Street Survivor Poll - Panhandlers

Whether for beer, crack, a big mac or whatever, and whether truly needed for imminent survival or not, here is the question:

What would you give to panhandlers?

Zilch. There used to be a HUGE problem with panhandlers at my local shopping mall, until mall security stepped things up, put up signs, and drove the offenders off. In two seperate incidents, one man, who had a cup of change in one hand and a small jerry can in the other, actually tried to jump through my open driver's side window while I was pulling out of the mall, demanding money for gas. He promptly got my window scraper, which I keep stored in the backseat of my car in warmer weather, right to the face.

Another time as I was exiting the mall another man grabbed my arm. A complete and total stranger grabs my arm, demanding a ride to the nearest recruiting station. If you want something from a complete stranger, wouldn't it be better to just say, "Pardon me", or, "I hate to bother you, but could I have a moment of your time?", or even better, "Hey buddy, could you help out your fellow man?"

I prompty told the man to let go of my arm or Uncle Sam wouldn't take him because of the stump he'd pull back. I thank my lucky stars often that he did let go and leave me alone.

Panhandlers get nothing in my book. Period. Not to say that I don't care, I'm just watching my own butt. You can never be too careful these days.

Most of the panhandlers I see are holding a sign asking for food, work, gas, a ride, you name it, with one hand, and smoking a cigarette with the other. I figure that if they can afford cigarettes they don't need my help...

zip--zero--nothing..
i'm lucky that i live in a state where you don't see a lot
of hard core begging..when asked why i don't give money away
i tell my buddys that there is a difference between helping
people and letting them take advantage of you...

For some reason they never want what I offer to give them.

Once, outside the train station in lovely Newark, a guy asked me for money because he "needed to get to Morristown." I said "Wow, what a coincidence - that's where I'm going! Come on, I'll buy you a ticket when we get on the train. Hey, where are you going - the train's this way!"

If I don't have any of my family with me & I've got a loaded weapon handy then I go grab them a value meal from the closest fast food joint. I hand it to them thru a partially rolled down window with the door locked - ready to punch the gas if need be. Still risky, but I've never had a problem.

I have this strange desire to help those who are in a bad place - regardless of how they got there. Plus I feel really good about myself afterwards. Maybe it's misguided, but that's what I do.

Funny sidestory: About a year ago I saw a guy begging on the corner & then later that day saw him further up the road walking & talking on a cell phone! LOL

I don't give out handouts in the street. My children & I spent yesterday evening helping provide dinner and a place to sleep for some wonderful homeless people from a nearby large town.

Once a week my local church hosts homeless folks for the night. Last night there were about 38 souls there. We feed them dinner, give them a safe warm place to sleep, give them a place to shower & cleanup, and then feed them breakfast before busing them back to the area where they came from. Most of the dinners are donated lunchtime "left-overs" from nearby schools. It is really quite good food.

Most of them are decent people who are just down on their luck. About half are the same people coming back week after week. Some are new faces. A few weeks back there were 8 children spending the night there. Last night there was only one set of kids - a 5 year old boy and his 18 month old sister.

My children & I treat them with the utmost of respect - as we would want to be treated if we were staying the night there.

Usually when I lived in Philly I'd let the homeless have my leftovers after dinner. Had to walk a lot around downtown (no car then), and never had a problem. Of course, it was usually late at night (which means COLD) and these guys are huddled into doorways. I figure the truly homeless could use a good meal. I also figure A) I've got my Cold steel with me, and B) if they're under-nourished, I should be able to run fast enough to get away.

Big city bums get nothing from me (hahaha... I guess Philly isn't a big city?) during the day. We had one couple in West L.A. that, rumor had it, earned enough panhandling off college kids to afford their house.

KenK..
thats exactly what i was talking about only put in a better
way..helping people rather than letting them take advantage of you..

I never use cash for anything so when they ask for $ for food I can tell them I don't have any. I might have an emergency stash in a separate place but I don't use that for myself either. When my wife worked downtomn and there was no where to park I would have to pick her up and they would always stop and ask for money for food so I would tell them i don't carry any cash as I use the bank card for everything then offer them some food that I carried with me and they never wanted the food.

