Contrarily to two previous posters, I would resort to panhandling long before resorting to crime or drug selling (in fact, I can’t see myself resorting to crime outside of a life or death situation).
I can’t see how crime could be any better than begging, for others or for myself (the most likely result being that I would end up a homeless felon instead of moneyless with a clean record. Not going to help).
I’d try crime before I tried living on the street, but I’d try panhandling before that. I guess. I don’t know, I’d either be a terrible criminal because I’m not that slick, or a good one because I don’t seem like one.
Thinking about all these “options” is getting depressing.
I don’t think I have the fortitude to panhandle. But I probably would if I couldn’t get any help from family or social services and I was unable to work.
You can’t just decide to be a drug dealer. You have to know people. You need customers. And you need a bankroll or someone who will front you. If you’re not already in the life, you’re not just going to drop into it.
True, but street criminals are a transient bunch so it doesn’t really take that long to get in with them. I think I could do it tonight if I wanted to, and I’m so not a networker. Last time I happened to be walking out by myself at night a few blocks from home, it took about five minutes before these strangers approached me and wanted to give me hard drugs and I don’t know what else they wanted, because I didn’t take them up on their offer. Another time I got a cold call from a pimp. (Don’t get me wrong, these things don’t happen to me a lot, but I almost never am wandering out alone at night…when I DO, it does happen).
Of course, it would be dangerous and you’d have to start small.
You can get sucked into the street life almost overnight even with no prior experience. I know at least a dozen cases of previously responsible mainstream men and women suddenly ending up on the streets and on drugs. Pan handling, prostitution and dealing drugs came surprisingly easy to them.
I don’t have much money, but for the time being, I have enough to live on.
I do panhandle, though - but I do it from behind a bass clarinet in the subway. That is to say, I busk in the subway sometimes for a little extra cash. I know, it’s not exactly panhandling, but my mother considers it to be so! (So I don’t tell her.)
Sorry if this is prying but I’m curious how you bought your drugs.
You’re not prying at all, FloatyGimpy, and I’m very open about my various addictions/recoveries/relapses.
I’ve actually experienced two periods of homelessness in my 49 years (with both being a direct result of my alcoholism/crack addiction) but they were each financed in different ways:
November 1992 to February 1994
During this period (before welfare reform) it was fairly easy to receive monthly public aid of $100 cash & $140 food stamps. Back then, food stamps actually came in booklets and looked like Monopoly money. And it was easily converted to cash at a rate of $0.80/dollar at many corner stores. I also sold blood plasma twice a week for $25-$35 per visit. And as some have mentioned I turned to theft. The stealing was what led to my arrest and first REAL sobriety from February 1994 to May 2005.
I relapsed in May 2005 after more than 11 years sober which is what led to my 2nd period of homelessness, but that one was very short-lived. (March 2006 to August 2006) During that time I was newly laid-off from my job, and was drawing both unemployment and supplemental pay at the rate of about $300-$400/week
Interesting, thanks for being so frank!
How closely related is substance abuse/addiction related to panhandling? Is there any way to get accurate numbers on how many people who panhandle are doing so to fund their drug or alcohol addiction?
I have only known two people who have panhandled, and in both cases they say they were addicted and that it was easy to beg enough money each day to get what they needed. If you ask me, “easy” is a relative term because I don’t think that homelessness is an easy life at all. It would seem to be extremely exhausting and discouraging to have to literally worry about survival every minute of every day. Both people I’ve spoken to have told me their choices have led them there. My very limited experience may not be indicative of anything, but it seems to me that either untreated substance abuse or untreated mental illness would lead someone to a life of homelessness or panhandling.
I do not give money to panhandlers, although I have frequently given food.
Unfortunately homelessness is easy. Getting out is hard. I ran a bar out of my backpack while staying in a shelter. Bought candy with my food stamps and bought liquor and cigarettes to sell in the shelter at night. Dollar shots, fifty cent cigs and a quarter for oatmeal creme pies.
I imagine there would have to have been some sort of cataclysm where I had no family or friends left that I could ask for help.
On top of that, I’d have to be at the end of my rope as far as being unable to do/find any and every job that I could do to scrape by in some fashion.
I always wonder what happened to the Houston Chronicle’s old program of hiring the homeless to sell newspapers on street corners- they seemed to do a surprisingly brisk business, and it gave them something to do and some income, AND the newspapers got sold in greater numbers than before. Win-win situation for everyone involved.
I would have tobe pretty damn desperate to panhandle.
I would guess that it depends on what kind of homeless person you’re talking about. Someone staying in a shelter or couch-surfing or is probably quite a bit likely to be a drug addict or severely mentally ill than someone who is actually sleeping on the street. I think most people of sound mind can find some type of arrangement, staying with a friend or relative, public housing, finding some boy/girlfriend who lets people move in way too quickly, pulling together a few hundred dollars a month to rent a shitty room in someone’s house. There are usually some choices that will at least suck a bit less than living on the street.
This guy never thought we would either. Was going to kill himself instead, then he didn’t. Fascinating book
Where I live, it is practically an everyday occurrence to see panhandlers standing near the off-ramp from the I-75 exit near the business and shopping district, holding cardboard signs. While the signs vary in content, one thing that is constant in practically all of them is the way they are signed off with “God Bless”. “Whatever you can spare, God Bless.” “Anything Helps. God Bless You.” Etc… It’s a way to guilt the passerbys into giving money. Just about all of these people are addicts of some sort.
Yeah, 99% the signs do say stuff like that. Can’t really blame them exactly, like someone said upthread, even if they’re addicts or whatever, their lives fucking suck. It’s not like they’re having fun scamming people. I still don’t give them money though, but it is so awkward always having them a couple feet away while I’m suck at a long light. Then sometimes I want to look for something in my bag and I can’t, because they’ll think I’m getting money out for them and come to the window and then I’ll have to be like sorry about the homelessness and all, but I was just getting my lip balm.
Last fall, I got down to $40 in cash, a quarter tank of gas, and five days’ worth of insulin before the people I was working for figured out how to get me a paycheck. If it had taken them a week longer to pay me, I wouldn’t have been able to make it to work to pick up the check, and if it had taken two weeks, I could have died, and it never occurred to me for a second to panhandle for some spare change.
Yeah but I’ll be honest; I can’t help but feel a little irritated when I see all those signs saying “God Bless You”, with the person holding it trying to eyeball me as I drive past or sit there next to him. As if I’m going to be shamed into giving money.