Beggars on the street hit me up for money as I pass by. If I don’t give, I feel guilty for brushing off a fellow human being in need (and unpleasantly contemplate how easily I could be reduced to their state with a simple twist of fate). On the other hand, if I do give, I suffer misgivings too, because it doesn’t seem right to encourage making a living by begging on the street. Also I feel doubts that the person even really needs to beg. It’s worse in India, where little kids are dragooned into professional begging rackets—you really don’t want to support their bosses.
I would be wary, as often, they will learn that you pass everyday, and keep bugging you. Also, remember, some of them are mentally ill, and might assault you.
I hate to say it, but I just walk past these people. I’d love to help…but what can I do? Give them a sandwich? Everyday?
When you are approached for alms you are the person with the power and many folk just are not comfortable with this.
You can make a judement based solely on appearance as to wether the beggar is deserving but then you may well be stereotyping them, if a person on the street has taken trouble to care for themselves it is all too easy to dismiss their appearance as ‘not being needy enough’ whereas the obviously broke tramp may seem to be in greater need yet it could be that they are looking for enough to buy their next drink of gutrot.
I have seen how some charities work close up and to be honest I’d rather give money to a tramp than finance the charity directors children’s school fees.
If you give to a street person I think it should be unconditional, you don’t look to see how ‘deserving’ they are because that route is full of pitfalls of judgementalism based often on that shallowest of evaluations - appearance.
Giving is your personal generosity, what happens after you have acted in good faith is another matter and one that is not in your control, you just do the best you can despite all the imperfections in the process.
I don’t usually give beggars any money. Occasionally I do because I have a “good feeling” about a person. When I do give money it is usually $5 or $10.
I have never understood why people won’t give money because “they are only going to use it to get drunk.” If I lived on the street I would probably want to drink too. $10 isn’t going to get them off the street or feed them very long.
I also am on the board for a local charity which helps homeless families. I donate a lot of free time and money. Everyone on the board does. Even the director donates a portion of his already small salary. I don’t know what charities you know about casdave, but they aren’t all bad.
I went to a Hardee’s restaurant a few weeks ago to get breakfast. On the way to the door, a vagrant started to walk towards me so I nodded at him and asked “how are you doing?”. He started his spiel about wanting some coffee and asked, no, demanded that I give him twenty cents. I told him that I don’t give out money like that and walked into the restaurant. Well, as I reach my place in line I hear loud talking behind me and after hearing someone say “you asked me how I was doing, so why didn’t you give me twenty cents?”, I realized that the loud talking was directed at me. I turned around and saw this vagrant holding a three foot long stick that was about the size of a baseball bat. He started in on me with some BS about being a Vietnam Vet and I should repay him for this service. Now, my dad is a Vietnam Vet and I did my service with the 20th SF, so I took great offense to this kind of crap.
Well, to make a long story short, he swatted a few times with that stick and damn near hit a few people but realized that I wasn’t about to give him shit and left. The manager came out of his place of hiding and apologized to everyone but me and I guess called the Cops, who showed up just in time to do absolutely nothing.
This, my friends is why I give to noone. I work construction in some of the poorest parts of our city Birmingham, AL, and I see these beggars every single day. They work the same corner everyday and have the same lame ass excuse for needing the money. Bullshit! What they are really saying is, some where down the line, someone gave them money when they asked for it and now they expect it. Well, I never get asked twice by the same beggar cause when they ask the first time I give them address to the office that hires for our company and tell to go fill out an application. They never try to do even that.
BTW- I had a beggar tell me once that if I gave him a dollar God would make sure I went to Heaven. He didn’t like it when I told him that I would keep my money and take my chances.
Also BTW- I do help those that really need help and I do it in more ways than I could write about here. But, the people that are begging on the streets rarely need anything more than a lesson in taking responsibility for their own lives.
Can’t claim to know best about what street people really need or don’t need, but I would just put in one plea against behavior that I think is all too common: the “you don’t exist” complete-and-total-ignoring response to being directly asked for money. Give or don’t give, it’s up to you, but if you don’t, at least look at the person and say “No, I’m sorry” sympathetically. (If you feel that responding to the person in any way might be dangerous, of course, that’s a different story, but I’ve never had any qualms or bad results about saying “No, I’m sorry” to a beggar on a crowded street.) It’s not rude to ask strangers politely if they would please give you some money, although you certainly have no right to expect them to do so. It is rude to completely ignore a non-threatening stranger asking you a non-rude question.
EVERY street beggar is potentially dangerous. Many security experts recommend precisely the technique you abhor. Most muggings start with a simple request like “have you got any spare change” and then when you’ve stopped, you are no longer a moving target. I never acknowledge panhandlers unless they get in my face and then I tell them NO, no matter what they ask. I have a right to walk the streets unmolested and I don’t have to acknowledge ANYONE that I don’t care to, ESPECIALLY beggars.
