I think I could live with only 5% of the money I give to panhandlers going to actually needy people because the alternative is those 5% of people going hungry and having to endure a miserable and possibly frightening night that could've easily been avoided. I'll now wait for people to explain how those people could've avoided being in those situations by working harder because everybody can make it and there's no such thing as a disadvantage.
But saying it that way presupposes the answer. In my experience, there are two types of homeless: the kind that, for lack of a better way of saying it, aren't wired in a "society" sort of way, and those that fit pretty damn well into your mildly sarcastic last sentence.
I can even point you to a specific example: on the exit off I-95 in Philly for Columbus Avenue. Heading north, come down off the exit ramp and you will see the latter. I've personally watched the guy ride up on a $600 bike (whether he paid for that or not is not the point) in a $200 stitched Flyers jersey and join his partner (a woman) in their panhandling. On more than one occasion I've seen her with glossy red fingernails. That, to me, is a matter of choices. I find it straining credibility that someone just "gave" them a $600 bike, or a $200 jersey, or graciously took her out to get her nails done as a token for the homeless. If you can figure out a way to have those things, you can figure out a way to add to a productive society.
Contrast with two other examples: if you take a right at the end of that ramp, you come to a Wawa. The right turn AFTER the Wawa is a side street that leads to the on ramp of said highway, moving south. There's a guy there in a wheel chair, missing legs from about the knee down. On occasion he will be selling flowers, but not usually. He is almost always in some state of intoxication, or getting there. I have seen this twice: some one is handing him money, and he has whipped out his penis and just begun urinating. If you go straight at the Wawa, you come to a major light (go left and you're in the Home Depot/McDonald's parking lot). In the center median - where there is a train spur because of the ports in the area - two men usually sit, one in a wheel chair and one on the pile of trash that has accumulated because of their stay. The operator of the rail line periodically sweeps the trash out of the way for the infrequent trains, but it builds up. The wheel chair guy is the guy that lectured me on my eating habits. I have talked with them on occasion - the non-wheel chair guy is the "locomotion" for the wheel chair guy, and they "live" in the abandoned building across the side street from the Wawa, with the other wheel chair guy. They like the building because it has ramps (formerly used by forklifts moving raw materials and product around the building). Their world is content. I don't know that I would use "happy", but they aren't looking to get back into society, nor to do anything other than what they are doing.
Point of this is to say... what programs help these people? What "giving" changes the game? I'm not at all suggesting that the latter two examples WANT to be homeless, but they don't want to be in the ratrace either, and they seem have a profound mistrust of "The Man" (as evidenced by some conversations, including one where "The Good News Bible" was proudly proclaimed to be "the only law that matters" and "the only news I need". Those positions have their consequences. Society is a series of compromises no matter how you slice it, and the former clearly aren't willing to make the sort of compromises that give back to the society that is clearly giving them a pass at least so far.
Topic: How do you handle strangers asking you for money? (Read 4298 times)
