Do you ever give money to beggars on the street?

[CatWoman]

I just saw a guy on the corner with a sign stating, "Hungry, Need Food". He had a cup in the other hand.

I used to always give money to people like that, but I don't anymore.

I'll give them food, but not money.

[terrya]

1. I do.

I figure that I'm blessed in my life and others aren't.

It's the charitable thing to do, IMO.

[TXlib]

2. Nah. If nobody's looking, I kick them and take their money.

Oh, wait... This isn't FR, is it?

Well, nevermind then...

[SlavesandBulldozers]

3. not since i lost my job

Now i ponder begging.

[Bertha Venation]

18. I'm sorry to hear you lost your job.

Feel like saying anything about it?

[xJlM]

4. Sometimes

Haven't lately, though. In fact, I may soon join them (just kidding).

[Sir_Shrek]

5. Nope

Being in the city, there's typically a fast food place or store where food can be bought, so I always offer to buy them some thing. They typically refuse, and just ask for the money. Some of them have gotten super-aggressive.

I actually gave a guy $2 one time and kind of kept tabs him as he walked away. It was in front of a drug store where he gould've gone in and gotten something to eat, but sure enough he took it around the corner and right to a liquor store. From then on I have never given money to anyone on the street, only to charitable organizations.

[NightTrain]

6. Yes. And don't give me any shit about it, either!

My, I'm in a belligerent mood today, aren't I? :evilgrin:

[underpants]

7. From time to time

It jsut depends.

[radwriter0555]

8. I'm no man's judge. I give anytime I'm asked. It's not my business

what he's spending it on.

It might only be the pennies in my pocket, but it's been as much as $20. It's just money.

[Goldmund]

13. EXACTLY.

"It's just money."

Couldn't agree more.

[radwriter0555]

42. I figure I'm the luckiest person in the world. I have everything I need..

so why not share a little with someone who apparently needs it enough to ask?

I don't need to decide if he's going to get his addictions fed with it or get a meal with it. I'm not his judge or jury. I have no reason to make sure he's eating food with it.

Drug and booze addictions are as much disease as is mental illness. They don't mean a person is bad. Granted drug and booze addicts and mentally ill people can indeed be bad people, but so can clean and sober and non-mentally ill people.

I figure those people are someone's family. Someone's son, brother, uncle, father... if I end up on the street cause I lose my mind, I hope someone hands me a dollar when I need it. Cause we can all get there in a real, real hurry. Fortunes change like the wind.

[Plaid Adder]

9. Sometimes.

I always give food away if I have it (take-out boxes, etc.). I give money if I have some in my pockets. I also give money if I'm with my partner, whose example shames me. We usually buy Streetwise when we run across someone selling it (it's a magazine sold by homeless people). That's about the extent of it.

My partner is much better about this kind of thing than I am, and usually donates a significant amount of money to a local shelter during the holidays. I blew my donation on the International Red Cross this year.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Heddi]

10. Occasionally. It depends

If a really obnoxious and intoxicated person harasses me on the street, or when I'm riding the bus, for some change, I won't give it to them.

However, there are people I do give $$ to. Or a cigarette. Or a sympathetic ear.

Theres 3 homeless folks that 'live' down the road from us. We see them every time we go to teh grocery store.

2 of them are a couple. Don't know if they're married. Ken and Debbie, I believe are their names. Gave them food & change a couple of times.

They've never appeared intoxicated, or obnoxious, and usually protest if you try to give them something.

The other guy, I don't know his name. He's an older man, and the Seattle Times did a story on him a few weeks ago. His wife & daughter live in subsidized housing way on the other side of town. He was in the Navy, got injured, was discharged and for some reason or another doesn't get disability.

Has worked day jobs, but not too many people want to hire a 60-something year old man that smells like he lives under a bridge.

Collects money from passers by, and gives it to his wife and kid. Said he felt guilty last mother's day b/c he saved up alot of money and bought her some flowers to make her feel good, but ended up feeling bad b/c he could have used the $$ to buy food with.

Says he used to drink, but doesn't drink because how can you afford to drink when you can barely afford to keep a roof over your head.

This past thanksgiving, we brought him the leftover turkey that my husband and I would have never eaten in a million years.

It was a good 5lbs of fresh, hot, still steaming turkey meat.

We looked for him but didn't see him. I was sad and hoped he hadn't gone home for the day. As we were turning around to drive home, we saw him, and gave him the plates of food.

He said thank you thank you god bless you.

[VermontDem2004]

11. Not often

But I do know a homeless person who lives by Jack-in-the-Box and one time he even offered me a beer.

