Panhandling - What Do You Think?

[Ms.Minnie]

The other day DH and I were leaving the local shopping center parking lot after doing our grocery shopping. On the curb at the end of the entrance/exit to the shopping center there was a young woman holding a sign begging for money saying she was a mother of two children and couldn’t work.

I found this to be very offensive for this young woman to be begging on the street for money. She was wearing a very nice coat and looked perfectly healthy, had no children with her so she must have had childcare. My thought was that if she was able to be out on the street begging wouldn’t she be better served getting a job? There are help wanted signs all over the place and the pay scale today is much better than it was in years gone by. I just can’t believe the gall of this person to expect people to just handover money to her for no good reason.

On our way past her I mouthed the words “get a job”. I hope she understood what I was saying and hope no one gave her any money.

 

[Christine]

These people are ALL OVER THE PLACE where I live. Honestly, they are not truly homeless. They all belong to some "panhandling" organization that coordinates where they all go. I believe they turn these funds in at the end of the day. They are either provided with some sort of shelter (or something else). It's shameful really. I have no issues handing out cash to someone truly needing it and being on hard times, but these people are not it.

This past weekend, I drove past this older man who is always out begging by our grocery store. His sign usually has something like "Homeless, Can't Work, God Bless" on it. That was crossed out this weekend very obviously and "For the War" was written on top.

 

[mjkacmom]

They are not usually independent contractors but part of a large organization that targets parking lots. By us they pretend to play instruments (the accordion was pretty neat, the keyboard not as impressive to fake).

 

[kymom99]

I don’t agree with it and I never give them anything. I donate freely to our local charities.

 

[SirDuff]

I think that I‘m very glad that I don’t have to resort to it. Whatever the true situation, I cannot imagine a life where I felt that panhandling was my best option.

 

[legler2250]

I try to have compassion for anyone who is either in a situation where they have to ask for money or having the lack of proper ethics to evaluate their decisions. Either way someone in this position will never be as well off as someone who has their life together. If someone asks me for money I will never give it to them but I will buy then a sandwich or give anyone food.

 

[Christine]

I try to have compassion for anyone who is either in a situation where they have to ask for money or having the lack of proper ethics to evaluate their decisions. Either way someone in this position will never be as well off as someone who has their life together. If someone asks me for money I will never give it to them but I will buy then a sandwich or give anyone food.

They usually get really angry with you when you do that.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Panhandling and homeless street begging is a normal sight to me and not shocking.

I feel sorry for the genuine homeless over the last 20 years in UK and Ireland. With the rise of the corruption, abuse and professional street beggars, people are too afraid to help a genuine homeless.

One group of professional beggars in Ireland are Romany Gypsies, who started coming to Ireland in large family groups in 1989. They came from Eastern European countries as asylum seekers after the break up of The Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall. They don't work and get assisted housing and benefits. In Dublin especially they will go to the city centre and sit on a street corner, often times with a child or baby and beg for money. Then in the evening time, get on the bus back to the suburbs and their local authority house. Another trick they do is to send a child aged about 6 years old into restaurants or cafes to go table to table begging, while the adult waits outside.

Another type of professional street beggars are the drug addicts and alcoholics, who again get assisted housing and benefits. Like the Romany Gypsies, they will spend the day sitting on a street corner begging and then in the evening time go back to their local authority house.

The Big Issue newspaper is a project that was originally set up for genuine homeless people, as a way for them to sell something and make some money instead of just panhandling. However over the years, they company has gone far from its original idea and people who are not homeless such as the Romany Gypsies and drug addicts and alcoholics who live in local authority housing sell it. Very few people buy The Big Issue newspaper now, because its not just genuine homeless people selling it.

There are many genuine homeless people on the streets in Dublin and other towns and citys. There are various charity's who go out and give them food and hot drinks, but they only go out around 10pm, because they know that all the not genuine homeless street beggars will have gone home to their houses by that time.

 

[dreamer17555]

Honestly kicking someone while they are down is never okay. You can pass by quietly but instead you had to make a comment. You never know what someone else is dealing with. I just thank god I am not in that position. Compassion is important.

 

[BadPinkTink]

If someone asks me for money I will never give it to them but I will buy then a sandwich or give anyone food.

They usually get really angry with you when you do that.

I agree, I did this once, a woman was at a street corner and asking people to get her a sandwich, so I went to a convenience store and bought her a sandwich, but when I gave it to her, she quickly hid it and then asked me to go to a grocery store and get her a big list of items. Never again will I believe what a street beggar says and now I just walk past.

 

[dez1978]

Honestly kicking someone while they are down is never okay. You can pass by quietly but instead you had to make a comment. You never know what someone else is dealing with. I just thank god I am not in that position. Compassion is important.

