There are lots of threads on this subject, the most recent of which was just a few months ago. I’m putting this in GQ because I want to know if there’s a factual answer.
From that thread I’ve pulled two quotes which I think summarize the prevailing opinions.
First, brazil84 lays out why giving money to panhandlers is bad:
Rhythmdvl covers the opposing viewpoint:
I kind of agree with both sides, but they’re both just opinions at this point. I’ve gone through some of the old threads and I can’t find any hard data about if giving or not giving is better in the long-term, or if it makes a difference either way. I’m sure someone’s studied this at some point, but I wouldn’t know where to start looking. Anyone have anything?
It’s going to depend on how you value things. What if it turns one person around and buys beer for the other 99?. Buddha’s moment of enlightenment came about because some one gave him a bowl of rice as he was starving. One moment of kindness can change lives radically, can that even be evaluated on a GQ level?
I would think homelessness is not going to be a factor, creating an environment not conducive to panhandling may decrease open panhandling, but nobody really chooses homelessness.
I work near a YMCA women’s shelter. A large percentage of the women wander about talking to themselves and/or invisible companions. (I haven’t seen any of them panhandling.)
As I was returning to the office from lunch one day I heard the following from a group of three women:
‘I got drunk last night.’
‘Where did you get the money?’
‘I panhandled for it.’
I rode a bus one day (110 miles north of the office in a rural area). There’s this guy who’s always sitting at the stop sign with a sign asking for money. (‘Disabled vet. Please help.’) He has a walker/chair he uses to get around with. The bus stopped to pick him up at his home, a single-wide trailer.
Sunday we saw a guy with a ‘Vietnam vet’ sign. He looked about 40.
Homeless men near the office sometimes ask for money. There is a Compass House charity within a block where I’ve been hit up. There’s a DSHS office a block away from that. so resources are there.
I’ve been asked for ‘bus money’ – in the Ride Free Area.
Which is a better long term strategy for reducing the number of homeless people in a city: encouraging the continued support of panhandlers, or redirecting panhandler donations to organizations dedicated to eliminating homelessness?
Is the word “withholding” the word you really want to use? To me it implies someone is entitled to my money and I’m making a deliberate decision to prevent them from acquiring my money. Whether I choose to give money to someone, or not, is my choice. I am not “withholding” anything from someone if ownership resides with me in the first place.
For the record, local homeless/shelter advocates tell people not to give money to people on the street.
Yes. The hypothetical situation is that I have my hand in my pocket about to give money to a panhandler, and someone runs up and says “Don’t do that!” When I ask why, they cite <insert study here> that says I should withhold my money for the greater good. If you never intend to give money to panhandlers, then your situation is irrelevant here.
Also, your tone is awfully bitter for a GQ thread. I’m not judging anyone here.
I don’t thnk homeless people are homeless or any more homeless due to how many people give them money. They are homeless with or without personal charity. You want to cut down on homeless build more homes for them. There will always be a percentage of people willing to hand out a buck or two to homeless so there will always be begging gong on.
Depends on what you’re looking for. I think the numbers pretty much speak for themselves. The chronically homeless are, by definition, individuals who have been homeless multiples times for prolonged periods of time. Homeless organizations serve those who seek help and have results to show for their efforts. So if your options are to give to either a) a chronically homeless panhandler who’s been panhandling for years or b) an organization that is going to put someone in housing this afternoon, what sort of study do you need?
I imagine panhandlers have a much harder time these days then they once did, for the simple reason that a lot of people don’t carry cash around with them anymore. Seems like there’s room for a natural experiment then, to see if decling panhandling returns leads to decreasing numbers of panhandlers.
I was once waiting in the greyhound station may years ago, and a homeless-looking guy, about 20, came up and gave me the whole sob story about needing money for food. I told him “wait here, I’ll get you some” and when I cam back from the snack bar with a sandwich, he was long gone.
Oddly enough, the snadwich cost more than most people would have given a panhandler. My thought was the usual - they are not in need of nor interested in anything other than money. Panhandlers just know the good sob stories and best lines.
