<p>To answer the OP’s question. I occasionally give money but probably more often do not. I only give money if it is during the daytime and if there are a lot of people around. </p>
<p>Is it possible to buy foodstamps to hand out to beggars? People might be more generous if they knew the money could only be used for food.</p>
<p>I’m so conflicted about this. I know that many beggars will use the money for drugs or booze. But I also know that my area has been hit hard by the recession and there is a desperate shortage of services for the poor and homeless. When I’m faced with an individual, I have no way of knowing which category they fall into. And in no case do I know what terrible chain of events led them to a life of begging. </p>
<p>If I happen to have food with me, I give that. If someone is begging outside a supermarket, I pick up a box of granola bars and give that on the way out. In the hot summertime, I keep a supply of bottled water in the car for giving. </p>
<p>I do sometimes give a little money, if that’s all I have. If they abuse it, so be it; my withholding it is not going to reform them. If they are truly hungry, I hope it helps them get through the day. </p>
<p>“There, but for the grace of God, go I.”</p>
<p>No. I pretty much think 99%+ are drug addicts or crazy or both and by giving them money you are enabling them to stay on the streets and continue begging. I won’t even give to the “real” charities that stand on street corners walking through traffic with buckets - the fire dept will do that and other local charities. I’ll never forget an acquaintance talking about taking some of that money he collected by going door to door for some organization.</p>
<p>I donate to food banks instead.</p>
<p>Whenever I am in the city and we come across someone who needs money regardless of how they look I give it to them. Unfortunately I am sure some are buying alcohol or drugs but I really don’t know that for sure so I would rather know that I gave them money for their rent or a meal or to feed their kids. I have brought people over to the nearest fast food place and ordered food too. I look at everyone in this condition as though they could be one of mine. Its not for me to judge.</p>
<p>Never. I work in NYC & go through Penn Station every day and see many people asking for money. The only people I have considered giving money to are the musicians - there’s a guy in the hallway from the 123 line to NJ Transit that plays the recorder - the only tune he plays is the “Comet” song, which makes me chuckles when I walk by.</p>
<p>A friend of mine was approached as he walked out of a store. A man said he was stranded and he needed some money so he could take a bus home. He lived 30 minutes away.</p>
<p>My friend said, “I tell you what. I am not doing anything. Come with me. I will drive you home”. </p>
<p>The man said, “What?”</p>
<p>My friend said, “You don’t need to wait around for a bus. I will take you home right now”.</p>
<p>The man acted like he didn’t understand my friend and walked away.</p>
<p>Never. </p>
<p>I do occasionally give money to musicians and other street performers, but I don’t regard what they do as begging.</p>
<p>Mini, if you’d really like to give them a roof over their heads, why don’t you bring one home?</p>
<p>I only give (if I do) when the person is honest. The gas and bus money request scam is decades old. Once I did give what I had to a young woman on an off-ramp next to a stopped van who had, she said, ran out of gas. The small bag of change, which included many pennies, only drew her curled lip.</p>
<p>I always give. It doesn’t matter to me what they are using it for. I can afford $1 that they don’t have. Pay it forward and don’t judge- that’s my philosophy</p>
<p>very very rarely here. If you want to give money, fine. If you don’t, fine, move on. But in my experience, any time spent trying to help the individual fix his car, buy gas, get a tow, or even buy a meal will ultimately be a waste of your time (because he really only wants money) and then you will end up resenting the individual for wasting your time, so better just to hand over some cash or not and keep moving.</p>
<p>I’m in Boston, where we have A LOT of panhandlers and street folks, and if I gave to all of them I’d go broke. So I have to make some choices.</p>
<p>I always give to street musicians/buskers. I always buy the Spare Change News, a newsletter partly written by, and entirely sold by, homeless people. Beyond that, I make a donation every year to one of the local homeless shelters and let the folks who are trained and experienced in the field figure out what to do with what I donate. It’s the best compromise I’ve come up with for myself. Your mileage may vary.</p>
<p>I ran into almost the same scenario. A man and woman pulled up near my car in a hotel parking lot, asked for gas money - not much - a few dollars, $5 if I could spare it. They had gotten lost, needed just enough gas to make it to meet family. I said no.</p>
