Hi all I just found this message board and this is my first post. I do not think this question has been posed before. If it has please feel free to give me a web tar and feathering.
Here in Central Texas it seems that on every highway intersection there are one or more people asking for money. They always are carrying signs that tell you how unlucky or pathetic they are. Some of these guys I’m pretty sure are actually homeless and their are others who may or may not be. I have known people who have panhandled in the past and when you look at the money made as tax free gifts most made a decent hourly wage (A couple of bucks over minimum wage. Anyway I never give any of them money as I can’t be sure it will go to anything productive or just beer/cigarettes/drugs. I prefer to give to established charities instead. Some friends and I were discussing this and most were on my side although I had a few who would give money to those who looked the most pathetic. Anyway I wanted to find out what more of the population did and what people’s view of panhandlers were in other areas.
Poll-type questions belong in IMHO, and I’m sure a nice mod will be along to move this shortly. And welcome to the SDMB. 
Anywho…no, generally I don’t give money to panhandlers. Around these parts, at least, a vast majority of them use the money to buy drugs. If they tell me they need money for food or whatever, I might offer to buy them what they want, but 9 times out of 10, they’ll come up up with some reason why that’s no good for them.
Welcome to the SDMB! One of the first things to learn around here is what forum in which to post your question/idea/topic.
Your thread “headline” indicates you want to poll the membership on their habits of giving to street panhandlers. The appropriate place for that question would be the “In My Humble Opinion” forum, which is for soliciting opinions and polling the members.
Your last statement indicates you are looking for statistical information about the giving habits of the world (or American?) population toward panhandlers. This is in fact the correct forum for the second inquiry. “General Questions” is where you post questions that have (or should have) specific factual answers.
So how about clarifying exactly what you want to know?
Well, if the beggar is simply begging for money palm up, or carrying a cup or whatnot, I ignore them. But if they are being somewhat entertaining by playing music, telling jokes, or basicaly have a good attitude towoard it, I throw a few coins.
I have only given to a panhandler once.
I was in Paris, and a raggedy fellow with an English accent came up to me and asked if I could spare a few francs. I asked him what he wanted the money for, and, looking me dead in the eye, he said, “Frankly, I want to go get drunk.”
I appreciated the honesty, and gave him enough to go on a nice little bender.
I have given people food in lieu of money before. When I worked at McDonalds, I stole a few of the cheeseburgers they were going to throw away, and gave them to the homeless lady who used to come in and buy a cup of hot tea to get warm.
We don’t seem to get the same kind of ‘beggars’ here in the UK; all that I have seen have been very obviously homeless and hungry; often they will be seen selling a magazine called The Big Issue - this is published to be sold exclusively by (verified)homeless folks so that they can earns some money. It is usually quite a good read.
Having once been homeless, of course I give. I know what it is to be a handful of change away from keeling over from malnutrition (although you wouldn’t know it to look at me today.)
I do give to panhandlers. Frankly, I don’t care if they spend my quarter on malt liquor, whores, or crack. All I know is if my life turned to crap and I had to beg for money to survive I wouldn’t be saving up for an ITT tuition or collard greens. I would be easing the pain until my mortal coil loosened its grip.
However, at my campus there is the same group of hustlers harassing the students every week. Some of them look better off than some of the students. Those guys I tell to get an f-ing job. And I agree established charities are usually a smarter route, although admin costs can be ridiculous. The NY Times Neediest Cases Fund is a good one.
That girl in Utah who had been kidnapped was snatched by a panhandler who had been given $5 and then wrangled a couple hours work fixing their roof.
Panhandlers are on their own because they are dangerous. There’s plenty of places for homeless who aren’t on the run or always getting kicked out of shelters for flashing knives, using drugs, etc.
Off to IMMHO.
DrMatrix - General Questions Moderator
In my town, I think there is one shelter, though I’ve never seen it. Either way, the panhandlers are very friendly. One startled me one time and apologize profusely, so I have him (iirc) all I had, which was only about 50¢. That’s my little story.