[demnan]

12. Yes I do

and I know they may spend it on booze and stuff but I feel sorry for them anyway.

I don't give them anything if they dress better than me, though (used to be a street person out here who wore very expensive sports clothes and I couldn't see giving him money).

[buddhamama]

14. i do, but i'll give food too

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

15. Yeah I do. They are already homeless.

I don't care if they use the money to eat or shoot up. If I were homeless, I might need to slam smack too.

[GumboYaYa]

16. Sometimes, but if they are playing a musical instrument

I give them all the money I have on me. There is a street performer in town who plays the trumpet and I give him a twenty every time I seem him.

[Bertha Venation]

17. Yes, I do. Angels among us. Read on.

I subscribe to the idea that a "beggar" or "panhandler" or homeless person or whatever could be an angel in disguise. Not literally, but . . . damn, this is hard to explain.

That could be my half-sister who went a bad way in life. It could be Kathy's brother, an alcoholic brain-damaged from a beating from some drug dealers he pissed off 15 years ago. Or it could just be another of my sisters who had a very rough time of it several years ago and for a few days had nowhere to go with two very small children.

I have no way of knowing whether the person panhandling is doing so out of need, greed, pathology, or addiction. I choose to give that person the benefit of the doubt. If s/he says s/he's needy, so be it. If I have it to spare, I give it.

The only exception is if that person is in front of a grocery store, a convenience store, or a restaurant. In that case, I go inside and buy them some food.

[damnraddem]

19. Yes, on occasion.

The times are bad. Those on the streets may not be there by choice.

[TrogL]

20. They've got a scam

They'll come up to you with a long-winded explanation about how they need to get someplace or other and need a ride and that they're in town trying to get the fare for a bus ride to another town, where their car and their crying kids are parked and they'll send you the money.

It's bogus. You'll see them in the window of a bar five minutes later.

[Plaid Adder]

22. I'm actually less likely to give to someone who has a complex sob story.

Cause I don't like being lied to. I'd rather just hand over the bills, and if they end up in a bar five minutes later, at least they're warm.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[voice of reason]

21. it depends . . .

I think alot of these guys make more than I do (tax free too). Especially the ones at freeway on/off ramps. They definitly dress hipper than me.

[baffie]

23. Good question! Used to, don't now, but it's always an internal debate...

One reason is that I had, here and there, a couple of them grab me when I gave them the money -- individuals, not together, and it was really their way of saying thanks, but it made me hesitant for future situations. To those so inclined, please don't let that stop you; I've never heard of anyone else with such an experience, so I tend to think it was just my karma to have to deal with that.

One thing that the Reagan years left me with is the awareness that not everyone who's homeless is there because they abuse chemicals. And we seem to now be entering Reagan Years Part II. So, I'm again thinking of rethinking my behaviors.

One thing I learned in the Reagan years was that there are actually professional panhandlers out there, who simply do it for a living. And in Reaganish times (or now, Bushcoish times), what are we going to do? Tell them to go get a job?

[geniph]

24. On occasion, yes

If they: 1) don't pester me, 2) look like they are unable to find work for whatever reason (illness, infirmity, obvious mental disorder, no clean clothes), 3) have a pet that looks reasonably well-cared-for, 4) aren't obviously aggressive - then yes, I'll give them what I have. I do not give money to people who actually ask for it, but I will give money to a person who's quietly holding out a hat or a sign and not pestering people. I won't give money to anyone who smells of liquor or who has a cell phone. We all have limits.

I nearly always give money to teenage girls who are obviously on the thin edge of survival. I guess I empathize most with them. :-(

[Loonman]

25. All the time, who am I to judge if they buy booze?

What if that's the only happiness they have left.

[catmandu57]

26. I don't care if they drink or drug

it was my money now it's theirs, when I got it nobody said now you can only use this for food, clothing, shelter. No, if I want to I can get sloppy ass drunk, I won't, but I could if I so desired.
Anyway, I don't see many panhandlers living in the sticks, but occasionally when I'm in KC and I see somebody in need, I'll give what I can.

[Breezy du Nord]

27. In Mexico I gave 5 pesos to a woman with no legs

And this one old woman who was always wandering around el mercado (the market)

[kayell]

28. Yes

Last year while she was driving for the holidays, my daughter saw a man beside an interstate exit with a sign - Will work for food. She went to the next store and bought PB, bread, bananas and some oranges and took it back to him. For a while she kept bags of packaged food in the car for people she passed like him.

