I never give money, I assume all panhandlers are trying to con me.
When I infrequently give, and they say they need food, I will give them a burger or some thing tangible to eat.

worstcase
I don't give them money, generally because they always go and buy booze, often as soon as you give them the money. I remember an incident where we actually gave this guy some money because he seemed desperate(it was at a red light) he then immediately went into the gas station and came out with beer.

That just irks me

that must have been a long light …

booz is essential stuff when you're homeless , you ever try sleeping on a wooden bench at noon when its 90 degrees ? you need to be pretty damn drunk to pull that off.

I did once and I hated myself for it. Not for the sake he needed it (I found him rummaging through trash a few mins later) but I thought he was just some guy who needed a little more for bus fare. I don't like being lied to for something I probably would have given it to him for anyway.

A few months later, an old lady sitting on a bench downtown starts it up, “I have nothing…”

The cigarette in her hand told me otherwise. If she can afford addictions, she doesn't need my dime. I brushed her off.

Having been desperately poor all my life, I've never felt sympathetic to people asking for a hand out. Life is hard and I've been working since I've been 8. I still pick up my pennies, I don't see why I should give what I spent time on to some random person who won't get it together. Everyone has a sob story and problems. I don't need more.

No- I don't give any money to homeless people.

There are different kinds of homeless people. Some of them lost their jobs and homes, and are trying to redeem themselves. Some of them (very few, I'll add) are homeless by choice. The rest were runaways, and attempt to prove something on a much larger scale.

Anyway, I would usually find them with signs in areas with heavy traffic. “Plz give me food, Jesus saves” “Hungry, help me” “Need money 4 family, God is with you” etc. A strange feeling occurs when you are in the middle of heavy traffic, and a homeless person with one of these signs is staring you down. Somehow, their eyes meet mine (as opposed to everyone else's) and they give me this intimidating look, almost trying to hypnotize me.

Also, I once saw someone giving a few dollars to a homeless person on the street. Homeless people crowded her, and she finally had to run.

Giving money to someone you don't know is sort of dangerous, because you don't know what they are capable of doing.

Yeah. Plus, I don't have any money.

D0m
I thought of this because a bum at school gave me the short version of his sob story ( He lost his house, etc. ).

I was SO close to just walking away, but out of the goodness of my heart…

I gave him a 1.35 in quarters.

What about you guys? Are there any “Get-a-job-you-bum” people in here? Or more “It-wasn't-their-fault” people?

Yeah they can get a job… NOT just sit there and beg for money. They could get more money at Mc Donalds than off the streets.

It's hard to get a job if you're homeless. Even at fast food chains. My friend would always buy vitamin enriched power bars and give them to homeless people who asked for food. I've started doing that too, but if they start on a “my kid needs five bucks for medicine” or “need bus fare home”, I ignore them.

No, I do however donate to charity and I also donate old clothes to “Fretex” (think of it as a secular salvations army kind of thing). I don't buy the Norwegian equivalent of The Big Issue because I find it uninteresting though I used to buy The Big Issue itself fairly regularly.

i live in vancouver, there's a HUGE homeless population here.
awhile back, the only long-term care facility for mentally ill people closed down. the patients had nowhere to go.

unfortunately addiction is a huge problem here, too, and so many people are written off as drug addicts when they are extremely psychologically ill.
but it is very hard for homeless people to get jobs. it's not as simple as ‘get a job, bum’.

no, i don't give money to homeless people. i do not want any of my money to go towards a dangerous drug habit, and there's usually just no way to tell for sure.
i do buy them food when i can, and have given away a couple scarves, though.

Once this guys asked me for money to buy food. I gave him a falafel. I guess the moral of this story is that nobody likes a smartass. I typically don't give away money, I tip buskers when I can though.

No. No I don't.

i know what i do when a bum asks me for money.

karate chop

I often dont. Most are just their because they cannot be bothered to find a job.

I see one person begging for money but i seen him like a normal person and yet i see a person. Long beard, ruined clothes and a walking stick. just walking around or sleeping but i have yet to see him beg for money,

If i have like 1 pence and i just feel like it i just give it to them. Not all the time mind.

The school I work out is in Downtown Los Angeles. So yeah, kicking down the homeless with change is fundamental.

