It really depends on if I’m carrying anything or not. If I have a rule I go by its: ‘Please Don’t Tell Me Your Fucking Story’ and it applies to panhandlers and anyone else asking me for money. I don’t want to be put in the position of judging you. Maybe it’s good for Karma maybe I just want to feel like Stuffy McAwesome. Buy a sandwich, buy a beer I really don’t care, and I don’t want to.
We have multiple layers of support in my city for those in need. If they don’t wish to avail themselves of that support that’s their decision. Many of these people are addicts and the money panhandled goes toward the addiction.
Giving money to panhandlers enables the addiction, circumvents the support process and harms businesses.
When Jesus commanded his followers to give to the poor, did he mean panhandlers? Or did he mean give to charities that provide social services?
I voted “It depends” because it depends on my mood. 95% of the time I feel no sympathy and I’m very cynical towards panhandlers. As others have mentioned, there are better things they could be doing than panhandling no matter how bad off they are. The panhandlers are the homeless who refuse to follow the rules of charities and shelters, as I see it.
But sometimes when it’s a mild sunny day and I’m in a particularly good mood, and I feel like just doing something bizarre and out of character, I’ll give panhandlers money. I handed one a $20 once when I was in a really good mood, just to see his reaction. It was worth it!
As a general rule though, no, I don’t.
Nope. I have volunteered at local shelters, I have worked at food banks. But putting dollars in the hands of panhandlers I might as well hand it to the State Store or the local crack dealer.
No, but I usually give them the other half of my lunch sandwich if I have it in a to-go box.
Overall, I’ve got to agree with you on this.
There are some mentally I’ll folks who fall through the cracks, but they aren’t typically the ones you see “working” traffic lights.
They are easy to spot, they will have long beards, multiple layers of filthy clothes, and usually a lot of stuff with them. These guys are usually driven away from the street corners by the junkies, so they have to be careful when they attempt to panhandle.
I will occasionally give something to the guys like I just described, but it is rare to see them.
Those junkies need help also; however, they are caught in a brutal cyclone of addiction. Handing them a few bucks only feeds that cyclone, only the junkie can break it. Paying for his next fix, is not helping him.
If a person wants to help, volunteer/donate to a food bank, or drug treatment program.
I say one could make a damn strong case that handing money to a junkie is very harmful. Not only does it help sustain the junkie’s self destructive cyclone, but that money ultimately ends up in the pocket of a drug dealers and funds violence and murder.
Those who are saying that they, “try not to judge” really should reconsider that viewpoint, IMHO.
I haven’t often carried cash since paychecks started going direct deposit, but if I have it sometimes I’ll give it. I don’t care what they use the money for. I figure if our roles were reversed, I’d really appreciate the donation. Sometimes I give a dollar, or five, or ten. I have the money. I’m not going to lose any sleep over ten bucks.
That being said, Madison is lousy with homeless people. (I don’t understand why they don’t go someplace warmer, but whatever.) Some of them are total dicks. I just tell them to get lost. There are a few who are pretty cool. I’ll go out of my way to give them a five if I have it on me.
I guess I don’t think too much about it. You ask me for five bucks, if I have five bucks and I like your face, maybe you get five bucks. Immediate disqualifiers are “I need money for the bus…” or any other made up thing.
Post 5 made me think. Then it made me wonder how much overlap there is between post 5 people and the people who actually panhandle. That seems to be a key question here.
Don’t you see a bit of a link between “lousy with homeless people” and “if I have it sometimes I’ll give it. I don’t care what they use the money for”.
You can donate money to animals shelters that feed and spay stray animals or you can feed stray animals. Same amount of money. There should be no surprise if the cat you fed for a month brings back kittens.
It’s not a perfect analogy but giving money to addicts gets shared with other addicts. We are not breeding them per se but we are enabling the addiction and drawing them together.
In my city there is very little overlap of the people described in post 5 and panhandlers.
It isn’t battered women with two children on the street corners asking of change; the people in that type of situation are in section 8 housing and get EBT cards, and other forms of assistance.
The vast majority are young males who have an obvious drug problem.
I’m not a Christian anymore but I’ve always taken the ‘judge not’ thing to heart. I’m have neither the time nor inclination to address the adequacy of the shelters, food banks or mental health facilities in Everytown, America, but here in my town it’s inadequate to the needs and I can’t imagine it being any different anywhere else. It just doesn’t enter my thinking.
Where would you have them, up in the trees? As previous posters have pointed out, there are not enough resources to go around.
This sentiment strikes me as similar to ‘no loitering’ ordinances.
You have to be somewhere.
mmm
We would have them in the shelters provided and working the same shitty jobs the rest of us deal with when faced with a loss of job. Living in a clean, safe environment earning a paycheck until they can find a better job and a place of their own.
I said sometimes -
I won’t give to the obvious hustlers, and the people with long convoluted tales of woe (also hustlers), or people who have figured out how to make a career of it (hey, your shoes are in better shape than mine!).
However - I have known 2 people who were friends who fell long hard and deep and ended up homeless. Alcohol was a factor, but more of a symptom than a cause. What I conclude is that in today’s modern world, the only option available for mere existence is money. And some people don’t have the capacity or makeup or tools, or whatever, to work. Expecting 100% of people to be capable 100% of the time is frankly arrogant. So, panhandling it is! Yeah, I don’t like them around, and I wish our society had the bandwidth to handle them better - but we don’t. So, all that in mind, I don’t get too wound up handing off a $5 every now and again - you shouldn’t either.
I’m not trying to fight the good fight. I’m just trying to make some dude’s shitty day less shitty. Dude is going to continue to make crap decisions until he stops, wholly independent of my five dollars.
This is the problem I’ve seen. One guy here in my town stands at the same intersection every day. His sneakers are fairly new, his clothes are rumpled but not overly dirty. One day as I was waiting for the light to change, I saw him holding his sign kinda funny, like he was trying to hold it in front of something in his other hand. Big gust of wind caught the sign and tipped it out of his hand. He’d been trying to text on his smartphone and hold the sign at the same time. Yeah, right, homeless. You bet. :dubious:
Never.
For me, there were three defining moments in my school days.
First, a situation where a guy had a “Will work for food” sign. We were already heading to the hardware store with a lengthy project to work on. My father not only offered him food, he was offered cash pay and a place to sleep. But the panhandler wasn’t interested!
Then, another case: we were out getting sandwiches and my father bought an extra one for a different panhandler, who maybe borrowed the “Will work for food” sign from the first guy. This guy had a look in his eyes like “What the hell am I going to do with a sandwich?” So, obviously, he was not going hungry.
Finally a case where I thought I’d be nice and give $5 to a homeless woman as I was taking the bus home from my college classes. Not only did she follow me through town begging for more money than I gave her, but she remember my bus stop and harassed me for weeks any time I used it. (After a couple of months of using an alternate stop, she gave up and I could go back to my preferred stop).
So there you have it: they don’t actually need food or shelter and they aren’t grateful even when they do get cash.
I voted “it depends on”. I’m in Western Canada and we’re in an excellent economy where there’s work for practically anyone willing to work. I don’t give to panhandlers, UNLESS they’re playing a musical instrument. I like street entertainment, so why not?
This, pretty much exactly. There is absolutely zero consistency about when and where I do so, but I’m usually inclined to give as a general rule.