The homeless shelter that I support gives us “meal tickets” to pass out.
On one side is “Free Meal and a Bed.”
On the other is the address of the shelter and a simple map.
That seems to handle the question of where the money will end up (a homeless guy here walked into a public toilet and died of an overdose–needle still in his arm).
The BATF, for one. Also, that person’s dependents. And anyone he owes money.
I was just referring to folks in general…
I know of several people who regard begging as their job. There’s a community of such people out there, in fact one of the local newspaper columnists occasionally runs a story on some of them. For a while, a popular story was “My wallet got stolen, can you give me a couple bucks to help me get home?” I always offered to buy the “victim” a cup of coffee while I called the cops so that they could file a police report. The “victim” always remembered an urgent previous engagement.
I have also been quite poor, though not homeless. I took babysitting jobs, I worked several newspaper routes (walking them, and with my baby in a stroller with me). I was grateful if someone gave me a tip, or just money in general. However, I never begged, and I certainly didn’t get up in people’s faces about it. I knew that if I wanted any little luxuries, that I’d have to earn them myself, without depending on others to give them to me. At that time, a little luxury was a cup of tea…I had cut my food budget to the bone. In fact, I had cut all my budgets to the bone.
Some of us are more private than others. Many people, especially women, are not comfortable with a stranger, especially a large scruffy stranger, accosting us in public. Even if the stranger is not overtly threatening, it goes against all of our safety training. Sure, it would be nice if we didn’t have to be wary about such things. But the fact of the matter is, that we do have to be careful. Men don’t have quite the same worries, but I think that it’s reasonable for even a large, strong, physically able man to be wary about a stranger approaching him out of the blue. As it happens, I am willing to physically defend myself, but I am not really in the best of shape to do so.
Some panhandlers are polite and laidback. Generally, I just shake my head without making eye contact. It’s IMPORTANT for safety’s sake not to make eye contact with strangers. Other panhandlers are more aggressive, and will follow their target for a while. They won’t back off, and can be pretty scary. A polite panhandler can turn into an aggressive one if the target makes eye contact. With these folks, I WILL call the cops or notify the store manager or whatever. Obviously, the aggressive panhandler has problems recognizing other people’s boundaries, and I don’t know how far he’ll go.
Basically, I feel that the vast majority of panhandlers could find other legit ways to make some money. I’m sure that there are some folks out there who have no other choice but to panhandle. However, I really don’t think that I’ve come across them.
Yeah, I do give to some charities. In this way, I’m sure that most of my money is actually giving necessities to people, rather than funding another binge.
I worked with homeless people for so long that I have a good sense of when I’m being scammed and I’m not nervous around them like someone with less familiarity with that population has to be. I’m probably more sympathetic than most people but I rarely give money to panhandlers unless I know them and know that it won’t just go for drugs and alcohol. I don’t see any reason to support someone’s poor lifestyle choices if they have no intent to get it together. I’m far more likely to buy them a slice of pizza, bus pass, dog food or a cup of coffee and I always have socks and plastic liners for the rainy season in my trunk to give away. For the most part if people want to help in an overall way I think that they should give money to shelters, but many people are also moved at the individual level to help a specific person and I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with that. Our community has some common sense time, place and manner ordinances such as not being able to panhandle near an ATM, bus stop or schools, having to stay a certain number of feet away from the person that they’re hitting up and some fairly clear definitions of aggressive panhandling. Everyone still complains on both sides of the debate but overall it makes people feel safer downtown.
Oftentimes, at certain off-ramps or intersections, there will be somebody holding a sign for a furniture or electronics store that is going out of business. They are, in a sense, also asking for money: they are holding a sign, they are paid to be there, and their “job” is to bring in traffic to the store. And yet, it seems easier to ignore these people than it does to ignore somebody who is holding a cardboard sign in the same spot.
Why is this? I think that because the sign is communicating a more personal, and more direct message, that it is invading some sort of mental-space. We are used to advertising in these locations (both physical and mental locations). I think there is a sort of “aggression” that comes along with holding a sign asking for money, even if that aggression is “passive”, it is aggressive because it is accessing a part of our mental safety net which isn’t used to that behavior.
I feel the same way about fireman standing in the median of busy roads at stop-lights, collecting money in their boots. They are collecting for a GOOD cause, and yet I still feel uncomfortable around them.
A guy. Not all guys. You can not make that leap.
I hate the ones that hang out at the exit ramps. It gets to be a driving hazard, having them there. They stand so close to the road and screw up traffic when someone stops to dig out some money to give to them. They are almost as bad as those folks collecting donations at intersections.
I think that panhandling on traffic islands and exit ramps should be regulated with time, place and manner ordinances because it can be a traffic hazard and it makes people nervous. For at least some amount of time they’re a captive audience until the light changes. Most of the community organizing that I did was around finding a balance between the needs of homeless people and the needs of the community at large to feel safe around them and I don’t see a problem with putting some reasonable limits on their behavior. There are lots of legal places here where they can do it.
If sanctimony were replaced with anything, there wouldn’t have been a comment for you to respond to.