However, sometimes, you get a bit…well…spent giving to them. I prefer buying them a bite to eat if I'm near a restaurant or mini-mart.

In my own neck of the woods, I saw a man and his son (in a wheelchair) come through the gas station in my neighborhood and of course, he asked for money. I elected to buy his son food and water given that it was a hot, summer day. Well, once we got into the place, not only did this man's son ‘wake up’ and get out of his wheelchair to walk around the store (the kid must have been 10 years old) - this kid demanded a cup of flavored coffee and told me, “I don't see anything here that I like eat”.

They got zilch from me. And I drove off!

Still, goodwill to some is always good. You never know how life could turn for you. Do unto others and what not…

This may sound terrible, but there are just some homeless people I don't feel sorry for. Like there's this one guy I know…who is homeless but just seems to take advantage of people even his friends. Then just the other day i find out that he's homeless of his own free will. It's not like he was kicked out or abused etc.
It's not like I'm going to base all homeless people on just one guy, but it has made me a little bit wiser. I donate what i can (used clothes, books etc.) but i'm going to be selective towards who i help, if only to discourage pretenders.

mishi_hime
This may sound terrible, but there are just some homeless people I don't feel sorry for. Like there's this one guy I know…who is homeless but just seems to take advantage of people even his friends. Then just the other day i find out that he's homeless of his own free will. It's not like he was kicked out or abused etc.
It's not like I'm going to base all homeless people on just one guy, but it has made me a little bit wiser. I donate what i can (used clothes, books etc.) but i'm going to be selective towards who i help, if only to discourage pretenders.

Your story is not unique. Many do simply choose to be homeless. A surprisingly large number actually, and for various reasons. I don't pretend to understand it, it just is.

Housing is expensive where I live, so alot of people up here are just working for money to by a place or for a hotel.Hotel's fill fast here too, so we get these homeless families.

So if I had money, yes I would.

If I have any money, I'll offer to buy them a burger or a drink. They usually decline, so I figure they don't need my money that badly.

And that way, I feel like I've contributed, and I know they won't spend it on booze/ drugs.

In a country full of poor people (I mean people POORER than me) seeing beggars and bums is an everyday thing. I only give money to people who REALLY NEEDS it. And I see to it whether they're still fit to work or not. You see, there's a huge difference between beggars and BUMS. I only give money to beggars.

Beggars are people who are, in anyway, unable to work either because they're handicapped, suffering from a terminal illness and children (only the ones where they have open wounds all over their bodies, there are a lot of scammers out there after all). These people are in no way responsible for their misfortune and they are the ones who are in need for help through food and money.

On the other hand… BUMS are…

LAZY, unproductive people, waiting for luck while sitting on their ass all day waiting to be fed or idiots putting up signs, asking for help even when it's already obvious that they're just BUMS. They are not deserving of any help. They should try to help themselves first before expecting for anyone else to help them in their time of need.


I only help the needy.

I do not help people who brings misfortune upon themselves by wasting their lives, doing things that could only worsen their mind, body or life (like crimes, drugs, gambling etc)


Also, luck only shines upon others who works hard and face the realities of life. Nothing would come out of dilly-dallying.

I live in the suburbs so I hardly see any homeless people but when I do see them in more city-areas, I always feel compelled to give them money… but I usually don't and feel super guilty as I pretend to ignore them. I can't help thinking, “What if they really did need the money?” Gah, I hate that.

The one time I gave something to a homeless person, it was my youth group and we gave him a bagel and a carton of orange juice. He then gave us a speech, “Thomas Jefferson said, Give me Liberty or give me death, I say Give me change or I will Kill you.” Then he thanked us for the food and walked away. So I don't because I really don't know what they'll do.

I've heard so many stories about people donating money to a bum, and then the bum either gets mad because they didn't give enough, or they weren't really homeless, or all sorts of things like that. I can't trust these people, so I rarely donate money to them. However, giving money to organizations that help the homeless is another story.

I was waiting for the bus once and a man came over and gave me some story about how he reeeeeeaally needed some money because he was poor and so on. He seemed genuinely needy so I dug up some change and handed it to him.

