There will also be people against doing anything for the homeless. And being that you want to help the homeless, and are doing the best job at helping the homeless, you are going to be the target for all their unhappiness. You will just have to develop ways in which to deal with it.

Just think of the homeless debate as a tennis match. You main goal is to keep the ball in the other person's court. That way you are not concerned with counting up points, or with keeping track of who is ahead. Keep the focus of the debate on your opponent. Make you opponent have to do all the work of defending themselves. Let the problem of justifying one's actions be your opponents headache.

Albert Schweitzer never gave an answer to any negative remarks about his work. It prevented negative thoughts from gaining any momentum. I recommend never answering negatively slanted comments about you work. If you stay true to your work, the other people on the sidelines watching the debate will see the negativeness and will regard you as having the upper hand.

I wouldn't try to expose the negative-ness of your opponent yourself, but would rather the opponent admit their negativeness themselves.

To put the ball back in you opponents court,only answer their questions with other questions.

If I have the story right, the famous philosopher Socrates never wrote anything. At least we have nothing in writing, that is his. What we do have is Plato's writings concerning Socrates. That is, we have Socrates self defense against the state of Athens. Regardless of the fact that Socrates lost the debate, and thus, his life, his words were, and still are true.

Socrates had a unique style of debating, which came to be know as the Socratic Method. It is still among the best ways of debating, and to getting your opponent to see and understand what you have to say, by getting them to say if for you.

probably not the best example here, but it gives you an idea -

Opponent: I don't want those dirty people in my neighborhood.

You: Are not all people in this country free to go wherever they want?

Opponent: Not if they're dangerous.

You: What makes them dangerous?

Opponent: Homeless people have been know to commitcrimes, to break into homes.

You: People with homes commit crimes too. Have you ever committed a crime?

Opponent: This isn't about me.

You: Oh, I think it is. Responded by Kevin aka The Homeless Guy