” The homeless lady then turns to them, saying: “What do you mean? What did you do to me?”
As the footage continues to snowball across the internet, the clip is drawing criticism from many netizens around the globe largely because they feel that the influencer should’ve left the homeless woman alone and not disturbed her while she was sleeping. A user on TikTok reflected on the footage and penned, “homeless people don’t like to be bothered. especially when your just there to film them. she did that to you because you starting touching her like some animal so she did the same to you“. A third TikTok user, who was more sympathetic to Faul, chimed in with, “This sent shivers down my spine.”
Lastly, a third netizen thoughtfully concluded, “I think this is a lesson of both of them learning to tolerate one another in the moment. They both violated boundaries a little and they were both not threatening, and they were both fine at the end.”