It wasn't after another man shoo'ed him away that I realized his clothes all looked practically brand new. I felt like a gullible tard for believing someone who looked like that was poor. -___-

I didn't steal money from homeless ppl. I feel pretty good about that.

mlai
I didn't steal money from homeless ppl. I feel pretty good about that.

You stole their vowels though… eoe!
You should feel ashamed! ;)

i belong to an organization that helps the developmentally disabled and one of our missions is to help the homeless and misfortuned so we have a food bank and we give away anything that is needed from the thrift store that we use as training aid for the disabled. it funny many of the people that really seem like they need the help will take very little and many people that are not that bad off will take way to much, but i don't worry about it, they can have whatever they want there is enough to go around and i dont feel we have been taken advantage of too many times.
as far as people on the street, if they come up to me and ask, and if I have the change I will give them some, because I think asking is the hard part (at least it would be for me) but I very rarely give money to the sign people. (unless its a good sign, I saw a kid once that had one that said “at least Im not a hooker!” he had a big smile and that kid earned himself a buck.) I like to see “some” effort on their part.
on a funny side note if they have a dog my wife will buy a small bag of dog food for them and thats it. she gets some funny looks for that. she sais its their choice if they want to be homeless but the dog doesn't have a choice.(she loves dogs!)

My roommate's girlfriend's dad throws sandwiches at them as he drives by.

Like a lot of people here, I don't give money to people on the street in case they misuse it. I'll generally get them a few cans of lager; especially if there's a group of them. Not the premium stuff of course - something along the lines of Tennents Super: it's cheap but really strong.

Keeps the cold at bay on a miserable British summers day.

this is a pretty touchy and heated subject for me.

i live in austin, texas and we got a LOT of “refuges” from katrina that are just living the life of free money and cheap drugs here. it is quite near an epidemic here because of how the bleeding heart organizations here are so willing to give and give and give and give to people that are homeless. most of the homeless people here are all squaters and they share apartments or homes or camps and the ones that fly signs and pan handle are all addicts and junkies or unfortunates with diabilitating mental illnesses. they don't work or have “homes” because they don't have to. my city affords them the luxury of being “homeless” and living for free off the state.

the people that end up losing everything and want to start their lives over DO. and they fight for it. i work at a hardcore punk bar, and our janitor is “homeless.” we gave him a job and a place to stay, and he is happy and greatful for it, and has bettered his life. after a year and a half, he has built his own little empire! being friends and coworkers with him has taught me a lot about the outcast society of the homeless. the other side of it that i didn't see.

i also used to be homeless. sleeping in my car and under bridges. life threw me a curve ball and i lost everything, but i never pan handled or begged. i picked my ass up and got my sh!t together.

do i give money? mostly, no. because i know 99% of them are only going to spend it on meth or crack or pills or booze. the homeles guy that lives around the corner from me, i throw him a beer whenever i'm walking home from the store with a 6 pack or case. but i don't give money to sign flyers, because i know the ones that truly need it aren't going to ask for it. those are the ones i reach out to.

This is a very touchy subject for me as well. I grew up with very little, my family didn't receive alot of help or money, not even from rich family members. Infact, I was homeless for a short amount of time several years back, it gets rough out there :x. Never once did I find myself begging for things at any time in my life. I remember back in junior high, I used to wash tables in the cafeteria for free lunch when my parents couldn't afford to pack me one :3.

If I encounter a beggar, then yea. I'll give them a quarter or some dimes. It's not enough to break me so why not? :s I can't say for sure why I give change even though most of the time, its probably not gonna go anywhere good. But in my honest opinion, one should never have to beg for something they want or need. When there is a will, there is a way :3.

It seems all of the homeless people migrate to everyone else's states… what, do I smell bad or something?

I can kind of see where someone would voluntarily become homeless - being hypnotized by romantic stories in movies of people giving up their home to go adventuring with nothing but their charms and wits. I have a friend like that, although he hasn't actually done it he talks a lot about going to Europe, traveling the countryside, etc. Obviously, most of us have the common sense to understand that it's all fiction, but some people really need to learn to leave their fantasies in the theatre (And screw you, Firefox. That's the PROPER way to spell “theatre”).

Myself, I donate every now and again when the opportunity arises, but I generally try to avoid homeless people in the streets on the rare occasion I meet up with them. Possibly a dick move, but you never know what kind of people they could be.