I have lived near high concentrations of homeless, like downtown LA and Haight-Ashbury in SF, and I’ve seen it all. I never give money to panhandlers, and if you give money to bums in my neighborhood, you will no longer be welcome in my home either. Go practice giving money to bums in YOUR neighborhood, not mine. You’re just encouraging people to camp out in front of MY home and pester ME more.
I remember when I lived in SF, the local TV station did a lengthy investigative report on homeless. Their conclusions were interesting. They reported that the vast majority of homeless live on the street because they LIKED it. They also noted that the amount of panhandlers dramatically decreased just after the 1st and 15th of each month. They interviewed many street people and discovered that when they got their biweekly checks from the city, they didn’t need to panhandle to raise enough money for crack and heroin. Then when they ran out, they’d go back to panhandling. Several bums gave on-camera interviews thanking the City for subsidizing their drug habits, they said they’d have to panhandle full time to get enough money for drugs, but with the biweekly checks, they could take a few days off each month to just do drugs.
KRON TV, circa 1991, “The Real Streets of San Francisco”
This TV special was loathed by every homeless activist in the Bay Area, because it told the truth.
Ten years ago a friend who was a social worker told me about a program (in the DC area IIRC) that issued scrip that could be purchased and exchanged for food, haircuts, etc. If you are so inclined you could also carry extra subway/bus tokens for those “I need $1 to get to the shelter” pleas. I would be leery of giving food because of the slight possibility that the homeless person might claim that you had tried to poison him/her, although I have never heard of this occurring.
The best thing to do would be to hold on to your change and donate your time and/or money to charities that can really provide help.
Don’t give em money, the needy ones will accept food and drink, those that refuse aren’t really needy are they !
Drink - most homeless people start drinking to keep out the cold at night, give them a blanket or gloves in the winter.
I sometimes do this to annoy my girlfriend who loves to spend all her money on shopping.
I am not rich by any means but I can handle giving someone a sandwich or bottle of water.
If EVERYONE did a little it would be a BIG amount overall.
Welcome to Great Debates ssj, where we discuss issues that have many different views. I don’t think our goal is to change anyone’s mind, but to present every viewpoint and the let the reader decide.
I never give to single people begging, but if you put a mom and her baby out there, I’m a sucker. I don’t even give her change, I give her $10-20.
I figure that I’m probably getting taken, but I can live with getting taken a lot easier than I can live with ignoring a mother and her hungry child.
The whole religion thing comes into the equation for me too. I do a lot of volunteerism, so I feel involved in long-term solutions, but hungry children are an immediate problem that I can’t see walking away from.
And…
Call me crazy, but I’ve given money to non-beggar adults in nice clothes who drop some sap story about losing their wallet. Train fare around here is around $6, and I’ve given that out several times in my life.
I used to give out spare change and then I quit doing that because I didn’t want my handouts to be spent on booze or drugs. Then I went through a phase of buying food for beggars. I even had one guy walk with me to a coffee shop where I told the waitress to give the man a grilled cheese sandwhich and a cup of coffee and then paid the bill and tipped the waitress. I finally stopped doing that too.
If begging is no longer easier and more profitable than working, there will be one hell of a lot less beggars. From what I have seen, most (not all) of street beggars are able bodied and able to work but they don’t want to do so. I bought that sandwhich five years ago. The same guy is still begging downtown.
It really pisses me off to see healthy people in their teens and 20’s sitting on their asses, hanging out, playing guitar or whatever and then asking me to support them with a donation. I saw one young couple asking for change downtown a few months ago. One passerby’s response was, “get a job” (not me, I swear.) The kid yelled back, “why should I be a slave to the coporate system?” I’ll tell you why, fuckwit. It’s because that’s one of the ways to earn a living to buy food and Phish CDs and other necessities. My taxes already paid for your education, pay for your free emergency health care, pay to clean up your garbage and partially pay to keep the shelter opened when it gets too cold. Now you want more fucking money. No way.
Well, if it were about 20+ years ago, and in Yosemite National Park, that would have been my dad. [sub](I know it looks like I spend all my time in Yosemite. I don’t. I just wish I did.)[/sub]
I cannot figure out why a person goes up to a NATIONAL PARK (and getting to Yosemite is not somewhere you end up by accident) and then beg. These young able-bodied guys were hanging out at one of the Yosemite Village stores, asking for money. My dad did what he always did when he saw young, able-bodied begging for money, he barked at them to “Get a job!” Oh, these guys were very offended by what my dad said, and said “I work VERY had.” “Yeah, at what?” My dad would have none of it.