I will give food and sometimes old clothes. Many of the street people around here are Veterans. I figure I owe them something.

I have given the gloves off my hands before when a homeless man nearly begged me for them. Just yesterday I gave a man a ride after he offered me money to do so. He was carrying a coffee table and needed to go 3 blocks. I was armed at the time so wasnt too worried.

I never give money.

I've noticed that many do not want help, the smell of booze on their breath and just wanting money gives them away.
I was in college and worked part time at a grocery store pushing in carts. Walked out to the end of the parking lot one day and there was someone standing with a sign "will work for food". I tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the big huge sign hanging in the store window saying "Now Hiring, All Shifts". You rally can't get much closer to working for food than in a grocery store.

I marked "nothing" on the poll, but that just represents what I hand out of my own personal belongings.

I just gave the last two and a half years to the homeless of San Francisco. I lived and worked in the Tenderloin district, which is the highest per-capita homeless area in San Francisco, at a faith based non-profit org. I worked mostly with meth and heroin addicts, but also experienced my share of crack and alcohol addicts. As a rule I've always stressed to people to NEVER give cash to people on the street no matter how desperate they seemed. It will go to drugs/alcohol 99.9% of the time.

As an organization we used food/clothes/blankets as a type of bait to attract people to us, build relationships with them, then connect them with rehab or other services that they may need. Giving stuff out on the street, no matter how well intentioned, may actually undermine the efforts of orgs who are better able to follow through to help folks. If you feel the need to do something, please donate to a reputable organization. Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, Churches, etc.

If you have clothes to donate, please look to Salvation Army as a first choice as their thrift stores employ former drug addicts as a way to reintroduce them into the working world.

And I also like to say that the most valuable thing you can give to someone is your time. Even giving the ten seconds to say: “No, I can’t give you any money, but have a nice day anyway” is worth more than the $10 bucks in your pocket to someone that truly needs help.

Jeff

I was heading home early one day in Manhattan and decided to grab a hot dog from a corner vendor (yep survival food at it's finest) just outside of Penn Station. On the way into the station, a bum sitting by the door spotted me and shouts 'Buy me a hot dog", like he's barking an order at me, with this repugnant glare in his eyes. I walked right past him, taking another bite, saying nothing, but returning his glare.

Another time the wife is driving the family into town, when this wierdo steps out in front of my car waving his arms. I pull the pistol out and put it under my leg while we come to an abrupt stop (I couldn't convince the wife to go around). She rolls down the window and the guy says "You need to give me a ride into town". To which I respond, "Uh, I don't think our dog here is going to let you into the car". The Elkhound/Shepard cross was doing her semi-rabid routine jumping between the back seat and the center console while going off, and I guess the wierdo conceded to discretion. I called the cops on my portable radio as we left.

The only time I will drop coin for a panhandler or beggar is if I have too much change in my pocket and wish to alleviate the load without just tossing it on the ground. You can imagine how often that happens.

Now while in Baghdad, it was routine to give up at least $200 a week in Baksheesh. I preferred giving it to the kids, though I knew their family would take it all for the common good anyways. Sometimes it was a lot of effort to put the money in their hands and get them to accept it. A lot of times they wouldn't unless they knew you well, and you were sincere about it. That felt good, and worthy. I do miss my Iraqi friends something fierce.

Exactly!

Add me to the nothing column.

We had a guy in the local area that stood at the end of an exit ramp with a sign will work for food. He would never take the work but would take money or "new" food. The local police did an investagation after he was seen at the end of the day walking across the street to the mall parking lot and getting into his BMW. They couldn't charge him with anything but the IRS did get him for tax evasion for not reporting $100,000.00 in income!!!

Not long after moving to Vegas, I was heading out of a Home Depot parking lot, waiting at the signal exit. A black man (woman and two kids sitting on the grass in the shade of the sign) was standing with a sign: "Need Work. 20 yrs exp painting".

The truck ahead of me was a beater that had paint drips down the tailgate. I could see the driver lean toward the passenger window and heard him yell, "Do you really want work?"

