BigJim

My personal policy is not to give them money, but give them food if I have it, and in this case (I wrote the original post) I went and actually got it.

I learned this trick from a friend years ago and it seems to work really well. If they are truly hungry, then you are helping someone needy, and they'll be thankful, if they just want money for booze or drugs, then let them get a job to support their habits like the rest us.

manderguy

I rarely give money, mostly because I�m a poor grad student who seldom caries cash.

I did give money to a guy who said he needed to get gas for his car so he and his wife could get home. The next week when he was wandering the same streets and asked me for money, I totally called him on it. His response? �You gave me money last week? God bless you.�

If you want to help, but are concerned with how the money is spent, consider donating to a homeless shelter or soup kitchen. Even the craziest homeless people in my neighborhood know where they all are and when dinner is served. My personal request is that you check around and make sure they�re good neighbors. The one in my neighborhood contributes a lot of public drunkenness, urinating, and loitering as people wait for the place to open for dinner.

HaysooChreesto!

Ah, that takes me back. Taking pictures on opening day at the start of baseball season and then walking around for six hours in cleets to hawk lame stickers and little league pennants.
And it was explicitly stated that you couldn't have your parents buy all your stuff either. You had to go door to door the old fashioned way.
Now, when I walk out of the grocery store I treat the Girl Scouts the same way I do any panhandler; "sorry I don't have any money" as I walk quickly by without making eye contact.

Deadbeat

I never give out money to the homeless. Mostly because where I live, half of them are just kids down to the city for the day and in the evenings, they go home to their middle-class homes and swear at their poor parents...

But there are a few genuinely homeless, poor people on the streets here, and I always give them my Subway cards - the ones full of stickers so they can go get a free sandwich. The one time I gave the card away to someone that wasn't obviously homeless, they told me to fuck off, so I'm a lot less generous with them now.

Grad Student Humanist

Just to add some variety to this thread:

I give money to beggars all the time (well at least I used to when I lived in Miami; not many people begging in public here in Hattieburg). I give beggars money, no questions asked. In fact, even if they told me that they were going to spend it on alcohol or drugs or prostitutes or whatever, I would still give it to them.

Sakpo

Would you mind sending me some money?

Grad Student Humanist

Only if you're destitute and living on the street.

Jackalope

Well, as a sometime street performer, I thank you. I've actually made a fair amount of money busking on the streets here in Berkeley, but only if I chose my spot carefully. And it helps that I can actually play my instrument. People are more likely to put money in the hat if you've obviously spent time learning and practicing.

Hell, I made almost $20 in an hour one day and all I was doing was hiding out from my psycho landlord. I was dressed up that day (black dress, black and blue band jacket) and had my own little wooden stool to sit on. I just sat down on the corner near a cafe and started to play. Didn't put my collection box out, didn't even have it with me. And people started trying to hand me money anyway. That was the point I decided I no longer sucked.

I'm no longer quite so poor (my husband was out of work for almost a year at one point), and I'm considerably more crippled so I don't busk on the street much anymore. I just can't do 3-hour long sets.

Daleth

No need. If I've been walking down the street and heard you play and you made me smile, you've performed a service. Hell, you might have made my day. That's enough to go out of my way just to get to the performer and give them a couple bucks.

Hats off to you. It's probably a harder job than I've ever done, considering the conditions. Here we get people playing or singing in the subway stations in the middle of summer. I have no idea how they manage when I find just the breathing hard enough.

Dal

abe smith

I recall that Their lord & saviour Sheesh said , in one fairly-well-known thing (or ,of course, "is alleged to have said") :
*Give to him that asks of thee.* which if true is pretty clear. I believe also-at-same-locus is "If any man ask you to go a mile, go with him twain." and "If a man ask thee for thy cloak, give him thy coat also." To-be-sure "EVERYBODY KNOWS" that that's ridiculous advice, right? Nobody nowadays wd be stupid enough to concur or comply w/ that. Saint Martin on horseback divided his cloak in half w/ his sword & gave half to a beggar. a nice durable image.
Um, yeah; although giving a street-person money may give you a nice cosy moment, I agree w/ who's previous advice here = Give to a soupkitchen or local food pantry. And when store-cashiers ask me to buy a charity contribution at the register, I just say "Thanks; I write two monthly charity checks." In the long run that's probably more rational. Your money probably goes further & more effectively. Altho there was the counterman in Chicago in um 1941 when I was a runaway, who, when I asked him for something to eat >> that I hadn't eaten in three days , he just made me a burger & a shake w/o question & gave it to me. "Let your light so shine", Baby. There's one person I pray for when I think of that. I've thought since that he might 've been a now-sober alcoholic?/former "bum". a saint for our time.