The homeless people in my area have gotten extremely inspired in how they ask for money now. They’ve now set up 2nd/3rd windows at all the local drive-thrus, basically after you get your food but before you actually leave the drive-thru a group of homeless people will stand on the sides and motion for you to roll down your window as you pass them to get into the parking lot. In some cases they’ll literally be on the opposite side of your car motioning for you to roll down your window as you get your food from the window on the other side. I literally saw a group of homeless people standing inside a McDonalds forming a barrier next to the cashier line so the moment you got your change back they could immediately ask for it, and store management didn’t seem to care at all.
I always have terrible experiences with homeless people, once I gave a guy $2 and he literally told me the last person gave him $5 so I should give him more. Gave another guy my spare change after he asked (which was about 35 cents) and right as I turned my back to walk away he threw it at me. I don’t know why the ones in my city are both aggressive but entitled.
What it means is I see them every so often and I think the majority of the cardboard sign holders are scammers.
Look, I been through my Polly-Anna years with these folks and that is over. You give them food, they don’t want it. They want cash. You try to reason with them and tell them, “Hey, you know you don’t have to be out here like this, there are places that will help you” and they don’t want to hear it, they want cash.
And for most of these intersection/parking lot leeches the reason they aren’t in a shelter is because you can’t be in there when you are high/drunk. I am not enabling that cycle. That is why they get aggressive sometimes, they are dope sick.
I don’t want the thread to turn into something other than what the OP intended, but it is my belief that someone who is truly down on their luck and striving to better themselves isn’t going to be that person panhandling in the same spot for weeks.
I’ll give my money to church programs and established charities, not to some guy who is faking being paralyzed so he can roll around the corner from the cathedral and hop out of his wheelchair and throw it in his van and drive away. And yes, this really happened in my town until the cops finally caught him after months of swindling unsuspecting tourists.
If I have to go downtown, I’ll often stop buy the McDonald’s and pick up a bag of cheap hamburgers and hand them out. Once they realize I’m handing out food, it takes all of five seconds to get of of the burgers.
Had one guy offer to “stab a mother fucker” if he dares to fuck with me. Lol.
Even the ACLU is fine with laws prohibiting people denting your car. I think your anger is misplaced. There are constitional ways to address these issues.
I keep bags of non-perishable food in my car to give them. I always ask them if they want food. About 1 in 10 says “no.” I’ve seen a lot of them start to eat it as I pull away. I know a few may take it and not really want it, but they have a sign that says “Anything helps,” so it looks bad not to take it. I had one person ask me if she could have a second bag. I had one guy start weeping when I gave it to him.
I buy foods in bulk, so they cost me about $1 per bag, and it’s a full meal, protein, calcium, vitamin C, fiber-- I make sure it’s pretty nutritionally dense.
In the UK these is a legal obligation for councils/boroughs to house ‘families’ immediately, even in hotels - that means anyone with a child.
That reduces the people sleeping outside/sleeping ‘rough’ to about 4,000 nationally, and a significant number of those don’t have to but choose to - they may benefit from psychiatric help but also don’t want that.
Despite austerity the safety net is pretty well intact, though the issue of ‘homelessness’ - that is people in short term basic and temporary accommodation - is immense, esp. in London.
Fwiw, I walk the streets about mile from the centre for 4 hours each day and haven’t seen anyone sleeping outside in a year.
On this issue more than most, the USA sounds like a capitalist apocalypse.
Here’s a suggestion - let’s separate “homeless” from “panhandlers”. It sounds like this thread is really asking about/talking about panhandlers. While I agree that there is a natural overlap in the Venn diagram of homeless and panhandlers, I also agree that there are many homeless who are not panhandlers (I was homeless once), and there are panhandlers who are not homeless.
So, how about it? Are your complaints about homeless or about panhnandlers?
I’ve seen many panhandlers drive away from their locations in (older) cars and buy e-cig juice in local shops. I’ve never seen someone walk into the woods and flop down on their ratty sleeping bag at night.
This is a fair point. My negative experiences and reactions have mainly been with panhandlers, because like I said, someone who is truly trying to put their life back on the rails isn’t going to be staking out the same intersection for weeks. I am dubious of those folks.
The homeless problem I witnessed in Philadelphia was scary for me personally, but my main reaction was, “Why isn’t the city managing this better so all these people don’t have to be out here in the cold?”
A guy raked the leaves in my yard last winter. I’m pretty sure he was homeless ( living in his car).
He was going door to door. I figured it was worth $30. The leaves weren’t too thick. I had raked just a couple weeks earlier.
I appreciated that he was actually trying to get work. He did a good job. I told him to come back in a couple more weeks. I didn’t see him again. He may have moved on to another city.
I’ve been told a lot of panhandlers won’t accept work.
I know of quite a few in Bristol; one place I worked security had a guy living in a tent hidden in the bushes, just outside camera range. Couple of my nicer workmates fixed up his tent for him when it got ripped in a storm (he avoided me, for some reason).
I worked weird shifts and I saw at least few of them most days at 3-5am, sleeping in doorways. There are also a few that sleep during the day in the parks, because it’s a bit safer than at night. The number’s been increasing the last few years as well. In fact, I was talking about it a few days ago with someone else on my course; South African guy, pretty well travelled, went up to Bristol two weeks ago for a night out, said he was shocked at the number of people sleeping on the street.
I just moved to small-town Cornwall, and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone living on the street here, but there are still plenty of homeless people, from everything I’ve heard.
Clicked too soon, my choice, if it was there, would have been ‘frequently and interacting’. I know homeless people. They work to earn some money and then have that tough choice between spending their money on something to eat, someplace to live, or buying drugs and alcohol. It’s their choice to live that way.
My impression of London only, I go there often but not elsewhere in Britain, I don’t think homeless and/or panhandlers there are less common than NY nowadays. As the thread has explored, there’s a wide range of people who could be considered under one or both terms. Families, more often than not single mothers and kids: they aren’t often begging on the streets in any developed country. Young, not very ‘homeless looking’ panhandlers. ‘Classic’ mentally disturbed and/or substance abusing homeless people who might or might not also be panhandlers. But visible rough sleeping, sitting on the streets and/or panhandling is a lot more common in good weather US Western cities than NY, and London in my observation not visibly less than NY.
Almost daily. Hawaii has a huge homeless problem. And it’s unique in that the homeless can never leave. On the mainland, you can often scrape up bus fare somehow, or even walk if you have to, but getting out of this state is a major and costly venture. I am in downtown Honolulu most days, and that’s a big homeless gathering point. Even Waikiki, where we live, has more homeless wandering around than many tourists realize.
Also frequently. Pretty much every single time I exit/enter particular expressway ramps I see someone holding a cardboard sign asking for money. These people run the gambit from totally broken, obviously severely-struggling people to seemingly well-fed, well-groomed people wearing pretty nice clothing (shoes are particularly telling). 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.
