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Here is the thing though - down here in CG - I ve seen the SAME PEOPLE on the SAME CORNERS with the SAME SIGNS for years! They all say "down on luck - looking for work" on the signs. If they would put half as much effort into finding work as panhandling they would find work.
Yes, Im sure there are exceptions - of course!! But, I WAS homeless for a time a while back - and I was able to find temporary services and temporary work to help me through my issues - which were significant.
Now, yes - I do have a good skillset and talents which help me to make good money - so once I stopped causing myself more problems I was able to bounce back pretty quickly and am doing just fine today - productive citizen and homeowner.
I get it that some of these people just don't have the skills to do much - but again - if they took advantage of the services available they could have better lives (the ones that arent just plain scamming the system I mean - of which there are plenty!). It does mean accepting the "rules" of the various programs, which is really where the hard part comes in....
SO - now I just donate my money to programs I feel worthy - and helped me - like St Vincent De Paul and others.
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Originally Posted by grmi66
I used to volunteer for organizations that had food banks and worked with the homeless. So I was friends with a few people that had over 30 years experience dealing with that population. From what they told me, probably 95% of the people out panhandling will use that money to buy drugs and alcohol. Occasionally you will actually find someone down on their luck who really needs gas money, but it's like a 1 out of 100 chance.
If you want to help this population, donate your time and money to someplace like the Phoenix Rescue Mission or similar organizations. They can take your dollar and stretch it further to provide food, water, clothing and shelter for people in need. Do not ever donate to someone panhandling on the street. Where I used to live the local homeless shelter provided a PDF brochure and map for you to print off at home. So if someone was panhandling you could hand them the brochure and tell them if they were really down on their luck and wanted help, here is someplace that will help you. Need to see if anyone does that in Phoenix.
Agree with what these posters said.
I'm a soft touch, but I'm not stupid.
I learned a couple of lessons and encourage you to do a bit of research or at least paying attention before you give money. If you must give something, run down the street to a taco bell and get them a taco and drink. That's it.
My two wake up calls:
1) I was feeling very badly for someone who hit me up when I left the gym and was walking to the grocery store. So while I was in the store, I picked up a little bit of food I could give him. I had them put it in a separate bag and handed it to him as I got in my car. I realized I had left something at the gym so I drove back over there and then back out the exit in between the store and a liquor store. There I saw the homeless guy standing at the back of the liquor store trading the groceries I gave him for a bottle of the cheap stuff. This was many years ago. I just started to give to the charities mentioned above so I wouldn't feel bad for any of the panhandlers.
2) About 4 months ago I saw a guy with a very compelling sign who had a military haircut, so I paid attention. I know a lot of our returning middle east vets are in a world of hurt. His sign said he had 2 kids and just needed a couple of things. Again, I was on my way to the store, so I picked up a couple of food items to give to him. I drove back where he had been standing. There was a different guy with the SAME SIGN. Glad the groceries I bought were things I could use. Instead I sent a check in to a support group for local Vets.
So yeah, unfortunately the legit ones are few and far between. Don't feel guilty. Give to the food banks, to your church, to the Red Cross and to the Salvation Army. All of those are options for anyone who needs help. If they don't want to go there because those places require them to be clean and sober, well, then, you are enabling them by giving money and actually you are making their lives harder by "lowering the bottom" as they say in AA.
Like grmi66 said, If you feel you need to do something, print up a bunch of flyers that say, "I'm so sorry for your situation. Here are the addresses of the organizations that can help you. Please get help. God Bless."
The comments about people who are homeless having mental issues are correct. A friend in Hawaii who managed the primary homeless shelters told me the number may be as high as 75% of that population, if not higher. But here's the deal - some of that is self-induced. The two biggest problems with drugs in this area are heroine and meth. Meth REALLY messes you up. Some people will be drop kicked into psychosis or schizophrenia on the first use. That's not hype or scare tactics, the Meth Project has a lot of good info on that.
