# In a normal day, how often do you encounter homeless people? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 21, 2017, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429 "2017-10-21T12:47:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![AI\_Proofreader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@AI\_Proofreader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AI_Proofreader)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/61 "2017-10-22T08:34:52Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > I rarely to never personally interact with the homeless. There are a few here in the Cayman Islands, and **no homeless shelter I know of.** > > Through my work at 9-1-1 I have heard reports relating to a few of the homeless often enough that I know there are a few out there. Occasionally we get a report in the middle of the night of an apparently unresponsive person in a car. When we run the license plate we can see it is a vehicle owned by a known homeless person who **seems to have chosen to live out of a car rather than accepting help for other options**. Having been homeless more than once, I have to say I see an inherent contradiction here. If there is no shelter, sleeping in a car isn’t choosing not to accept help; it’s choosing the only option you likely have that’s at least minimally safe. Crashing on couches of friends and family is an \*extremely short term solution; and a guaranteed way to lose friends and alienate family. Some in this thread have mentioned a bus ticket out of town; then what? You’re in another city you don’t know, where you don’t know anyone. Any steps you take to get yourself off the street will be twice as hard. A lot of people even in cities with harsh climates will choose to ride the winter rather than leaving their home city. There’s a reason exile was a punishment for severe crimes in many societies. ---
**Author:** ![LongTimeLurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@LongTimeLurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LongTimeLurker)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/62 "2017-10-22T09:05:05Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > \ > For some, panhandling serves as a big money maker, more profitable than low-paying jobs. They COULD get a job but it would be a cut in income so they are incentivized to remain panhandlers. Please, don’t divulge the number one rule of panhandling club. There is no panhandling club! Yeah, there is so much money to be made in panhandling, I am just surprised that more people don’t take it up as a profession. \*\* “They COULD get a job but it would be a cut in income so they are incentivized to remain panhandlers” \*\* You are so right, it is so much easier to stand on a corner for hours at a time to get free money. Who in their right mind would want a real job when you can stand on a corner with your hand out? Of course they could get a job, all you need is a mailing address, a telephone number, a dependable mode of transportation, a place to shower, shit and shave everyday and a clean set of clothes. Easy peasy. ---
**Author:** ![LongTimeLurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@LongTimeLurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LongTimeLurker)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/63 "2017-10-22T09:37:38Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > \ > For some, panhandling serves as a big money maker, more profitable than low-paying jobs. They COULD get a job but it would be a cut in income so they are incentivized to remain panhandlers. Please, don’t divulge the number one rule of panhandling club. There is no panhandling club! Yeah, there is so much money to be made in panhandling, I am just surprised that more people don’t take it up as a profession. \*\* “They COULD get a job but it would be a cut in income so they are incentivized to remain panhandlers” \*\* You are so right, it is so much easier to stand on a corner for hours at a time to get free money. Who in their right mind would want a real job when you can stand on a corner with your hand out? Of course they could get a job, all you need is a mailing address, a telephone number, a dependable mode of transportation, a place to shower, shit and shave everyday and a clean set of clothes. Easy peasy. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/64 "2017-10-22T09:39:28Z")
I wanted to select: _“I Live in San Francisco”_ but I didn’t see it offered as a choice. ETA: Put another way: I see them far more than\* almost daily\*. And I hear them, on average, every 5 or 10 minutes. Day and night. ---
**Author:** ![LongTimeLurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@LongTimeLurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LongTimeLurker)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/65 "2017-10-22T09:53:32Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I live in an affluent Boston suburb that is also a small city in its own right. It is one of the safest place in the country. We don’t have homeless people. There is no reason for them to be here. They would get out of any place they tried to stay because there are no truly urban areas and they would freeze to death during the winter. The town that I work in is the same way. There are homeless people in Boston proper but I don’t go there very often. I always wonder why they just don’t get a bus ticket and go anywhere south rather than sleeping on a heating grates during the winter but they are homeless and probably have lots of other issues that preclude strategic planning. Your job really must not require much intelligence. That is a good thing since you don’t seem to have much intelligence. Yeah, why don’t the homeless just buy a bus ticket to go somewhere where they won’t freeze to death? Duh? Why fuck with the bus? If your homeless go on a buy a plane ticket instead, dumb ass. Yeah, we don’t have homeless people in our Boston suburb because it is also a small city in its own right. They would freeze to death in the winter, so we don’t have any here. ---
**Author:** ![LongTimeLurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@LongTimeLurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LongTimeLurker)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/66 "2017-10-22T10:00:36Z")
> [@purplehearingaid](#): > > I knew of a ‘homeless family’ that lived in a motel ! There 3 kids and the parents in one room with a double bed and the kids were older . Homeless people that live in shelters are also homeless. > > [http://www.homelesshouston.org/coalition-faq/how-does-this-faq-work/](http://www.homelesshouston.org/coalition-faq/how-does-this-faq-work/) Thank you for the link. ---