My general observation when I see the guys panhandling at the traffic lights, is “Nice shoes! Heck, they’re dressed better than I am!”
If most people don’t give to panhandlers, of course they’ll give up on panhandling. The question is how many of the legions of panhandlers are really what we would call homeless; the people who like to talk to their invisible friends probably are too scary to make a decent living out of panhandling…
Sherlock Holmes featured in a story in the 1890’s about how some fellow found it was more lucrative to panhandle than to work a middle-class job, so the impression has been around for over a century.
If I remember correctly, back in the mid-90’s the AJC did an article on panhandlers and found a few making 70 to 80k a year, they were that good.
Not really homeless, but the big “scam” in Atlanta for a few years was being approched at a gas station and getting the sob story that they are down on their luck and either needing gas as their car ran out and they are traveling home or their car broke down and they need money for a tow truck. I experienced the same as you when I had one very convincing young woman give me the out of gas scam. I told her to wait at the pump, that I would go purchase a plastic gas can and fill it up for her. Of course she was no where to be seen when I returned from inside the store.
The Man With The Twisted Lip. He was portrayed as an exceptional case, I don’t think the story gives the impression it was seen as common.
There was an article I read some years ago about a big study on homelessness in New York, I can’t seem to find it now. One of the striking points was that while the number of people homeless at any given time is worryingly high, the duration most of those people are homeless for is exactly one night. The number of people homeless for more than a day or two is far lower. In other words, while there are plenty of people without a home today, for the most part they’re not the same people who were homeless yesterday, or will be tomorrow.
Are there panhandling rings? I’m imagining a ‘pimp’ who sends homeless people out to beg money. They bring the money back and are given booze/drugs and the ‘pimp’ keeps the bulk of the money.
I’m afraid that the GQ will have to be narrowed further. If you had a $20 in your hand and gave or not gave, then there would be no net effect.
If EVERYONE gave a panhandler a $20, then there would be a thriving panhandling market. If nobody gave, then there would not be.
I think that there would be a sweet spot where if a certain percentage of people gave a certain dollar amount to certain panhandlers who gave certain stories and had a certain appearance at a certain location…you see where I am going…
How would that work? What do the panhandlers get in return for sponsorship? I understand that certain panhandlers own certain corners, and if you try panhandling on someone else’s spot you might get yourself in trouble.
At least a pimp finds clients for his women, and protects them from the clients.
The “real” beggars. People completely poor, living day to day. There is a much smaller network of help.
“Professional” beggars. They either hire children (at about minimum wage) or heavily fake a disability. Also, kids are sent b their parent to get extra income for the house.
I give money to the first group, usually very old people.
I pretty regularly buy a couple extra items off the Dollar Menu and McD’s and give them to one of the homeless guys out front. Not only are they always polite and grateful, but we stand and talk a while, commiserating about the state of the world, appreciating a little human interaction, and occasionally I get a few good lines about Jesus and Little Green Men out of the deal, as well.
So my anecdote cancels out your anecdote, and maybe we can get to some facts now.
As for the question in the OP, the answer seems to be a shaky, “y’know…ahem we haven’t actually studied that much.” Which I, personally, find to be rather appalling. Surely we (and our elected officials) are simply throwing money at these agencies on their promises, right? They have to actually gather numbers and show they’re having the positive impact in the community that they predicted when they wrote the grant proposal, right? If so, those numbers are not so publically known as to be googleable. I’ve also looked through a couple of meta searches of public health/community nursing and social work journals, and I’m coming up with exactly nothing.
There’s absolutely an *assumption that an increase in social service programs will reduce panhandling. There are “Fact Sheets” and suggestions all over the place put out by “homeless advocates” claiming that your money could be put to better use if you give it to them instead of the panhandlers. But no one is footnoting. No one is citing studies that I can find. Even Winnipeg’s huge study on alternatives to legislation for reducing panhandling can’t seem to come up with any actual evidence, although they have a great list of social programs from pages 35-37.