One other thought -- about 20 years ago when I was in Hawaii, a friend of mine and his buddies stopped to help a homeless guy who had fallen on the side of the road. They took him to the hospital and gave him a little money. This guy was hurtin' but not deaf or stupid. He figured out these guys commuted together in that van every day. So he started looking for the Van at night. He found out where they lived and started breaking in every day after they left for work. Essentially, he lived in their home while they were at work. They found out because one day he didn't completely wake up from his drug-induced haze and he was there when they arrived home. Still alive, but wacked out.
So - if you help someone out near your home, they could target you or follow you. Meth freaks will do anything to get the next high, so will heroine addicts. They are no longer who they were. It's as if an alien has taken over their body and the only driving force is the next high. Many of the break ins and burglaries are drug related.
I keep a spare water bottle with me when I'm driving to and from work and I'll give the water bottle to someone who looks like they need it on a freeway ramp or elsewhere. No way I give money. I used to buy food for folks at times, but I found that they generally didn't appreciate it, so I don't do that anymore. Generally they appreciate the water bottle and more often than not, they'll break it open right away and take a drink.
I keep a spare water bottle with me when I'm driving to and from work and I'll give the water bottle to someone who looks like they need it on a freeway ramp or elsewhere. No way I give money. I used to buy food for folks at times, but I found that they generally didn't appreciate it, so I don't do that anymore. Generally they appreciate the water bottle and more often than not, they'll break it open right away and take a drink.
Good idea. Food is always the obvious thing to give but the shelters and church meal programs have plenty, what they don't have are the practical items we take for granted:
toothbrush/paste
soap
socks/underwear
ballcap to block sun
beannie/gloves for cold weather
disposable razors n shaving cream
If you really want to help, take a bunch of this stuff to any homeless shelter and they will gladly take it. Or mail it.
Another thing to remember is there are homeless children of all ages. Diapers, baby formula, blankets, pacifiers, baby clothes, children's clothes, shoes, socks, toys, pencils, paper, pens are all things that can help people get back on their feet.
What my friends and I started doing is celebrating holidays and events by giving to these shelters. Whenever we host birthday parties or events, we ask people to bring these items instead of gifts so we can donate them to a shelter. I will get my kids something they like obviously but instead of recycling stupid presents or putting the burden of having your friends buy another generic gift, do something like this. This allows people to take pride and get something that will actually go to good use. And I can tell you this much, the kids love it and get into it as well. It teaches values and develops the concept of charity and giving back. It's an amazing thing to watch. You friends will pile it on and bring things that they were not required to bring and will go overboard. People get inspired to do the right thing.
Churches are not feeding these people because of a city zoning ordinance, and if you are caught giving them food, police can cite you. I know someone going to the Sunnyslope area and some parks in town almost nightly, it's really bad, she's been harassed by police just for sitting with homeless trying to find out what they need. With donations, she has successfully gotten at least one sent home to extended family out of state, a guy into an apartment with his dog and working on many others. She has provided them change of clothes, diapers, shoes, pet food & booties for dogs so they don't burn their feet. They are down there with kids & pets (at last count, around 70 dogs) not all are drug addicts or alcoholics.
Last edited by sarahdsmom; 06-19-2014 at 10:48 AM..
I give money and food and clothing to people standing on street-corners panhandling because my boss told me to. He wanders the earth disguised as a beggar, and if I do not give alms with both hands, he will curse me and cast me screaming into a lake of fire. He said this quite often, and I believe him.
He did not tell me I did not have to give to beggars if I thought they might be using drugs, or if I think the sign they made isn't telling the truth, or if they are collecting more money than I think they should, or if they are mentally ill or a little scary.
I sympathize with those whose relatives and friends are addicts, and don't want to see others feed their habit.
I wish that there was a warm, safe, and loving place where every schizophrenic person and very person with PTSD could stay and where they could be fed and cared for.