The black man LEAPED to the truck window, and said, "YES, SIR!"

I pulled around (no traffic nearby) and as I passed them, they were shaking hands. In five years of driving for a living there, I never saw that black man again.

I haven't seen a 'will work for food' sign in years. Now, it's 'pennies help, god bless', but what they want is dollars.

I used to work for an animal-assistance non-profit (we helped pay vet bills). A man called me (second time) for help with his dog, but we were out of money for the month. Ten minutes later, a woman called from the in-town ranger station, saying that he had called from her phone, but was gone. She said he was the guy who had spent the last two years at the end of the freeway exit (signal light) with his husky-mix dog. Her sister worked at the bank on the far side of the interchange, and said this guy would come in four or five times a day to deposit cash. He averaged more per day than the bank teller did.

Sue

My experience with college campus panhandlers taught me a few things, and my instincts are no longer to stop and give money.

Someone said "...most are good people and are just down on their luck". That's a very optimistic point of view but is short on fact (or, at least, it's misleading). Most may be "good" people, relatively speaking, but they're "down on their luck" for a reason. You name the reasons....they're endless. They are not "homeless", they are beggars, and they choose that lifestyle.

Generally, I always say I'll give them nothing...not a dime....zip. I reason that all I'm doing is contributing to their problem. But the reality is, almost everytime I see them, whether stopped at a redlight or begging in front of a store, I end up pitching in a few coins or a dollar or two. I don;t know why, I just can;t help it.

It6 sounds to me that we have something in common, Stretch. We are Human Beings after all, caring for our fellow man, here and there. Welcome to the Human Race,, Me, I'm a Vulcan stuck here since 1953! It's a job explaining these ears!

Yes, you're probably right, Wildman....it's the humanity in us that extends the hand. Just as we pull over for the people on the side of the road (who usually really need help), we sometimes give hand-outs to those who might need it, but probably shouldn;t have it.

Sa this in a parking lot a couple weeks back. Panhandler with his hand out finds a nice mark. Lady comes up with some cash and some snacks and bottled water. When I came back out from shopping I saw that after she'd left, he put the ziploc bag with teh snacks and bottled water on the running board of her SUV and walked off with the cash. This guy did not want to drink water.

Put me in the Nothing column.

Last year or year before, an FM radio station in El Paso drove around asking all the beggars (PC 1990's invented name = "homeless") how much they would collect in a day. Now, these guys and gals were the ones you see at major intersections and if you drive by there enough, you see the same ones everyday. Oh they may swap intersections once in a while for a change of scenery. In other words, they're not really transients, just permanent beggars. They have the usual array of cardboard signs.... everyone already knows what they say.

Know what their average daily income is? Ready? $37.00

Now, at first glance someone may be tempted to say "Well, that's not very much". But reason and logic says otherwise. It's $37.00 too much for doing nothing all day. A friend said to me "Yea, but these guys stand around in the sun all day long, that aint easy". .... as if standing around in the sun should somehow be compensated for! (I hear Karl Marx applauding in the background) I asked him how much he would earn if he stood around in his frontyard all day.

Know how much the highest "wage earner" averaged every day? (by his own account, understand) $70.00 (note the use of the word "averaged")

Where do these guys live? Under their favorite I-10 overpass; in the desert; in a breezeway or leeward corner of your local closed-down Target store; in city parks; at a tax-funded "shelter"; etc.

This is El Paso. One of the lowest-wage large cities in America. Let's see here.... minimum wage about $7 or so....times 8 hours....hmmmm.... $56 for someone willing to do something productive.

Where does the money go? Who knows. Beer? Wine? Wild Turkey? A new pair of used sneakers from the Salvation Army?

I still don;t know why I give them anything. I suppose it's just hard to look a guy straight in the eyes and not feel some compassion. If nothing else, then maybe for the 3-legged dog they all seem to have one or more of.

Ever notice none of them ever have cats? Cats are just too smart for that. They choose the good life.