This. While inwardly, I often feel the same as many others have posted. But we don't know anyone elses situation and if they are really homeless or if they are scamming. For all you know that woman dressed in decent clothes just ran from an abusive husband and is out there trying to make some money while her kids are at school so she can feed them that night. Maybe she has a job but it doesnt make ends meet. Maybe when she ran from her husband she also had to leave the job she had and has been unable to find a new one. Job hunting is hard if you are at a shelter or homeless. You don't know, but instead chose to openly pass judgement. Kindness is free.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Honestly kicking someone while they are down is never okay. You can pass by quietly but instead you had to make a comment. You never know what someone else is dealing with. I just thank god I am not in that position. Compassion is important.

Compassion is important yes, but at the same time, when you see professional street beggars on such a regular basis, and know that they get a local authority house and all sorts of benefits and its long term, and that most likely have never had a proper job in their life, the compassion goes out the window.

 

[fla4fun]

As someone who has been unemployed over a year, I can tell you just getting a job isn’t as easy as it sounds. I am continually told I am overqualified by my 20+ years of experience, or the experience isn’t what they’re looking for, or they can’t pay me what I am worth (when we haven’t even discussed salary). It’s rough, and it’s concerning. I would have to be desperate to panhandle, and if I were panhandling, you can be sure I was trying to find something permanent.

I know there are some who like to take advantage of others, but I wouldn’t paint all panhandlers with the same broad brush.

 

[dreamer17555]

Compassion is important yes, but at the same time, when you see professional street beggars on such a regular basis, and know that they get a local authority house and all sorts of benefits and its long term, and that most likely have never had a proper job in their life, the compassion goes out the window.

Compassion and kindness should never go out the window. You can choose not to give them money- no issue there but to choose to be openly hostile is another thing entirely.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

The other day DH and I were leaving the local shopping center parking lot after doing our grocery shopping. On the curb at the end of the entrance/exit to the shopping center there was a young woman holding a sign begging for money saying she was a mother of two children and couldn’t work.

I found this to be very offensive for this young woman to be begging on the street for money. She was wearing a very nice coat and looked perfectly healthy, had no children with her so she must have had childcare. My thought was that if she was able to be out on the street begging wouldn’t she be better served getting a job? There are help wanted signs all over the place and the pay scale today is much better than it was in years gone by. I just can’t believe the gall of this person to expect people to just handover money to her for no good reason.

On our way past her I mouthed the words “get a job”. I hope she understood what I was saying and hope no one gave her any money.

Get a job? That was your response? Not sure I can stay within Dis guidelines in my response to that one. So I'll just let a song do the talking.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Compassion and kindness should never go out the window. You can choose not to give them money- no issue there but to choose to be openly hostile is another thing entirely.

well when you have seen the panhandler outside the mall, get up in the evening, put on his backpack and get on a bus and pay the fare with the benefits card, and know that the bus is only going to the local authority housing,
or when you have been on the bus and seen groups of Romany Gypsies get on at the same bus stop, and divide up bags of Big Issue newspapers and then they get off in the city centre, to got to "work" begging on the street corner
or when you have been shouted at for giving food to a panhandler
then compassion does go out the window.

 

[soccerdad72]

Honestly, I don't see the need to interact with them in the first place, positively or negatively. It accomplishes nothing either way.

 

[Colleen27]

I'm reluctant to give to those begging because coordinated/"professional" beggars have become more and more common over the years and that's made it so much harder both on pedestrians just trying to navigate the world unbothered and on those who are genuinely homeless and in need because the more aggressive pros invite more scrutiny/harassment of everyone on the streets. For a long time, I resisted the cynicism of letting a few manipulators undermine my natural desire to help, but more and more I find myself noticing "tells" in those begging in more touristy areas that signal it being more of a performance than genuine need.

I try to have compassion for anyone who is either in a situation where they have to ask for money or having the lack of proper ethics to evaluate their decisions. Either way someone in this position will never be as well off as someone who has their life together. If someone asks me for money I will never give it to them but I will buy then a sandwich or give anyone food.

They usually get really angry with you when you do that.

This has not been my experience, nor my daughter's. When I was in college, my friends and I used to burn up unused meal plan dollars at the end of the term by buying loads of sandwiches and bagged snacks and giving them away to the people living in a homeless encampment on our way home from campus, and 95% of those we offered food to were appreciative (the 5% that weren't tended to be the more paranoid mentally ill, who looked at the food like a trap of some sort). DD20 does the same thing now, along with some of her college friends, with the same results. But we both attend(ed) college in cities with large homeless/transient populations - Detroit for me, San Francisco for her - so maybe the odds were on our side in terms of connecting with those who are truly in need and appreciative of any help rather than only with the addicts or professional beggars who are interested only in cash.

 

[MillauFr]

Not sure how asking for cash is offensive. I along with others don't carry any cash so I couldn't give to them even if I wanted to. I don't want to give them cash but I would expect they should evolve to taking Venmo or Zelle if they want to improve their take.

 

[Sinder]

I have seen enough scammers to assume anyone begging for money on the corners is trying to pull one over on people. It may not be true but since I don't know I won't give anything.