Do you see many panhandlers in your city?

Parent Cafe
21

Just try to find if there is any “paradise” where there are no or relatively few panhandlers, and find this discussion:

In all my trips to Geneva and Bern, I never saw any panhandlers. They either don’t allow it there, or they provide for them.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chefguy

In all my trips to Geneva and Bern, I never saw any panhandlers. They either don’t allow it there, or they provide for them.
I saw beggars in Zurich.

Vatican City.

What about Monaco?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Leaffan

Vatican City.
The entire place was built by the largest and most sophisticated pan-handling operation ever conceived.

Quote:
Originally Posted by friedo

The entire place was built by the largest and most sophisticated pan-handling operation ever conceived.
You know, I was thinking the exact same thing as I typed that answer.

Also I got panhandled while in line there.

Iceland, supposedly. Country with a very small population, a single major city, and social services constructed in such a way that the homeless are basically not seen.

Quote:
Reykjavík’s homeless problem doesn’t manifest itself in the usual ways. Droves of people aren’t reduced to panhandling on street corners or sleeping overnight in bus stops. It wouldn’t be hard to spend a week or two downtown taking in the city’s whimsical, idyllic atmosphere and be convinced that homelessness just doesn’t exist in Iceland.
Reykjavik isn’t as cold as you might expect from the latitude, but it’s not warm. That might also have something to do with it. You might want to check out other northern latitude countries.

That doesn’t seem like the sort of thing they’d tolerate in Singapore’s “sort-of democratic except when it comes to public order and tidyness” system

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zsofia

Also I got panhandled while in line there.
And I found it even more so at the other non-contiguous Vatican City properties (St. John Lateran, etc.)

But I’d like to put out that Seoul had the fewest (in that I encountered none) number of beggars, panhandlers, etc. that I’ve ever seen in a large city.

Do they have panhandlers in Tuvalu?

Quote:
Originally Posted by GreasyJack

That doesn’t seem like the sort of thing they’d tolerate in Singapore’s “sort-of democratic except when it comes to public order and tidyness” system
I’ve spent a lot of time in Singapore and I’ve encountered exactly one beggar. He was pretending to stand in line for a bus, but then launched into this really long and complicated story about how he was a Chinese research scientist who lost his grant and was now reduced to begging. His approash seemed to be based on the idea that it wouldn’t look like he was beggng, but rather just engaged in conversation. The problem was that his spiel was so long that the bus came before he got to the begging part and I got on the bus and left.

Maybe Nauru?

None in the Falkland Islands.

Very few beggars in Tokyo – despite the fact that it is a very large city.

Is there a large city in the US where we would find very few panhandlers?

22

That’s good^^. My son and I were hiking in Singapore last April - nature reserve area, few people, but not unsafe. We were hit up for American dollars. I guess the guy overheard our accents. I was surprised, didn’t expect that in Singapore. We did not, of course, give him a hand out.

23

I heard Thailand has quite many monks who may ask for “donations”?
.

If this is true, how do they manage to do that in the past 50(?) years?! Their safety-net for the old and sick is relatively weak because it is a country which was not long ago a major war zone and actually had a major social problem of having a large number of orphans (like: in the order of 200,000 babies/orphans having been “exported” – the US is actually the country which has received the most of them.)

24

There is a scam that’s been happening around here, where the person comes up to you, often in the drive through of a fast food place, and tells you they desperately need money for gas. You are sitting there stuck with your window down, and it really puts you on the spot. My husband and I watched one of them for awhile, and someone said no money, but I’ll buy you gas (they have a gas can as a prop). So after the guy left who bought it, he POURED THE GAS into some bushes, and kept telling his sad story. Those are the people who have made me more reluctant to give a few dollars to the people who approach me and seem sincere.

25

I live, work, and attend university in San Francisco. I see homeless people every day. I was born and raised in San Jose, so this isn’t out of the ordinary to me. I could rant in debth about issues of homelessness and social care in the Bay Area, but I’m browsing on my smartphone over breakfast before starting a work shift in 40 minutes, so now is not the time.

26

I read the list of countries again in the above and thought of this:

It appears to me that there are two types of countries which have fewer beggars:

  1. North and west countries in the Europe (and their cities.)

  2. North and east Asian countries, cities like Tokyo, Seoul.

Some “city country” like Singapore. (Not sure about HK? It had been kind of “city country” for quite a long time also before the UK gave it back to China.) Maybe Taipei has relatively few as well (Do not know about it in recent years. But the subway system and inter-city high speed train system in both Seoul and Taipei are definitely much cleaner and much more convenient than what we have here in many large cities in the US.)

