Street people asking for money

C

Camper6

Well-known Member
Location
Northwestern Ontario Canada
This seems to be more prevalent now than it used to be.

People holding signs asking for money.

Or just coming up to you and asking for change.

I always give something.

One day at a bus stop one person asked me for change and said he hadn't eaten all day. So I asked him if he wanted a meal. He said yes. So I had a coupon for a meal at the nearby casino and I asked him to come with me. He sat down and I called the waitress over and gave her the coupon and asked her to give him a meal up to the value of the coupon. He wanted bacon and eggs and got the full treatment. This person rides the bus and he sees me and recognizes me. There are also buskers playing guitars outside establishments and I always throw any change I might have. I'm just soft hearted. I remember my mother feeding men who would be riding the rails through the city. We had a back porch and she would sit them down and give them whatever we were having. I just feel sorry for people regardless of the circumstances.
 

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Me too. I give some money to the people holding signs asking for help. But this is in a smallish, mid west city in Nebraska....these desperate people are few in number. The larger city of Omaha and the state capital Lincoln have panhandlers on every street corner.......the neediness seems overwhelming. When I'm there my choice is either harden my heart or empty my wallet......and even then there would be multitudes of more beggars.
 
A young man was sitting down on the ground near a bus stop. A fish and chip shop was near. He looked a little bedraggled and very thin. I went into the shop, got some fish and chips and when I came out offered him some because I thought he looked hungry. He politely said no thank you and when the bus came along he got up and got on it. I felt so awful and very embarrassed. Oops stereotyping!!!!!😒
 
i don't here because we have people here who are NOT really homeless but they beg for money to pay their bills because it's easier than working. one guy parks at the supermarket and walks to the highway and does pretty good for himself. then he walks back to his car (which is nicer than mine) and drives a few blocks home.

one older lady went to give to one of the homeless people with a sign and got the crap knocked out of her. so i refuse to mess with it.
 
Treacle said:
A young man was sitting down on the ground near a bus stop. A fish and chip shop was near. He looked a little bedraggled and very thin. I went into the shop, got some fish and chips and when I came out offered him some because I thought he looked hungry. He politely said no thank you and when the bus came along he got up and got on it. I felt so awful and very embarrassed. Oops stereotyping!!!!!😒
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That was a beautiful thing that you did. Our world needs more people like you. :)
 
I made a button that reads NO CHANGE. You could wear it when you are out.
They are protected by the law, freedom of speech, so they have rights, but they can be annoying.
Avoid eye contact.
 
#1I was living in NYC. I came up out of the subway, and a young, nicely dressed guy was asking for change. he lost his wallet and needed money to get back to New Jersey. I felt bad for the guy, he lost his wallet, and he lived in New jersey.:) I didn't give him any money. Next day, you will not believe, who, again, lost his wallet. Well, after a month, I got to know the guy, and we kind of became friends. We'd sneak off to the side to talk- having friends wouldn't help his lost wallet story.
It was Thanksgiving, and I was in Times Square, when I heard a familiar voice. He was crying about loosing his wallet. Yup, him!!! He was working the crowd
 
fuzzybuddy said:
#1I was living in NYC. I came up out of the subway, and a young, nicely dressed guy was asking for change. he lost his wallet and needed money to get back to New Jersey. I felt bad for the guy, he lost his wallet, and he lived in New jersey.:) I didn't give him any money. Next day, you will not believe, who, again, lost his wallet. Well, after a month, I got to know the guy, and we kind of became friends. We'd sneak off to the side to talk- having friends wouldn't help his lost wallet story.
It was Thanksgiving, and I was in Times Square, when I heard a familiar voice. He was crying about loosing his wallet. Yup, him!!! He was working the crowd
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Chronic exists.

As for my own experience, I befriended a man a number of years ago who battled with schizophrenia. It left him broken and debilitated, but that didn't stop me from greeting him whenever I'd see him in passing, and on days when he'd ask and I had a little spare change, I was happy to buy him a coffee.

It always warmed my heart when I'd see other people doing the same. The man is gone now, he passed away, and in many ways I miss him. I miss seeing his smile and his eyes light up when he'd see me coming, and I always had a warm hello for him and a few minutes of conversation, and the pittance of change I passed along to him didn't crimp my lifestyle, but I like to think it helped make his day a little warmer and brighter, especially on those sub-zero days when he could go and sit down in a warm coffee shop somewhere and have a piping hot cup of coffee on me.
 
It was during the "6 Day Arab Israeli War", in Rego Park ,NYC an area with a large Jewish population.There were a group of obviously Jewish men collecting for Israel. No one was giving change -it was 100s, 500s, 20s. One day, I exited the subway and there's two black kids about 10 or so. They have a coffee can, with a sign taped to it. It said, "FOR THE JEWS" Maybe I'm overly suspicious, but people were throwing cash into it. You had to see the expression on the kids' faces. They just couldn't believe their good fortune. It still amazes me to this day that people were stuffing that coffee can with money, and come on, the two black kids didn't seem all that Jewish.
 
I think all the stories in this thread so far have merit. All are probably true. Here's what I believe:

Some people who are begging in the street are truly destitute and cannot get jobs, or are in no position to work. Some of them are amputees. It would be pretty hard to fake that.

