Uh-huh… and while they’re not supposed to discriminate they often do. It’s an additional dose of suckitude to have to lie and say you believe in their god, mouth the words, and dealing with an hour or two of lecture and scolding for that bowl of soup and plate of food. Not that they’re all like that, but don’t assume that because a mission is giving away food for “free” there isn’t a price to pay for that as well.
The flaw in your reasoning (aside form the morality of dumping people on to the streets where they’ll like die sooner) is that there are always more people developing mental illnesses and/or drug habits. We’ll never run out of them, short of an actual effective cure.
Well, if you don’t want them spending their money on smokes, don’t give them any money. Once you give them money, it’s theirs to do with as they please. That’s the decision you have to come to terms with. Do I give this sad looking human some money, with the risk that they may spend it on booze or smokes?
Once, a homeless looking women asked for money so she could get something to eat. (Parking lot with Walgreens on one side, McD’s on the other.) I gave her a couple bucks, while saying “Now, don’t go spending this on beer!”, trying for a lighthearted tone of voice. (I don’t know what she did with the money I gave her. She moved on to hit up someone else nearby.) But upon reflecting on it for a couple minutes, I realised that it really seemd kinda lame and “butt-in-ski” of me to try and tell her how to spend (what is now) her money.
Regardless of why these people are peddling, people give them money for nothing. Thus, its more lucrative then other forms of income/assistance. I don’t care about what forces led these people to begging on the streets, I am not about to encourage the practice.
Our own straight dope has a staff report on this here. The takeaway:
It’s hard to get reliable stats, and there’s clearly a lot of variation.
Over $40K/year (in 2006 dollars) is very rare, and most make a lot less than $30K
Assuming that $40K number is accurate (and the cites listed in the article seem valid enough), that’s a lower-median income job with NO health insurance, social security, retirement, or unemployment (although probably no taxes, either). And that’s on the high end.
I watched a report from a news team a while back that did one of their “I-Team” style investigations (probably less reliable than the cite above) on this same question, and their conclusion was about the same: Only a small percentage of panhandlers were making “job” money, and even for them, it was a crappy job with no ability to make their future better. Certainly wouldn’t be my choice unless I didn’t have any other.
That would be assuming I feel bad for not enabling them (by making it lucrative to stay on the street). Actually, I would feel bad bad if by my actions they felt begging on the street corner was their best option…
Which is still much more than they would be earning working a regular entry level job somewhere where they could perhaps develop skills and start moving up the income ladder - no, they’d prefer you give them your hard earned money instead.
Once many years ago in East Cleveland I was approached by a woman begging money for food. She sure looked hungry. I was broke at that moment, but I had a bag of pita bread, so I offered it to her. She refused it with a somewhat haughty attitude.
Once I was on my lunch break in downtown St. Louis, walking to the Arch with my brown bag because I liked to head over there in nice weather. Saw a very shabby fellow combing through a trash bin. Handed him half my lunch. He just stared down at it in his hand as though in shock, mumbling “Uh… wow…” I take it he was pleased…
Beer does have carbs that can help keep someone nourished. I don’t give to beggars unless they are someone I know, but I will give to street musicians and performers if they are any good. I always say, “Buy American beer guys, help keep some jobs in country.”
Where I work, we have a few classes of street beggar.
A. Anarchists-White, dreadlocked college aged kids with their dogs usually just passing through/squatting in West Philly. Peak in the spring/summer, invisible in the winter.
B. Mentally Ill-There is a group home just a couple of blocks from campus. A few of the residents come down to campus and beg. They usually pick on the people who look like they don’t know where they are going. They hang out near the parking garage. If they see you everyday, they don’t ask you for money. I assume these people have all their needs met, they are clothed and fed by the home. I think they ask for money for smokes and/or alcohol.
C. True Homeless-Very few and far between anymore. The campus police run them off pretty quickly.
D. Scammers-Look totally normal, long elaborate stories about being stranded and I just need two dollars for Septa. I’ve seen you three times this week with the same story, try someone else.
I used to give people food or money, but not after some woman on the El asked for money for food for her kids and I offered her my lunch and she turned it down. I will buy someone a cup of coffee or a cheeseburger at McDonald’s if they ask for it. When I smoked I would gladly give someone a cigarette.