I know that some of the people out panhandling are criminals, fugitives, perverts, or just ornery and lazy people who won't live by any rules. Sometimes they cuss you out if you don't give them enough, or if the changing traffic light means you can't safely pass them some money in time without endangering them.
The sad truth, though, is that addicts have a need that will be met, one way or another. They will seek the easiest way to meet that need. Begging is an easy way to get money for drugs, but if they can't get the money, they will not decide to go seek honest employment and give up being an addict. Instead, they will break into a car (maybe yours or mine), jump a side gate and kick in the back door of a house and burglarize it (maybe yours or mine), or maybe mug someone (maybe you or me). Someone could wind up getting hurt bad, or killed, if they resist. (Maybe them.) If they are women or kids, they may sell their body to get the money for drugs. If I give money to them, that means a violent crime may not be committed tonight, and they won't have to do something they hate.
Homeless drug addicts still need to eat, although food will usually come after drugs in the needs continuum. If I give money or food to a homeless drug addict, and maybe someone else does, he or she will at least eat tonight, and they can maybe focus on finding a decent place to bed down. That means his or her immune system, which is usually depleted because of drug use and stress, gets a break and may keep the homeless person from getting sicker from all the chronic ills that homeless people suffer - asthma, infections, abscesses, STDs, respiratory illnesses, and the like.
I have a family member who is schizophrenic. He spent some time on the street, homeless. Like a lot of mentally ill people, he sometimes used street drugs to try to self-medicate. He was terrified of entering a shelter, because of the demons that pursued him there. If he ate, it was because people on the street took pity and gave him food, or money for food. I thank all the people who did that, even if he was frightening to approach. (He's much better now, by the way.)
Should I give money to really bad, scary people who might be criminals? I don't know an easy way to tell. Street life has a way of hardening good people pretty quickly. I have a prime operating command that says to give to them, so I do.
In preference, I try to give food. You can buy a packet of gift cards for food from any McDonalds and give them out. In the winter, you can pick up thick wool socks (or buy them on sale now, when they're cheap) and hand them to a panhandler. It isn't pleasant to have feet which are numb from the cold, and like being hungry, or in chronic pain, or ill, it tends to warp your judgment. Even if the person you give them to is a stone-hard addict, they will trade them with another homeless person, and you know that at least that person will get a warm meal, or have warm feet. Water bottles are always good, especially right now. But I'll give money if I have it.
None of us want to see anyone suffer, and it's confusing to know what to do nowadays. Just some ideas on how to help here.
Last edited by Arizona Mike; 06-19-2014 at 06:34 PM..
I work near 101 and Ray and everyday from my office window I see a man park a gold minivan in the Culver's Parking lot, walk out of his van and get into a motorized wheelchair. He then rides his wheelchair to the intersection of Ray and 101 and puts up a sign that says "help a disabled vet." He has an american flag, a POW flag, and other military flags on poles that stick up about 10+ feet in the air. I watch him get money hand over first all afternoon from my window.
at the same intersection there are always younger (20s) males and females begging for money. The other day at lunch one of the men had a shirt with a company logo on it. I know a person that works for this company so I took a cellphone picture an send it to the person I know. That person replied "he is the son of the office manager, he refuses to get a job and would rather stand on the street corner for money."
It's bad on Price at just about every intersection from Rio Salado in Tempe on down to Chandler Blvd. There is one middle aged chick who wears Daisy Dukes when she probably shouldn't. Stands at the corner of Price and Warner Rd every time I have driven northbound around 5PM without fail over this past year or so. Always has a different shirt and looks like she has showered too. Yet, got them daisy dukes every single time holding a cardboard sign for "help."
I can tell the difference between the truly desperate and the gamers. They should just gather cash and take a greyhound to Ocean Beach in San Diego. Room temps year around there and panhandlers are accepted right on the Newport Strip and they have ample parks along with the areas near the Ocean Beach Pier to sleep without hassles.
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