Some are con artists, like the guy with the "lost wallet." Usually having a hard luck story makes me suspicious.

Some are really collecting for a worthy cause, although I doubt that "collecting for Israel" story. Most worthy causes have other ways of raising funds.

I sometimes give beggars a dollar or two, not if I feel suspicious about them.
 
For me, it's always on a case by case basis.

The city where I live asks people not to indulge panhandlers.

A local organization, In My Father's Kitchen, has formed a public/private partnership called Hire Ground that helps panhandlers find day labor that can eventually become permanent. The hardcore homeless will always be with us but programs like Hire Ground help some people who have hit a rough patch get back on track.

We all should do what we feel comfortable with and if we can't help we should at least do no harm.
 
Most of them are would be swindlers. I’ve seen one guy in a wheelchair actually get dropped off from a van with a lift to beg at a wide median near a local strip mall. Another comes & sets up shop on a median with his stolen shopping cart ( brazen enough to have a red cart from Target for awhile) & stolen milk crate seats on a median & takes nap breaks on the lawn of a nearby apt. Another was throwing water on people’s windshields stopped at a light to get them to pay him to squeegee them.
local WM parking lot seemed to attract people who supposedly were broken down & needed $ for repairs to get somewhere. Liked to jump out at people from between parked cars.
Lots of facilities here feed the homeless, especially now there is free food being handed out someplace every day. Nope, not one lick of sympathy here.
 
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I give on a case by case basis. I took a woman with a sign and a child into a grocery store and bought her 200 dollars worth of what she needed. She could have gotten more, she was very respectful and careful about what she choose.

I charged it so nothing could be returned for money. When we went to her car, an old car, it wouldn’t start. She called her brother and we waited with her. There were several family members living together and we fed all of them.

I didn’t see her with a sign until two months later. They were day workers and only asked for things when they couldn’t find work. I remember when my husband first got back from Vietnam, and out of the marines, he would wait at the beer delivery distribution, hold up his hand, to get picked to unload the trucks.

rgp, I disagree with your opinion as I have been there. While we didn’t have to beg on a street, we couldn’t afford much food.
 
A few years back before I finally convinced my wife that buying bottled water is a scam we had been collecting the empties and storing them in large yard bags. It seemed that it was my obligation to take them to a recycling spot. Most grocery stores have an exterior area you can recycle them, you get a chit to redeem your deposits inside. The clerks considered it a hassle and treated those redeeming with looks and attitude that make your day, then put you in deeper depression. They were a lot more friendly when they were ringing up the deposit.

Never figured out why I had to do it, I had offered them to my grandchildren even offered to haul them to the store in my pickup but they were too good for that. So one day I had what I thought would be a great idea. Take them to the entrances to the big box grocery store and offer them to the homeless that manned each. I stopped offered them to several but no takers until finally one old gentleman reluctantly accepted them. We were less than 50 feet from a cart rack and I had figured I had between $20-30 in empties. He retrieved a cart, I helped him load them and drove off, vowing to let the recycling truck make the money, what a hassle, they're damn selective on what can or can not recycle. So now I just toss them in the normal trash and help fill up the landfill. We don't have that many now but still the hassle is always looming out there.
 
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I have given bus tokens, and bought coffee and meals for a few people. The only person I refused was a guy who hit all the gas stations, citing the same story .. "I'm from out of town, and ran out of gas".

If one is from out of town, wouldn't they tank-up first? Seeing him at another gas station, when he approached my car, I warned him that I had seen him before with the same old story. I said "take a good look at my face - and, never approach me again."

He left, very quickly.
 
Camper6 said:
This seems to be more prevalent now than it used to be.

People holding signs asking for money.

Or just coming up to you and asking for change.

I always give something.

One day at a bus stop one person asked me for change and said he hadn't eaten all day. So I asked him if he wanted a meal. He said yes. So I had a coupon for a meal at the nearby casino and I asked him to come with me. He sat down and I called the waitress over and gave her the coupon and asked her to give him a meal up to the value of the coupon. He wanted bacon and eggs and got the full treatment. This person rides the bus and he sees me and recognizes me. There are also buskers playing guitars outside establishments and I always throw any change I might have. I'm just soft hearted. I remember my mother feeding men who would be riding the rails through the city. We had a back porch and she would sit them down and give them whatever we were having. I just feel sorry for people regardless of the circumstances.
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This is just like in the movie "Goundhog Day".
 
Aneeda72 said:
I give on a case by case basis. I took a woman with a sign and a child into a grocery store and bought her 200 dollars worth of what she needed. She could have gotten more, she was very respectful and careful about what she choose.

I charged it so nothing could be returned for money. When we went to her car, an old car, it wouldn’t start. She called her brother and we waited with her. There were several family members living together and we fed all of them.

I didn’t see her with a sign until two months later. They were day workers and only asked for things when they couldn’t find work. I remember when my husband first got back from Vietnam, and out of the marines, he would wait at the beer delivery distribution, hold up his hand, to get picked to unload the trucks.

rgp, I disagree with your opinion as I have been there. While we didn’t have to beg on a street, we couldn’t afford much food.
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Your situation may be unique I stand by my opinion.
 

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