27

I was in Ireland recently and got into a political discussion with someone there. He says the economy has gotten worse, the average person has less, and the bankers got wealthy. Same as here, I told him. But after I left I wondered why I didn’t see any homeless people or panhandlers. I visited 4 cities and never saw any. I wish I could have asked him.

28

I don’t know about the truth in Thailand. But one thing I know for sure: Buddhist monks bring their bowl to stand in front of the houses for food donation. They don’t explicitly ask for donation. They just quietly stand there for couple minutes. They only do that before lunch time. They are not allowed to do that past lunch time. After all, like Buddha, the monks need to eat to live and practice religion.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=pictures%20of%20buddhist%20monks%20seeking%20alms

http://www.terragalleria.com/asia/japan/tokyo/picture.japa6214.html

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhistworld/layguide.htm

29

@greenwitch,

As I grow older, I think a lot of things are not black and white. What is considered as “better” or “worse” is always relative.

I once read from an article in the news that even though our government seems to use money in an irresponsible way sometimes, there are much more governments in the world that do much worse than ours. That is also one of the reasons why other countries keep lending their money to us (another reason though is that they lend us money so that we have money to buy their products so that they could lower their unemployment rate – arguably enrich our rich further and increase the unemployment rate here ? Not very sure how the economy works here because there are two sides of stories. I am no economist.)

don’t worry. Even if many of them have some financial gains here, our college could always charge more for their young students who come here – occasionally we need to make sure that there are some loopholes so that they could get a better score on SAT because those rich kids may not want to study too hard on a test written in another country’s language, just like some rich kids here in the US do not want to work too hard. LOL. /sarcastic.)

30

I will tell you that if you ever have a son with schizophrenia, your ideas about homeless people will probably change. I am 100% certain that if it were not for his dad and me, our son would be on the streets, begging to survive. :frowning: I’m sure the percentage of homeless people that are mentally ill is quite high.

31

@MaineLonghorn, I am certain you are correct about the percentage of mentally ill homeless. To me, this is one of the saddest failures of our society - to be able provide appropriate help to those individuals and the families that support them. I had a co-worker in your situation, it broke my heart - and I was only an observer. Your son is lucky to have you.

32

When we were in Maui there were a lot of panhandlers in the lot at Costco specifically asking for money to get gas to be able to drive home to where they lived. They seemed clearly to be a scam or some sort of other to me. I know that gas is expensive in Hawaii, that’s why we along with many others were at Costco where it is cheaper than other places.
Here in NYC I encounter many panhandlers every day. Occasionally I will give someone $1.00 for a cup of coffee when I am getting one myself from the food cart where I get coffee or have offered to give someone my apple or a granola bar but I know that these are professional panhandlers who come to their respective corners every day in a van. I’ve seen them dropped off. The ones who ask for money for train fare I usually share that the police will help them with a fare pass if they drop by the precinct in the train station. I know as I have had to do that myself when my wallet was taken from my bag on the Madison Avenue Bus (according to the police the #1 location for pickpockets in NYC) and the police were very helpful once I filled out my stolen wallet report.

33

We give to the local soup kitchen. I hate people blocking traffic. The fire department in the next town over does this from time to time on a very busy street. It’s nuts. We had a guy sleeping in a planted area in the library parking lot for a while this summer, but I haven’t seen him in a while. I hope he’s got a place to stay. I am sometimes approached by people with sob stories in our downtown. One of them wanted me to drive her across the county. :open_mouth: I gave her bus fare. I hope that’s what it got used for.

34

I don’t give cash to people on the street as I don’t want to encourage them to stay on the streets. I donate regularly to our local food pantry and shelter. I have learned some people don’t want help, some people are con artists so the best I can think to help is through organizations providing services to prevent this in the first place.

35

I usually walk from the train to work and see the same people panhandling. I skip those who are smoking and those who are talking on their cellphones while asking for money. I do regularly give a dollar or two to the “Town Crier” who sits in the Common and announces the sports scores from the night before, makes game predictions and gives the day’s weather forecast. He never asks for money but has a cup at his feet and seems to do pretty well. It is my understanding that he panhandles so he can rent a room at the Y or somewhere similar for the night instead of sleeping at a homeless shelter. The fact that he is not just sitting there asking for money makes me feel a little more sympathetic to him.