Whatever leads these people to their situation is irrelevant. Just as it is irrelevant to consider any criminal's past (childhood experiences, etc) when considering guilt or innocence for comitting a crime. But it seems to me that they are definitely, each one of them, mentally afflicted with something, or they wouldn;t be living the way they do. It's a choice they've made. They consciously choose to live this way, whatever mental affliction guides their conscience.

Normally I don't give these people squat. I work two jobs and have for years. However, several years ago I happened on a guy sitting beside Embarcadero St. in SF near Pier 39 holding a sign that said " Need money for grass". The guy looked like a throw back to the 70's and the sign was at that moment extremely funny. At least he was honest about his intentions. I gave him a buck. It was the best laugh I'd had in a while and I still chuckle when I think about it.

A local reporter decided to find out how much these seen-every-day beggars really make. She put on some worn clothing and took an old daypack, made a sign, and took up space at the bottom of the offramp. After she had been on the first corner for a few hours, some of the 'competition' suggested they all trade corners, which she did.

I don't remember the exact amount, but she made something like $130 in about 6 hours. She would take the money, do a quick count, then hand it back to the giver, saying she was really a reporter and doing a story about panhandlers.

And I just saw my first panhandling cat early this week. It was black, wearing a harness and leash, and seemed quite blase about sitting on the owner's shoulder next to traffic.

Oh, I know I say I'm cynical, which is only true, and some people here probably agree, but I was outdone in Vegas. I was taking a group of people to the airport, and as we headed out of the downtown area, we saw a man with one leg and a pair of crutches with a cardboard sign hanging from a string around his neck. One of my passengers looked at him as we passed, then commented, "Now, there's a diehard beggar! Imagine cutting your leg off to collect more money!"

Sue

That's funny stuff.

Now I've admitted to giving most of them some small pittance time and again, but if I saw a guy with one leg, he's guaranteed to get a couple or more bucks from me. Double it if he also has a black cat! I don;t usually fall for the wheelchair guys though but it depends on whether or not they're really believable.

And the "honesty" routine started some time ago when beggars realized that they could get a little more with some tongue-in-cheek humor. Usually, when I see that, it turns me off and I'm less likely to hand out some coin. I figure, if it's really that funny to them, maybe they should try some honest work on-stage.

In the end, it'a all pretty comical in a sad way. Choosing to be pitiful and living the life of a "homeless" bum is a slap in the face to people who are really poor and struggling with two or three jobs to support a family. No, it's an insult to ANY person who works at something for a living...whether they're struggling or not.

I don't know which is worse, having to face these bums every day, or knowing that they are also scamming our system for millions every year. How many of them get free medical treatment, free food, free lodging, free transportation, all while contributing absolutely nothing to our society?

Like I am always pining on about; it is one thing to have to choose whether or not I am going to fork over hard earned cash for these folks, but at least it's my decision. Once again, I get steamed thinking about tax dollars being handed over just because it makes the politicians look and feel better about themselves. Our government is not in the business of charity, it is in the business of being a good steward of the assets of our country. Like Davey Crockett said, many of them have no problem doling out money that doesn't belong to them in the first place, for things that they would never support with their own personal funds in any way.

I just got hit up by a panhandler yesterday who was riding a very nice mountain bike and trying to sell his "I'm a Katrina victim" story. He didnt have the slightest southern accent and when I asked him where in NO he had lived, he began to stutter and mumble. "Sorry, I dont carry cash" was the answer he got.

I'm surprised no one posted this up yet:


http://emuse.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/17278


It's a joke, but it makes you wonder.

Well said. I'm ashamed to have missed opining that point. That logic applys to so much more than just bums, though, as I'm sure you'd agree,

i get asked for change about 5 times a day, sometimes a lot more, and usually i just kinda shrug my shoulders and keep walking. sometimes i spare some change. i know they'll almost always use it to buy cheap beer, but oh well. if i were on the street and lived the way i see most homeless live, i'd want to be high all the time. it complicates the issue when most homeless (that i've seen) clearly have mental issues and addictions, which means they're almost guaranteed to stay on the street. i guess when i give some change depends on if my bills are paid for that month or not.