I was never dangerous. I was broke, I had no one that would help me. I was alone.
I like to remember something that was said in “A Fire in the Sun”, where the main character talks about his religion’s stance on charity, saying that it was more than just a religious duty- it was a social force, because you never knew when it was going to be -you- that had nothing.
I never give anything to the beggars, bums and panhandlers here.
Time and time again, I’ve seen a beggar with a “hungry” sign, and someone brings them food, which is refused with the explanation that they just want money.
I’ve seen then commuting into the city discussing amongst themselves where the good spots are to be. Yes! Commuting at $4-10 for the round trip.
Then there’s what I can only describe as beggar pimps. These characters direct the beggars to be at such-and-such location and such-and-such time.
There may be some truly homeless and down-and-out people around here, but for most of them, it’s a regular job, just not a traditional kind of job.
I usually give money to street musicians, but I never give money to someone just sitting or standing around asking for change. I don’t care whether people use it for food or beer or drugs, but there’s just too many of them. In Austin, the street along the edge of the UT campus is always full of them, and people stand with signs at a lot of the major intersections.
If I encountered such need on a daily basis I probably couldn’t afford to give a buck to everyone I saw asking for cash or perhaps I’d even become numb to the whole scene but for now I give a buck to anyone who asks.
I have paid a windshield washer to not wash my windshield more than once.
No, but because there aren’t any around here. The only time I’ve seen any was when I visited NYC; I’ve never even seen anyone begging in Boston(homeless yes, begging no). If they were something I ran into frequently, I suspect that I’d be offering to buying them food rather than giving them money.
I give if the person asking really does seem needy.
So I don’t give if they are wearing better more expensive trainers/clothes than I own. It is supprising how many pan handlers round San Francisco wear expensive Nike Trainers.
Back when I lived in New Jersey and visited New York City quite often I would always spare a couple of bucks or the spare change in my pocket for the beggars in the street and subway because they kept out of my face, maintained a low profile and I know it can be fairly tough in NYC.
When I moved to Colorado Springs I was shocked at the number of panhandlers downtown (where I live) who were all noisy and seemed to swarm everywhere unlike their urban counterparts. What galled me was the fact that most of them are runaways or just shiftless kids cutting class trying to bum chump change asking for nickels or quarters. Yeah, it’s nice they’re direct but something about it rubs me the wrong way. Get a coffee cup, jingle it now and again and mumble to yourself.
Bah, I’m just homesick.
I have a little story to tell about panhandlers and money. I was walking through Greenwich Village when I was about 20, and this kid about my age asked me for money. I told him instead I’d buy him something to eat. He took me up on it and picked out some stuff, which I paid for. Then we got to talking and hanging out, and he invited me back to his squat.
Yes, I realize this was a very dangerous and stupid thing to do, but I was young and foolhardy, so I went. It was off Tompkins Square Park, on the Lower East Side. It was a pretty sketchy situation: an empty building with a ton of kids living there in semi-squalor. There, imagine my surprise, they had plenty of alcohol and marijuana (hard drugs were not allowed in this squat). They also claimed to have plenty food from dumpster diving behind restaurants and grocery stores. They spent their panhandling money on pot and beer.
Most of them had pretty sad stories about crappy home lives and abuse, but some of them claimed they were on an adventure, just kicking it in the squat for the summer. I had no idea what would happen to them in the winter, and neither did they; I imagine many of them went back home.
Based on this experience, I wouldn’t give money to a panhandler, but I would buy him food if the situation seemed to warrant it. It’s hard to deny another human being food if they want it and I can buy it for them.
I don’t give for several reasons. First, I’ve become numb to beggars. I live and work downtown, and I’ll see half a dozen in fifteen minutes some days. Secondly (feel free to flame) I don’t have any empathy for them. I can’t say, “there but for the grace of god go I,” since I’ve got a job, and have planned as best I can for when I don’t. Over one stretch of the summer, there were several beggars outside a store with a “help wanted” sign in the window, and that soured me on them.
Hal