I usually give cash. I can never give much (often only whatever change I have), but anything is at least an acknowledgement of the person. I know that some people may spend it on things I wouldn't like, but I also think people should have the dignity provided by being able to make their own choices. I try to imagine how I would feel if reduced by circumstances to such desperation. It is humiliating to be forced to beg, how much more so when most people treat you like dirt, or ignore you.

This is not to fault my daughters choice in how to give. It solves the problem many people have with worrying that cash will be spent on liquor or drugs. The significant thing is that she does give, understanding that even the small amount of help she can give is better than ignoring another human being in distress.

[Skittles]

29. I don't see homeless folk where I live

but when I worked in downtown Austin I used to buy two meals to go at lunch and sit and eat it with a homeless person, sometimes on the sidewalk.

[murielm99]

30. My husband always gives them money.

But he is a good man.

[dani]

31. No, I give to organizations that help feed

poor and homeless people.

I think when you give money to beggars you oftentimes end up supporting their drug addiction.

[WindRavenX]

32. Yeah

After I buy something from a store, and if I have change, I give them what's left, usually like 3-5 bucks.
It's not a lot, but give til it hurts people..you never know when you might be in their shoes...

[Kamika]

33. not really

I used to when I was really small, I was so innocent back then :)

Btw ppl that put change in their pocket JUST to give to beggars cracks me up

[amazona]

34. not anymore

Years ago I gave away too much, and then I was in a bad position when I got sick and had trouble taking care of myself. Never again. With most people I'm sure it wouldn't be an issue but with my income in the high four figures I really do have to watch the pennies. I'm guessing many street people actually earn more than I do (wouldn't be hard) which is also rather irksome. I realize they are usually ill but why should being a schizophrenic make you bad at math? I know, it's unfair -- most "respectable" people couldn't make it on my income either. Also I feel very unsafe futzing with money on the street.

[blondeatlast]

36. "Futzing with money." Exactly, never look vulnerable.

[blondeatlast]

35. We are TOLD not to by our security people.

I work at the amin Phoenix library. We are strongly advised not to ever give money, because many of the "irregulars" will go after you if they think you haven't gotten enough. This year, like last, I will give a couple of regulars Mickey D's gift ceertificates, it isn't much but they appreciate it.

Actually, I did give once, and the guy did come after me, loudly demanding more. I had my then 6 month old son with me, too. A amn in the parking lot saw what was happening and chased him away. Scared the poop out of me--never again.

I am always polite and respectful and meet their eyes, but hell, no.

[THUNDER HANDS]

37. yes, I do all the time

for nearly every one I see...but I tend to carry around TONS of pocket change because I use bills for everything. :)

[WoodrowFan]

39. but Magic Rat

but do you ask them for anything in return? like maybe answering a poll??

:P

[Stephanie]

44. n/t

.

[WoodrowFan]

38. Depends

Depends, in DC there are scam artists as well as homeless so it's a quick "is he or isn't he" guessing game.

[qwertyMike]

40. Yes

Mostly when I've been drinking . . . . guilt?

[areschild]

41. Most of the time

I give to the ones who aren't even asking, but I know they need it.

My problem is I don't want to offend them in front of other people, just in case I'm wrong and they get insulted.

A few days ago, I saw this old guy come in to Taco Bell and he was obviously in need. I watched to see how much food he was able to buy, and it wasn't much. I thought that he must still be hungry. I only had a five on me and I wanted to offer it to him, but like I said, I didn't want to offend him.

When my husband, granddaughter and I were leaving, I went over to where he was sitting in a booth and said, "Excuse me sir, I think you dropped this." (I didn't know what else to do, and I know that sounds stupid). He said, "God Bless you, maam." I was just glad he accepted it, and let it go at that.

[CivilRightsNow]

43. Yes...

I generally do. The only time I didnt was when I was unemployed. I figure that I am very blessed and that Ill probably just spend the buck on cigarettes or some fast food joint, so I really am no better then anything they could possibly spend it on.

My favorite encounter was when a gentleman came up to my fiance and I in deep ellum.. and area in Dallas. He was obviously homeless and he told us, straight up, what he would be doing with the money. He said he was 50 cents short on a 40 oz. :) We had no problem giving him a buck and a cigarette for the road.

If I was living on the street and had to ask people for money I might want a 40 too every now and then. I dont know his story and I dont assume the worst, my fellow citizens are not my enemy. The government is all of ours, so Ill give em the benefit of the doubt.

[Stephanie]

45. I give to the women

In NYC you'd go broke if you gave to everyone, so I give to the women. A homeless woman is a sad sight.