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When I was in LA, I did some volunteer work downtown on skid row. There are a few rules of the area that outside groups (usually well meaning churches) always seem to violate out of ignorance.
The biggest violation is when a church comes into the area, sets up a tent, and starts distributing food. Sometimes they feed hundreds of homeless and they have no experience with cooking food for that number of people so many homeless get sick. It's a massive hassle when you have 300 homeless people all sick so they are throwing up, have diarrhea, etc. Remember, the live on the streets so they just throw up on the sidewalks, etc. There are food shelters on skid row where any homeless person can have 3 warm meals a day. When I would volunteer and give out food, there was never a shortage of food. In fact, we usually allow them to come back for seconds and most of them are like "nah, I'm good" because they know they'll have their next meal in a few hours. The food wasn't great but it was stuff like sloppy joes, french fries (steamed, not fried so it doesn't taste that great but isn't going to give anyone stomachaches), etc.
As for blankets, we had facilities for every homeless person on the street to sleep at night indoors. But we also had disease free blankets to hand out for anyone who walked in and wanted one. You could turn in your old blanket and get a washed on every day if you wanted to.
Remember, for most of the homeless they are sick and many have mental disorders, drug addiction, etc. If you ever walk through a homeless area, please wash your shoes when you get home. We also spent a lot of time watering down the sidewalks but there's a lot of dirty stuff on those sidewalks so if you walk around your house with your shoes on, it's pretty bad.
The city I live in now has a very nice soup kitchen supported by the Catholic Church, private donations and grants from the United Way. It offers 2 meals per day, has food and clothing banks and is centrally located on the edge of our downtown proper. It sits on is easily accessible via bus or by walking. There are multiple local shelters and other support services for the homeless, again through churches, United Way funded organizations and now the Catholic Soup kitchen is constructing no-charge/low rent apartment housing for homeless vets. In bad weather, every effort is made to convince those who normally won't go to a shelter to come in out of the weather. These organizations go out to the homeless instead of waiting for them to come to them. The city shows compassion for the homeless regardless of how and why they got there.
The city rarely tears down and/or runs out the homeless who camp in the wooded areas within the city limits nor do they confiscate/fine the homeless who use sleeping bags to keep warm. Nor do they fine the few who panhandle.
In Seattle, by law the homeless are only allowed a wool blanket which won't help them keep warm when it is damp, raining or snowing. In Seattle, it is illegal to distribute food to the homeless in the downtown proper. Soup kitchens in Seattle are also not in the downtown proper and many are in areas not accessible to the disabled homeless due to steep hills that must be walked or because they do not have money for bus fare. My colleagues and neighbors for many years in Seattle called me crazy for either giving money (rare) or gift cards for food/supplies (e.g. for Specialty's, Starbucks, grocery stores, drug stores- the ones that doesn't sell alcohol but I cannot recall the name at the moment). My neighbors also found it odd that I knew the names and history of many of the homeless in our neighborhood. My response was always the same...they are our neighbors too. It was lost on most of them who were more interested in saving the environment or saving every cent to spend on themselves for their wine collections, the sports cars and Hummers they drove on weekends, or sailing. A few also had the "what's in it for me? Nothing!" attitude. I'm sure we all know a few of those. All I can say is it's shameful for a city of such wealth to have this problem.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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As I walk through the Market-Westlake area twice daily I have learned to ignore them, you have to or will go broke or go nuts. First, keep in mind that some of those panhandlers make more than you do- tax free cash. I was walking one day and a guy asked for money for something to eat while he was munching on an ice cream sandwich, and it was a hot day walking uphill so I had little sympathy! Another guy at 3rd and Pine asks me every day and has for close to a year. Some day you'd think he would stop asking me.
Seriously, some of them are not even homeless but prey on sympathetic tourists and I have seen them getting 20s.
The really homeless ones are often spending their handouts on drugs and booze, and you really can't tell the legitimate "down on their luck" homeless from the druggies and con artists. The city government/cops take a
hands off approach to panhandling and that attracts even more of them.
As I walk through the Market-Westlake area twice daily I have learned to ignore them, you have to or will go broke or go nuts. First, keep in mind that some of those panhandlers make more than you do- tax free cash. I was walking one day and a guy asked for money for something to eat while he was munching on an ice cream sandwich, and it was a hot day walking uphill so I had little sympathy! Another guy at 3rd and Pine asks me every day and has for close to a year. Some day you'd think he would stop asking me.
Seriously, some of them are not even homeless but prey on sympathetic tourists and I have seen them getting 20s.
The really homeless ones are often spending their handouts on drugs and booze, and you really can't tell the legitimate "down on their luck" homeless from the druggies and con artists. The city government/cops take a
hands off approach to panhandling and that attracts even more of them.