**Author:** ![LongTimeLurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@LongTimeLurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LongTimeLurker)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/67 "2017-10-22T10:10:05Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I am a volunteer coffee bar tender at an AA club 3 or 4 times a week. I run into homeless daily there. Many of them go to meetings for the coffee and donuts. I also know a good number of folks you would never imagine are homeless who live in their cars. They shower daily or bi daily at the local ymca. I live in Los Angeles and we encounter them daily everywhere we go. > [@kopek](#): > > See quite a few every day; there are a couple shelters around me. But interaction is more like once or twice a week. They have almost become a sort of transient neighbors and a regular part of life for us to the point that they don’t catch our attention; sad to say. It is really nice to know that there really are great people out in our world that care about other people. How great you people are. Thank you for putting human back into humanity. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/68 "2017-10-22T10:39:43Z")
> [@AI\_Proofreader](#): > > Having been homeless more than once, I have to say I see an inherent contradiction here. > > If there is no shelter, sleeping in a car isn’t choosing not to accept help; it’s choosing the only option you likely have that’s at least minimally safe. > … I am referring to those who decline to avail themselves of available government assistance to secure housing. We do not have a large enough population of those who are involuntarily homeless to have it make sense to open a shelter. More effective to place people in need in decent rental housing and have government pick up the bill while working with you to try to get you on your feet again. But there are people who make other choices. It may be as simple as a stubborn pride at not wanting to accept help. More often it seems mental health issues and/or substance abuse are factors for those who refuse the available assistance. Social welfare issues are handled a bit differently here. Help is available. At least for local citizens. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/69 "2017-10-22T10:43:11Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > They harass me every time I drive downtown. Standing at the red lights with signs. Some are very aggressive and will shout or even kick your car. I had to run a red light a couple days ago to get away from one crazy bastard. I’ve had to start detouring to avoid that intersection because he’s always there. > > We HAD a ordinance regulating panhandling until the stinking ACLU stuck their nose into it. I’d like to see their reaction when someone harasses them at every red light. Maybe one of their homeless buddies will kick their car in gratitude. Except those smug a-holes don’t have to live here and endure the mess they created. > > Little Rock is still trying to craft a new panhandling ordinance that will withstand any ACLU challenge. Wow! I’m curious where in LR you encountered this. MizPullin and I lived there for a couple of years, back in the day. A really nice town IMO. We lived near Rodney Parham for those two years (first S Rodney Parham, then a few miles N of it on Reservoir road). I’m familiar with most of the town though, I spent one of those years driving a UPS truck. This seems like something that would happen on the east side (6th-9th street areas being the worst IIRC). Idle curiosity I guess, haven’t been there in decades. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/70 "2017-10-22T11:11:34Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > I wanted to select: _“I Live in San Francisco”_ but I didn’t see it offered as a choice. > ETA: Put another way: I see them far more than\* almost daily\*. And I hear them, on average, every 5 or 10 minutes. Day and night. This sounds like homeless are actually living somewhere near your home. Does it affect your daily routine? One of the reasons I’ve gotten curious about this is because of a relative. She’s having to avoid the aggressive panhandlers due to their increasing numbers around a (downtown) workplace. I recently went to a meeting in a downtown high-rise (Fort Worth). When the attendants retrieved my truck from the parking garage, it had been pilfered and every glovebox/console area had been gone through. The parking people admitted that homeless lived in and around the garage and would enter any vehicle they could open (and due to size, my truck was parked at an easily accessible edge of the lot). I cancelled the pending contract and went elsewhere – I told them I couldn’t do business with them if I had to worry about my truck every time I met with them. This is the only “encounter” I can remember having, and there’s a non-zero probability it was the attendants themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/71 "2017-10-22T11:12:17Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > I wanted to select: _“I Live in San Francisco”_ but I didn’t see it offered as a choice. > ETA: Put another way: I see them far more than\* almost daily\*. And I hear them, on average, every 5 or 10 minutes. Day and night. > [@Foggy](#): > > Not _Almost Daily_, it is **Daily**. > > I live in the Tenderloin, near SF City Hall. There is no place within a mile from me that I could go and not encounter The Homeless. :waves: Hi, neighbor! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/72 "2017-10-22T14:13:32Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > I am referring to those who decline to avail themselves of available government assistance to secure housing. In my area, there is a _10 year_ waiting list for “government assistance” for housing a.k.a. “Section 8”. Where the hell are people needing help supposed to live in the meanwhile? ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/73 "2017-10-22T14:23:34Z")
> [@LongTimeLurker](#): > > Your job really must not require much intelligence. That is a good thing since you don’t seem to have much intelligence. Once again, you are being warned for using personal insults outside of the Pit. I’d strongly recommend reviewing the board’s rules if you wish to remain here. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/74 "2017-10-22T15:25:13Z")
I see one or two people panhandling at an off-ramp I take on the way into work, and only because that off-ramp is apparently pretty close to a homeless shelter. That’s pretty much it. They can also be a nuisance at the gas station by that off-ramp, so the police regularly run them off. Here, though - as someone mentioned above - the homeless typically live in old cars, trucks and vans, rather than wander around with all their belongings on foot. Late at night, the parking lot at Wal-Mart is all RVs and homeless. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/75 "2017-10-22T15:25:46Z")
There is a substantial number of homeless people who have no id. Without id they cannot get public shelter, healthcare or jobs. And do you know what? To get id you need id.[This article](http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2017/05/15/without-id-homeless-trapped-in-vicious-cycle) details the problems. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/76 "2017-10-22T19:18:48Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/77 "2017-10-22T19:31:53Z")
> [@LongTimeLurker](#): > > From some of my reading I believe that the state of Hawaii is spending quite a bit of money to send a lot of the homeless population back to the mainland. Yes and no. I’ve heard of that program but was not even aware it was still going until I looked it up. But it’s complicated. Only a couple hundred have taken advantage of it in the past three years, a drop in the bucket. And there are various rules cutting most homeless out. And a huge proportion of the homeless, maybe most of them, are _from_ Hawaii. Where would you send them anyway? Of the ones who do go, it must be voluntary, which cuts a lot of them out, because if you’re going to be homeless in Hawaii or homeless in North Dakota, which would you choose? Then the person being sent back must pay half the airfare him- or herself and demonstrate a viable support system for when they get back home. I don’t see, for example, Chicken Man strutting around near-naked downtown and banging his head on the sidewalk doing any of this. Then five people sent back so far have returned to be homeless again, and you’re not eligible for the program more than once. And it’s not a state program, as the state government has refused to commit taxpayer dollars to it. The state Institute for Human Services does run it but depends on donations. The truth is like I said before, Hawaii’s homeless situation is unique, because the very few people both willing _and_ able to meet the requirements of the program are scarcer than Donald Trump’s tax returns. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/78 "2017-10-22T19:35:19Z")
> [@LongTimeLurker](#): > > WTF is a ‘gutter punk’? Professional panhandler, is that a Trump University major? Gutter punks are well known in Chicago during the warmer weather, they’ll be headed for warmer climates within a week or so. Walk to the Belmont CTA stop and you’ll see plenty. > **[Gutter punk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_punk)** > > A gutter punk is a homeless or transient individual who displays a variety of specific lifestyle traits and characteristics that often, but not always, are associated with the punk subculture. Attributes may include unkempt dreadlocks, nose rings, Mohawk hairstyles, and tattooed faces. Gutter punks are sometimes referred to as "crusties", "crust punks", "traveler kids", "traveling punks", "punk hobos”, or simply "travelers", among other terms. Some self-identified gutter punks may distingui In ... ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/79 "2017-10-22T20:19:22Z")
I work downtown, so I encounter, as in see, homeless every workday. There’s one guy who beds down in an alcove across the street nearly every day around quitting time. There are a few drive-thrus that attract panhandlers, but both the businesses and local police work at keeping that from being too regular. There are corners of a few parks that have gatherings of grocery carts and their keepers during the day. And there are several freeway overpasses that turn into camps at night. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429/80 "2017-10-22T20:28:22Z")
Once in a while, if I drive to the main shopping strip in the morning. There’s usually one guy with a sign at one intersection. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-normal-day-how-often-do-you-encounter-homeless-people/799429.md?page=5)