If I am ever homeless I am going to make a sign that says:
'I was in a car accident at this off-ramp because some douchebag was panhandling in a way that upset traffic. Now I can’t work so I need your help."
Response to known professional beggar: “Sorry, no small change, can you break a fifty?” These guys are targeting the tourists here, now and again they mistake me for one.
Couldn’t that get dangerous if the beggar is desperate, no one else is around and he is under the impression that you have at least one fifty dollar bill?
I think there’s a difference in panhandling that should be addressed… There’s the passive ones who stand at intersections with a sign asking for money. That’s fine to me, because they’re not bothering me (even if there’s a chance they’re a complete scam artist – it’s been known to happen quite a bit). I can’t imagine calling the cops on a passive panhandler unless they were causing a safety problem at the intersection.
Then there’s the active ones, who will aggressively approach you asking for money. I live in a moderately ghetto area and I absolutely loath getting gas from a local station because it seems every time I do, I’m approached by people asking for money (or giving me a random sob story of how their car ran out of gas, or they need money for a sandwich). I always tell them I don’t have cash (which is the truth, I pay for everything with plastic) but it can be a little unnerving at times since I’m not exactly a big guy. I will say that ever since I started carrying a concealed weapon I’m considerably less concerned but the concern for my safety is still there. Any time I’m in a bad neighborhood in the evening getting gas and a random person off the street starts approaching me, it’s not exactly comforting. If the pandhandler was indeed aggressive, I’d have absolutely no problem calling the cops.
Honest question - what percentage of panhandlers are panhandlers because they honestly cannot survive in other ways? Would an increase in social services actually cut down on panhandling?
The problem here is I only know about panhanding anecdotally, and what I know this way does not incline me to sympathy - many of the panhandlers I’ve known personally used the money, not for food and shelter, but for drugs. But I’m willing to admit I may be prejudiced by a small sample size.
I think that ANY solicitation at a traffic stop is a public safety hazard. Doesn’t matter if it’s someone trying to give you a flower, sell you a flower, wash your windshield, hold out a boot, or just plain panhandling. At the very least, a pedestrian is trying to distract drivers by holding a sign. At worst, someone is spraying windshields and wiping them with newspapers, which doesn’t do a damn thing to clean them and usually leaves them all smeary. The pedestrian MUST get into the traffic flow to collect money, whether the light is red or green, the instant someone indicates a slight chance of a sale/donation. I never see anyone trying to solicit at neighborhood fourway stopsigns…nope, I only see them at insanely busy highway interchanges, where there are at least three lanes going in one direction, so that the beggar must dart between lanes to collect the change.
I am always saddened that firefighters, who one would think would be very concerned about all kinds of safety, insist on raising money by holding out boots at intersections.
I dont agree. In most cases fortune has nothing to do with it. If I become homeless it is my fault. Luck, fortune and so on have nothing to do with it. Self-defeating choices and lack of planning, yes.
Bullshit.
I have experience on this issue – from both sides!
Not all of them, but many panhandlers do, in fact, have permanent/semi-permanent shelter (gov’t assisted housing, assistant living homes). It is common for them to get up in the morning from their warm bed and hot meal, ‘scruff’ themselves up, and go panhandling. Either because they can’t or they won’t accept menial jobs (flipping burgers, mopping floors or whatever). But my main point is that many have warm beds every night.
Most panhandlers who do not have permanent residences know where to get shelter in a pinch if they want to. Most cities in America have well-known homeless shelters and other charitible organizations where the truly ‘homeless’ can have shelter and a warm meal every night. Some panhandlers live like this for years, even decades. Many of these social organizations require those receiving such care to gradually work towards independence and self-reliance (i.e., work towards getting back on their feet again), but not all organizations require this. Some panhandlers simply max out their time at once such place and then start the clock all over again at the next. They can do this indefinately, bouncing from one city to another for the rest of their lives. Again, the main point is that nearly everyone in this country can have a warm bed every night if they put 1% effort into it and aren’t addicted to drugs or fighting severe mental conditions.
Those panhandlers who do not accept such charitable shelter or social programs, typically refuse such care because they are addicted to drugs or alcohol (most shelters require abusers to seek treatment for their addictions, as one condition to be able to take part in recovery programs). Either that or they have mental/developmental conditions that have put them into a permanent state of helplessness. Either way, these are the panhandlers whom I feel the most for. But giving them money at the side of the road only makes the probem worse because either a) you’re contributing to their addition or b) what they really need is an assisted-living center for developmentally disabled adults.
Any way you look at it, giving them a dollar on the sidewalk isn’t going to help. Better to alert a local charity to intervene.
The best method to help panhandlers is to write a check to organizations that exist for the sole purpose of feeding, sheltering and teaching them to become self-sufficient.
By paying someone directly, this encourages repeat panhandling which is bad for local businesses. Less business means fewer jobs and less taxes paid. And how does that help the charities which depend on gov’t taxes, and the truly helpless as a result?
If somebody asks me for money I give them a dollar if I have it. I don’t think about whether they deserve it, and I’m not their social worker. I don’t think everyone is obligated to do it too, but please don’t tell me what to do with my money either.