The Bloggers With The Most To Say
Should you give money to homeless people?
Let's try to avoid stereotyping or generalizing all homeless people in this thread, please!
Replies are closed for this discussion.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Shop Girl on -
I have a hard time with this because I don't know what would help someone more--my spare change, or the granola bar and bottle of water I always keep in my purse. Maybe I should give both... I don't know.
On a cold day my friend's dad once decided that he wanted to help someone... so he walked up to a homeless person and offered to buy them dinner at the restaurant across the street from where they were. He told this person that they could buy whatever they wanted off the menu, then he would pay for it and stay if they wanted company, or leave if they didn't trust him.
The person pushed my friend's dad and told him he was crazy for thinking he'd leave the street for an hour when he could be making good money. I couldn't believe it.
So my only hesitation is money really what these people need, or does that often just feed into their possible vices or addictions? (understanding that not everyone struggles with the same things) Is it our place to say / judge what they do with it, when it is our money we are giving? I don't know. I often just give it because I feel bad... but I'm never really sure if I'm helping.
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Permalink Reply by GP on -
Like everyone, I've had good and bad experiences with this. I had two amusing situations involving pizza that kind of define the issues for me. I was coming back from a school meeting once with leftover pizza when a homeless guy asked me for money. I got very excited and said "Here, I have pizza! You can have my slices!"...and then he told me that pizza irritates his stomach and asked for money. :-(
But the one memory that makes me want to give is the one guy who asked me for money when I was heading into a pizza shop. I told him I'd buy him some pizza instead, expecting him to bail. I came back, he was walking around nearby, and so I gave him two pieces. He pretty much devoured them and was quite grateful. :-)
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Permalink Reply by Charis S. on -
If I am able to, I do sometimes, BUT sometimes some homeless people tend to NOT look homeless...some of them I see on a daily basis on my way to & from work, and they have on a different outfit everytime, makes ya think! But even if it seems a bit fishy, I try to give when I can, they may be my angel in disguise =)
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Permalink Reply by wishcake on -
To be honest, I can be judgemental about homeless people sometimes, mostly because once I tried to give a fruit platter to a homeless woman who ended up screaming at me and I kind of thought she was going to run me down with her shopping cart.
Having said that, if I'm out and about and I see a homeless person and I know I have a few dollars burning a hole in my pocket...I usually give them the money. I try not to think about it afterwards, because I don't like wondering if they're using it to buy cigarettes or something silly. I figure that I would have just bought something silly with the three dollars anyway, so, I may as well give it to someone who doesn't have the extra.
At least I know that I did a good thing, I guess. If that makes any sense.
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Permalink Reply by T on -
Ehhh, they did a giant news piece on the panhandlers in Boston once and discovered almost 70% of them were just guys on their lunch breaks and a few were netting almost 50,000 a year from panhandling. Insane, huh?
Ever since then I've been skeptical about who gets my spare change.
Unfortunately with the recession there have been a lot of newly homeless people in Boston, so when I'm home I go out of my way to dig into my bag and find some spare change. I don't need it, but someone else certainly does.
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Permalink Reply by Emily Jane on -
Working in downtown Winnipeg I get approached by homeless people on a daily basis asking for money, and it's brought about a hardness that I didn't have before - I'd like to think I was a very caring person, I'm involved in charity work and volunteering and saving animals and spreading awareness about poverty etc. but when you see countless people on the street getting wasted in the middle of the day, barely able to stand and sticking their hands out at you, you just keep walking. I work at a place designed to help a lot of people get past these barriers in their lives, we provide them with food and clothing and enroll them in classes to help them learn how to apply for jobs, act in an interview, practice on computers and help find them work so they don't have to be on welfare their whole lives - it's a wonderful place to work and it's right in the middle of downtown, so I'm often very tempted to hand them a flyer or a business card rather than change because I've seen them parked outside the liquor mart around the corner drinking in the middle of the day. I refuse to help enable that behaviour. However in other areas of the city I've stopped and bought them a sandwich or something from Subway and seeing how much that means to someone who really needs it is just amazing and I like to help in that kind of way.
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Permalink Reply by Oats on -
Nope. Begging for money is not conducive to finding actual work. I have offered food always to be turned down. One guy said he'd take a pint of Jim Beam. I declined. Give people all you want in food, donations, etc. but keep your money to yourself.
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Permalink Reply by Maggie on -
Agreed. I've seen so many of the same things in downtown Chicago. They never want food, just your money. and if you try to give one something, 3 more come flocking around you.
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Permalink Reply by Mike DiGrande on -
It's a question that is too rigid for the situations life presents us with.
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Permalink Reply by Amy on -
Either give them a buck or two or give them food. It doesn't hurt. I usually give food, just because I have more extra food than I do extra/spare change. I once gave two sandwiches and a soda to a homeless man and his dog. He was SO happy :)
I usually go with the food, but I mean, come on, why does it hurt to give them a little money? Once the money is in their hands, it's their responsibility. It becomes their money. They choose how to spend it. They may spend it wisely or spend it on something stupid. But you did the least you could to help someone out right?! It's good. It could really help them out. It's way better than just letting it sit in your wallet or pocket. Yes, they might spend it on booze, but why be so judgemental? Not every homeless person is a drunk bastard who sits on his ass all day.
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