<p>Two days later - same parking lot - same man and woman - same tale of woe. I politely pointed out that they must be really, really lost, as they had asked me for money two days previously. At that they got in the car and pulled out of the parking lot quickly. I went back inside (hotel) and reported the incident.</p>
<p>Glad I didn’t fall for it the first time.</p>
<p>I donate to the homeless shelter and the food bank. I don’t hand out cash or food. As I walk around the downtown area of the college town I overhear the panhandlers with their hustles and scams. I see them go around the corner of a building and whip out their cell phones. I have even overheard a drug buy. We offer so many services for the homeless that social workers from surrounding counties have driven homeless people from their towns and dropped them off in our community. The students are easy prey. It’s hard enough to hold onto a bricks and morter store or restaurant without panhandlers sitting outside your entrance, parking themselves on every available park bench or circulating among the outdoor dining tables begging for money. Since the soup kitchen is two blocks away it’s not food they want. I also want to point out that the homeless are not always the panhandlers. In my town many of the panhandlers have been begging for years and live with family. What scares me is the remainder, the drifters unable to settle because of arrest warrants. I think the city needs to discourage them from settling in by requiring the shelter to conduct background checks and fingerprinting before allowing them services. Sixty five percent of our students are female and live in a very walkable community so you can imagine what they are exposed to.</p>
<p>In my area, there are very few people on the streets asking for money, so I generally encounter them when only traveling, and give more often than not. The right course of action is not clear to me, though.</p>
<p>There is an interesting paper on voucher programs for panhandlers, written by Robert Spector when he was a third-year law student at Yale. (Try Googling “vouchers for panhandlers creative” and it should show up as the first entry.) New Haven has had such a program off and on. The vouchers are honored by local merchants for food and sometimes clothing and other necessities and services. Students can purchase them in advance, to hand out. The redemption rate in New Haven was high, in the time-frame of Spector’s paper. I found the paper thoughtfully written.</p>
<p>My grandfather was a Ph.D. student in mathematics at the University of Chicago roughly a century ago. At one point, he was approached by a panhandler, asking for money for food. My grandfather gave him money, and then watched as the man headed into a bar. My grandfather followed him, said, “I gave you that money for food,” grabbed the man by his collar, and took him to a place with a lunch counter.</p>
<p>To put this in perspective, I should add that my grandfather had a tuition scholarship for the grad program, but not a stipend (probably this was common in that era). He waited tables to earn money for room and board, and also had some financial help from his father. Once he went without eating for three days, because the anticipated money from his father had not arrived, and he hadn’t been paid yet. </p>
<p>mini’s remarks on various threads are often eye-opening for me, and his comment on this thread is no exception. So, I appreciate that there is a potential downside to my grandfather’s actions, in paragraph 3 of my current post–but think they were more than justified, based on the circumstances in paragraph 4. When I am in Chicago, I always give money to anyone who is asking for money for food (and I don’t follow them).</p>
<p>As an option for referrals, in addition to homeless shelters–many churches have a “Pastor’s Discretionary Fund,” to help people who are in need of help with a temporary situation/emergency. In a lot of small-to-medium sized cities, the pastors have an agreement to rotate responsibility among themselves for handling requests on particular days/weeks.</p>
<p>I didn’t get the point of asking mini why he doesn’t take street people home.</p>
<p>If I see someone begging with a child, I call the police.</p>
<p>In the summer, I’ll hand out water bottles when approached at a traffic stop. Other than that, no, I don’t give money. </p>
<p>I have read about towns where you can buy tokens to give out. They works the same as cash at local eateries and such. That’s an interesting idea.</p>
<p>My daughter and her BF were approached by a well-dressed woman who said she needed gas money. Generous girl gave the woman a twenty. Probably half of ignatius’s scenario.</p>
<p>I tend to think that elaborate stories are scams. I give to buskers, and I try to hand over a few coins without judging if the beggar is humble.</p>
<p>Someone I know who grew up poor in India said he was taught to give to beggars if possible, because some of them are angels in disguise who are testing you to see if you deserve a blessing.</p>
<p>My response would be different if I were in India.</p>