What do you think usually happens when you don’t fill in the address and phone number on an application form, especially when the other applicants you are competing with provide them?
I presume you are assuming the guy in question is actually homeless. Possible, but not certain.
Also, back when I used to hire daylaborers, my experience was that the organizations we worked with did not require addresses. And, talking with the daylaborers, many of them were homeless.
My current explanation is that many homeless are able to provide contact information - either a family member, a friend, or a shelter. Section 8 housing and township support if widely available. And I regularly interact with homeless people who have a subsidized cellphone (the common term is “Obamaphone”.)
So what’s your point?
You sure make a lot of convenient assumptions.
And “Obamaphone” is not a common term-it is a cheap hit.
In my job, I regularly interact with homeless people, as well as people receiving all manner of public aid. I guess I do find it convenient to assume what people tell me under oath.
When a person tells me that they have an Obamaphone (as has happened NUMEROUS times), and I repeat that, I am taking a cheap hit?
Shelter addresses and phone numbers are flagged by businesses, Section 8 housing for families has an infamously long waiting list and strict qualifications, and the only time I have heard the term “Obamaphone” is when right wingers mistakenly complain about the Obama administration giving free phones and free service to the homeless. It is actually called The Lifeline program, it originated in 1984 under the Reagan administration, it later expanded in 2008 under the Bush administration and only covers monthly discounts on landline or wireless telephone service for eligible consumers. It does not pay cellular companies to provide free cell phones to consumers.
Oooh! I thought of another sign which will guarantee that I NOT give - “Disabled Vet”
I’ve had enough people tell me, “I have an Obamaphone,” that I never cared to research the name or any other specifics about the program. I guess I oughta start correcting them…
I am sure you will never run out of reasons not to give to those who ask for help.
Likely true.
I have never heard of a Lifeline phone. I have heard of Obamaphones as a common term for free government phones (the ones I know of are cell phones, maybe its a different program?). Seeing as how my sample base of homeless people is very small, I asked a friend who is a food stamp eligibility worker what they were called. She says they are usually known as Obamaphones.
I didn’t usually carry cash to give out and thought that donating to homeless shelters and food banks was enough. Things have changed a lot, homeless shelters have half the beds they used to, food banks have lines a mile long. I now carry cash to hand out to anyone who asks without restrictions as to how its used. Sometimes something to dull the pain is just as important as food to get through the night.
There was a panhandler in St Martin I used to know. He worked an area on the Dutch side that was pretty congested with nice restaurants. On our first meeting he approached me and pointed out the flashing light over the ATM down the road. He told me the light was flashing because it was out of order (heh, no, it wasn’t, but that was his spiel). He asked if I could spare a dollar.
We had just had a lovely meal, several bottles of wine, etc. I pulled out my cash but the smallest I had was a twenty. He thanked me profusely, then told me he’d help me pull out into traffic. That was splendid!! He walked out into the road and stopped all traffic so I could back out.
I saw him several more times that year and each time he’d turn down money from me, saying I’d given him plenty. We invited him for a drink and he joined us, telling stories about the island that were priceless. And everytime we saw him he’d stop traffic for us to pull out. We became friends.
He became a highlight of each year’s vacation, a true friend who we helped out financially each year until the tenth year when he wasn’t around. We asked people about him and although everyone knew who we were talking about, nobody knew what became of him. My gf recently brought him up (it’s been 7 years since we’ve seen him) and admitted to me that every year she would sneak him $100 when I wasn’t looking. I wish I knew what became of him.
Yeah - similar to my experience. Cellphones called Obamaphones by their users. Also never heard the term “Lifeline.”
As pointed out in this thread, asking for help is not the same as needing help.
Refusing aid to those who don’t need it-fine, as long as you know it isn’t needed and are not just assuming it out of convenience.
So the burden of proof is on me to verify the beggar doesn’t need help? Well without a look at their financial documents I presume someone with hiking boots that cost $hundreds, similarly a jacket that costs $hundreds and a brand new iPhone or Samsung Galaxy has plenty of disposable income.
And I take exception to your “assuming it out of convenience”. I donate plenty to charities and part of that are organizations that help the needy (like food banks). I don’t know why there is an obligation to give some guy that I don’t know his circumstances a few bucks.
You have been extremely judgmental about people in this thread that choose not to give to people begging. As someone in this thread said “You sure make a lot of convenient assumptions.”
It started in 1985 under Reagan.
I’m surprised no one calls them “Trump phones”.
Imagine the Tweetstorm.
I cried because I had no shoes. then, I met a man who had no feet.
So I said, Hey man… you got any shoes you could give me?
Give me…Zero!!
First time I was in San Francisco:
Literally the first person I talked to came up to me with “Kin ah tell y’a story?” I said “Okay, I’m not going to give you any money, but I do like stories…” What followed was a long, involved narrative that had this tacked on the end: “So anyways I need $58.50 to get to Bakersfield.”
That was something I noticed the whole week I was there…
SF: Home of the oddly specific dollar amounts.
…
Best sign there:
Need Money For The Bus
(but im gonna spend it on weed)
It worked, I gave him a bunch.
A kid in New Orleans:
'Mister, I bet you $10 that I can tell you where you got your shoes"
Me
“Youre on!!”
Kid
“You got yo feet…on Bourbon Street”
I gave him the money. 
Actually, donated items can account for some of the random high-end articles of clothing worn by beggars. I’ve donated a lot of brand-new items to Salvation Army and women’s shelters. So don’t just go by that when you make your calculations of whether a person is faking it or not.