36

Homelessness and panhandling are huge where I live. Good weather, a tolerant police department all play a role. Some are young transient people who congregate downtown and harass the locals and tourists. I think a lot of them are addicts or on the way to being addicts. They are aggressive and have taken the pleasure out of going downtown.
We also have a lot of mentally ill and older alcoholic and drug addicted homeless. We also have another set of homeless who live out of their old motor homes. I have also noticed an increase in parents panhandling with children.
i find those cases very disturbing.
Over the years my feelings have changed. I have several friends who have children who are homeless. 1 has a D who was midway through a doctorate program, married and in her late 20’ started exhibiting signs of schizophrenia. Despite a loving family, financial means to get help her D first lived in the mountains and then on the streets cutting all contact with her family. My friend lives for sightings to know her D is alive. This friend always gives money or food to street people.Another friend has a S who is a Meth addict. He doesn’t want to stop and lives camping out at the beach. She will buy a meal but doesn’t give cash.When it rains she will let him sleep at her home and feed him but won’t give him money. I have another friend whose B lives in subsidized housing and he told his sister that many of the guys on the freeway off ramps live in his housing project and pull in a decent amount of cash. Con artists. For the last couple of years I’ve seen a young woman college age who begs with her dog at a local shopping center. I assume she is an addict. She looks so innocent and I can’t help but feel like she is someone’s daughter and out there is a Mom worried about her child. I also have a young family member who at one point was using drugs heavily. I didn’t give money since I knew it would be used for drugs. I did give food on occasion. I knew that as long as people gave her money she wouldn’t get help. I have a friend who approaches young homeless and offers to let them use her cellphone to call their parent to let them know they are alive.
My H plays volleyball on the beach at lunchtime. A lot of homeless hang out nearby. Most of them are mentally ill and alcoholic. He has 1 guy who loves to watch them play. My H and his friends bring him books, food and dry clothes after a rain.
So in my confusion I vacillate on what to do. I donate to organizations. I give on occasion food to homeless who appear mentally ill. I never give to men at the off ramp or people who approach me in parking lots.

37

I live in New York City where panhandlers are everywhere. I rarely give them money.

38

If a person is a drug abuser or alcoholic you are not helping that person by contributing to his ability to continue to use.

If a homeless person truly wants help they will seek it out. But some don’t want to move off the streets. There was a sad story in LA two weeks ago. A homeless person was offered a place to stay out of the rain but refused. That person died of hypothermia.

39

I have started carrying ‘brown paper lunch bags’ with water, granola bars, and cheese/crackers packages in my car. I buy them in bulk and make them up all at once and make sure I have several bags with me when I go by areas I know the people will be. Near one place I drive by often, right at the edge of our downtown, there are small children playing. When I rolled down the car window to hand a man one of the bags, he asked me if he could please have two more. (He could see them sitting on the passenger seat.) I told him he was welcome to have all of them. It breaks my heart that there are people without food and shelter. When a man declines a bag, a can only assume that he wants cash only, which I will not give. I do donate to several charities and feel that the Salvation Army does a good job in my area.

40

There are some homeless in my area some of whom I’ve chatted up and gotten to know a bit. Most are middle aged/senior men who have serious medical and/or mental issues which preclude them from working.

From what they’ve told me, they tend to be wary of accepting food/drinks from random strangers unless they seen it made at a restaurant/food cart because they’ve encountered too many cases where the food/drink contained turned out to be contaminated with cigarette butts, trash, or worse because the “giver” was a cruel flaming ■■■■■■■.

A phenomenon which was confirmed by a few local cops who cited/arrested the few whom they caught in the act while patrolling the area.

Due to those experiences, it understandably took a while to build their trust enough so they would accept food/drinks from me knowing I won’t pull the same assholish stunt on them.

This also reminded me of one reason why some attorney friends prefer giving cash or buying the food/drink items in the presence of the homeless individual concerned in establishments where they know the owners/staff rather than giving them what random food/drink they happened to have on them.

They knew of cases where those who did the latter ended up getting accused of attempting to poison the homeless after the homeless individual who received the random food/drink that the giver had on him/her got sick or even died not too long after eating/drinking those items. Not worth the potential legal liability and potentially negative public reputation from all that in their view.

Regarding shelters, I don’t know about other areas…but the ones in NYC are known to have serious safety and health issues which make it understandable why many homeless may feel they’re better off remaining on the streets:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/87-city-homeless-shelters-unsafe-living-conditions-article-1.2473026