When I had my studio in the Kaplan Bldg on 3rd Ave. between Prophatain and Washington in Pioneer Sq. I had to deal with the homeless before I could get into the door, -as did every other merchant in that area. They would sleep in you doorway and you had to scoot them out before you could get in. They would leave a foul oder of urine, and turds that you had to hose down before you started your day. It was quite frightening because you didn't know how they would react upon being awakened and told to move on, -which was usually very loud and foul cursing but it was possible they could strike with a knife or a gun. There was one homeless girl that slept in my doorway, she was barefoot, no coat, and had only a single thin blanket, and this was in the middle of winter. She must have been in her twenties. When told to move, she cursed just as foul as the worst of them. But, I really felt sorry for her, being so young, and if cleaned up, could be a decent looking person. I would go down to the police station close by and complain to them about her and if it would be at all possible if they could pick her up and place her with some kind of a special service agency as she was extreamly vulnerable as a young girl to be out on the streets in such dire straights. To this day I always wonder what ever happened to her.
How freakin' hard is it to make eye contact, acknowledge them as people but still say, "Sorry my friend, got nothin for you today!? How hard is that?
If you walk around Downtown Seattle you will have to say that several times, not just one time, and that's annoying. The other day i was inside starbucks and one homeless guy came in and asked me to get him something to eat, so i bought him whatever he wanted, but i think it's annoying that can't even have your coffee in peace inside a coffee shop. I don't even go to Downtown Seattle anymore. I think they should be spending their time looking for a job and not asking for money. The reason they don't want to work is because they're either lazy, druggies or make decent money.
If you walk around Downtown Seattle you will have to say that several times, not just one time, and that's annoying. The other day i was inside starbucks and one homeless guy came in and asked me to get him something to eat, so i bought him whatever he wanted, but i think it's annoying that can't even have your coffee in peace inside a coffee shop. I don't even go to Downtown Seattle anymore. I think they should be spending their time looking for a job and not asking for money. The reason they don't want to work is because they're either lazy, druggies or make decent money.
At one time I was associated with an art gallery on Broadway. The owner's of the gallery had a very beautiful daughter who usually was the clerk and sat in the gallery, usually alone. One Sunday afternoon I was sitting in the gallery with her and I was shocked; about every ten minutes a stinky, grubby pan-handler would walk in and demand a handout. This is what the merchants have to deal with !!! This was Broadway, not Pioneer Square !!!!. I told her parents about it and told them I would be very afraid having their daughter sitting in the gallery alone and unprotected. You don't know what these kinds of people would do.:e ek:
If you walk around Downtown Seattle you will have to say that several times, not just one time, and that's annoying. The other day i was inside starbucks and one homeless guy came in and asked me to get him something to eat, so i bought him whatever he wanted, but i think it's annoying that can't even have your coffee in peace inside a coffee shop. I don't even go to Downtown Seattle anymore. I think they should be spending their time looking for a job and not asking for money. The reason they don't want to work is because they're either lazy, druggies or make decent money.
That is actually untrue. There are many factors that contribute to homelessness. Most homeless individuals have mental health disorders that keep them from working or are dual diagnosed with substance abuse disorders as well. So while you judge these individuals as lazy it is simply not true.
How freakin' hard is it to make eye contact, acknowledge them as people but still say, "Sorry my friend, got nothin for you today!? How hard is that?
I think that is a very unwise thing to do. Many street people suffer from paranoia and looking them in the eye and acknowledging them can trigger a pretty freaky response. It is not worth it just to make you feel better about yourself.
I think that is a very unwise thing to do. Many street people suffer from paranoia and looking them in the eye and acknowledging them can trigger a pretty freaky response. It is not worth it just to make you feel better about yourself.
Context is your friend. If someone is yelling at the birds, no. If someone is asking for a dollar for bus fare, or if you want to buy Real Change then yes, it is perfectly fine to treat them as a human being.
Besides the mental disorders of some street people, those who develop a criminal history are probably (I haven't researched this) difficult to employ in anything but day labor. It is grounds for immediate termination to lie about your past, but when you tell the truth, you've automatically given every other candidate a better chance. So the runaway crime in America's cities are going to put certain people on the street permanently (unless some charity steps in specifically to help ex-cons trying to go straight). These people would probably be better with a life sentence. The money would come from the same pockets as when they beg downtown, but society might be safer from their impulse control problems. Living through some of these problems makes it easier to understand why England shipped criminals to Australia and America. You can't refuse to punish crime, but then when it is done, you now have an irksome problem in your streets. And especially now that decades of the war on drugs has made convicts of millions of citizens, it is almost as unmanageable as drugs themselves. A whole class of people who will be predators lifelong are products of the system. Recidivism might actually be a best-case scenario.
As for "illegal" to feed the homeless, I walked by just such a thing on 2nd avenue and Pike. Either cops just look the other way, or it is legal. Got pictures and everything. Gave the leader of the group $10 to do his operation
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