I’m fine with giving to the needy. Here in the DC area, though, I have come to resent the Roma population of professional beggars because they’re shameless scammers. Like the women who walk around with a “baby” strapped to their chests which is no baby but a doll that is so swaddled up you can’t tell without looking closely. They are expert in using a special whiny tone of voice that is so irritating it makes people give them something just to make them go away. I’ve never heard American panhandlers whining like that. The Americans talk normally, which makes me like them better. When the Roma first invaded this area in the late 1990s, they went straight for the mosques and claimed to be Muslims, because they know that Muslims are soft touches charity-wise. Until the mosques wised up to them and chased them away. They never went in the mosques, which they would have done if they were really Muslim, they just hung around outside and tag-team hassled everybody coming and going, whining to beat the band. Last month there were a couple women, one with a real baby and one with a fake baby, working the parking lot at Micro Center. Look, I’m really sorry the Roma have been persecuted in Europe, the Holocaust and all that (which was bizarre since they originated in India and therefore are real Aryans, unlike those damn Nazis). They experienced truly inhuman horrors and are still being persecuted over there to this day. They deserve justice and human rights same as anyone. But that still doesn’t make it OK to scam the public so brazenly just because Americans are notoriously soft-hearted. For one thing, they ruin it for the genuinely needy. That is not cool in my book.
This is just my perspective, and I am not claiming it’s comprehensive or right.
I used to work at a grocery store that was near a pretty large homeless encampment. That part of town had a lot of panhandlers, several of whom were regular features of the landscape and well known to the staff of the store and I’m sure everyone else who spent any significant time around there. I’m sure this is all pretty standard.
One day, one of these regular characters was caught shoplifting; not in our store, but at another store in the same strip mall. The store detained him and called the police; they questioned him and searched him, and found thousands of dollars in cash among his possessions. That was the last day I ever handed cash to a panhandler of any kind.
Now, I have no way of knowing if his situation was typical. I see some others here have chimed in to say they were panhandlers at some point in their lives and did not have so much money, and I am quite sure that’s true. I also know that addiction and other problems are rampant among the homeless, and that there are any number of people who actually do just need a couple bucks to buy food for the family or whatever.
The issue is that I have no way of knowing who those people are - who is actually going to buy food, and who just needs another rock to feed the monkey. I do know there are social programs, both publicly and privately funded, who will at least make an effort to figure all that out and feed the people who need feeding while hopefully not enabling the people who are just abusing the generosity of others.
Therefore, I give a few bucks to charities I think are worth supporting. It’s not perfect, maybe it’s not even the right thing to do, but it seems to me like the closest thing to useful I can do about homelessness.
I say this as a bleeding heart liberal with friends who have been homeless. Do NOT give money to panhandlers. You’re not helping. Give food and supplies. Then, take your money and give it to a local charity that helps the homeless.
We have given food before (in out fast-food days) and I have no problem with it, but if we’re being screwed (scammed) I don’t feel that it’s “on us” for helping out. It’s the person doing the scamming who’s aware (or should be) and knows if it’s right or wrong and he’s the one who’ll be taking it home. D and I are just happy that we’ve been able to help a little.
Point well taken about the cigarette, though. I wasn’t thinking too quickly that day or I would have told him “it may be best to lose the cigarette when asking for help”.
I have also seen nicely-dressed guys in chinos and polos with signs.
Same thing: I don’t stop and question. If it’s money which is needed, then I’ll give them some.
Very often they are mentally ill or suffering from drug / alcohol problems.
I almost became homeless myself after a longish bout of chronic unemployment. I look able bodied, and I don’t look obviously mentally ill. But I was suffering from crippling social phobia that was making it impossible to even attend a job interview let alone perform well enough to get a job. To an outside observer I appeared to be too lazy to work.
I suspect that there are many mentally ill amongst the homeless and long term unemployed.
Because the choice isn’t between “Giving the guy on the streetcorner that may enable him” and “Not give the guy, and he might starve”.
The choice is instead between “Giving the guy directly and possibly enabling him” and “Giving to a food bank, outreach shelter, streetwork that feeds the guy now and offers a chance to get his life in order long-term”.
My city has a street newspaper (BISS) that is sold by homeless people and people in financial difficulties. They have a lot of sucess stories where selling the magazine is the first step in getting out: getting used to regular working times, being insured, having a fixed income… and the people at the magazine help them at every step: when the homeless feels ready to look for room, the magazine helps them and covers the downpayment, gives them a loan to buy furniture and keeps looking after them afterwards to make sure they don’t fall again when things become overwhelming.
There’s also a tea kitchen with social workers where homeless can take a shower, wash their clothes, and have a cup of tea and a talk with a social worker. It can take months and years for the social workers to win the trust, and for the homeless to find the strength, to turn their life around again, but once they do, they suceed.
Similar is the streetbus, which is parked at three places with high drug user concentration, staffed with street workers, again to listen and talk when the users are ready to.
