[Pooge]

I think parent commenter was talking about random people "working"[1] for charities and stopping you on the street. If one wanted to donate, why would they do it through a stranger on the street and not directly to their website?

However, if you give a homeless person money and they go buy drugs, I think you effectively made them poorer. I would advise giving them food instead.[2]

[1]: Word in quotes because there is no way to verify their identities.

[2]: I've literally seen a person asking for money get offered free fries at McDonald's and denying them. Beggars don't get to be choosers.

[nrhrjrjrjtntbt]

Let them buy what they need I think. They dont have the ability to stop being addicted in 60 seconds because logic. If that were possible we could collapse the entire weight loss industry, gambling, need for AA and NA meetings, entire narco infrastructure at the click of a finger.

[Pooge]

If they told you it was to buy drugs, would you still give them money? It's not different from giving them the drugs directly.

I would personally prefer to give money to someone that needs it to eat.

[nrhrjrjrjtntbt]

Yeah I admit I am in two minds. Id rather the state give them clean safe pure drugs and then help them get off the drugs with naltrexone or whatever is best.

Outside of drugs and drink they can spend it how they like. They choose the food or maybe save for a hotel night.

[latexr]

Not every homeless person needs or wants food at every single time. Certainly not fast food fries covered in salt that get nasty if not eaten right away, that’s not a meal.

Sometimes a homeless person needs a blanket, or a bus ticket, or just a safe place for a few hours.

If you don’t want to give money, that’s your prerogative, but don’t simply assume food. Ask.

[Pooge]

I completely get your point and you are right.

However, understand the context: the beggar entered a McDonald's and asked clients that were currently eating for money. He got offered the fries of a woman who didn't finish them. So there was no poisoning (I think this is very much an American problem, where I don't live) possible—except if you consider McDonald's to be poison in the first place.

In my experience, people don't give cash to beggars anymore. Everyone has their reason, but I think the fact that a lot of beggars were not really in need hasn't helped. But I think many would be open to give food or donate useful objects instead (which they don't have at hand when being begged).

[latexr]

> However, understand the context: the beggar entered a McDonald's and asked clients that were currently eating for money. He got offered the fries of a woman who didn't finish them.

Consider the beggar’s context too. How many times per day/week must they go into that McDonald’s? Leftover fries are probably what they get offered the most. You can accept it a few times, but after a while they provide neither pleasure nor sustenance.

> In my experience, people don't give cash to beggars anymore.

Anecdotally, seems about right.

> But I think many would be open to give food or donate useful objects instead (which they don't have at hand when being begged).

Again, I agree, but I don’t think anyone asks either. One possible workaround would be to donate to your local food bank or another organisation you trust, then when asked by a beggar direct them there. Though that could be another can of worms depending on where one lives.

[Pooge]

I agree with your comments.

The person denied the fries without adding anything and left. This makes everyone who heard that the beggar didn't need food. Otherwise he'd have asked for something else (even food from the supermarket nearby).

[lambdaone]

I have on several occasions offered to pay for food at a nearby sandwich shop or fast food place for beggars who were asking for money for food. None of them accepted the offer.

[trollbridge]

Yep - I do the same thing. Offer to take them anywhere they want to go and get a meal. I used to get takers, but I haven’t in the last 10 years or so.

[trollbridge]

I once exited an excellent Indian restaurant in San Diego with a bag of takeout food I had just picked up. Someone approached me and asked me for some money “to buy a burger”. I offered him my food bag and said it’s really good, fresh, and I just picked it up.

He took the bag, waited until I wasn’t looking, then set it down on the sidewalk and walked away. He was not interested in food, nor was he hungry.

[thorawaytrav]

Then why are almost all of them aggressive when I say that I won't give money but offer food instead?

You say "Ask"? I did. I just heard some rehearsed story Oh, your son is sick?" With what exactly? What kind of drugs he need, I can help? Result -> anger. I get more aggression from asking and trying to get helpfull than simply saying "no." I have tons of examples.

Why do they NEVER ask for a job? Why don't they ever offer to do the manual labor I was doing? I would be glad to let them do it and pay for it.

One time they stole my phone. A guy just came near me with a sign, put it on the table while begging, and simply garbed it and have runned away. That was end of I line for me.

Why do they reek of alcohol or drugs?

I used to offer help to people, but after they stole my phone, I just scream "NO." I never want to be stolen from again. I donate to some charities, but that is the end of the line for me. I don't want to pay a guy that is begging out of habit just to buy drugs. I don't want to pay women sedating their children or using them on the street just to earn money. Just watching them beg behind the building.

My main point is that I never could understand the aggression towards the homeless until I was stolen from. My street was filled with alcoholics living in cars, screaming random stuff, and fighting with passersby and each other.

Do you really think they want an answer, or anything else other than buying their drugs? I was really hating people like me, but in the end I was discovered why do they react with defense and aggression. But of course I would be glad to pay for food nonetheless and try to help with anything expect money and I pay for charities that try to provide medical healthcare in places like Gaza, but I don't believe that people in London (for example) need more and places like Gaza.

[sincerely]

You literally gave an example of a beggar who is being a chooser. It sounds like they very much can be.

[Pooge]

Guess what they got with their behavior? Nothing. No food and no money.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

> I think parent commenter was talking about random people "working"[1] for charities and stopping you on the street.

I’m old enough to remember the Moonies with flowers at the airport[0].

[0] https://youtu.be/Ls_qFlF2gHw?si=znZJsjki-QLq5J1A (this actually was inspired by real behavior)

[zwnow]

Who am I to judge what they do with their money? I couldnt possibly know if they are allergic to something. Also not every homeless person is an addict. Even beggars can have agency over their resources. An addiction is not for me to solve, first things first should be to cover their basic needs, only then you can work on an addiction. Money is the easiest thing to give.

[Pooge]

Oh I'm not saying they don't. But I think you can understand why it's ridiculous to give money to someone and see them buy drugs.

So if you give them food directly, you're certain where your money goes. You also eliminate the false homeless people (similar to the example I gave).

[trollbridge]

You should know that for an addict, the “next fix” is the first “need” that gets met. I am not convinced it is ethical to supply money to a pipeline to drug dealers.

[mrguyorama]

Weed is legal where I live. They don't fund drug dealers. They fund local business.

Though that local business currently funds some sketchy Chinese crime ring so.....

I just don't care. I'm not trying to "save" them, I'm throwing a little expendable resources at a human being and hoping it somehow makes their miserable life a little less miserable and sometimes drugs and alcohol are exactly that.

I've had half a mind to just hand out joints before, but I actually think they DON'T want that.

When I want to help "rescue" homeless people like that, I give money and resources to local institutions that know how to do it.

I really don't think panhandling has ever really fixed a homeless situation. It's not exactly a job you can put on your rental application. What do I care whether the dude who spends every day on the same street corner at 0 degrees smokes some weed or not? Why should literally anyone care? I haven't seen him in a while, so he might just be dead now.

Meanwhile the people who are "temporarily homeless" rarely get to take the good panhandling spots.

I know all too well how close I have come to that exact life, and how much people like you would sneer "Oh he's just an addict, not worth compassion"

Addiction is rarely fixed by homelessness and suffering for starters.

[zwnow]

I dont give a shit about a pipeline of drug dealers but I give a shit about humans. They are victims of a state that let them down. Them freezing to death or whatever doesn't show them drug dealers, its simply ignoring a person in need. But doesn't surprise me that people in a tech forum have little to zero empathy or pull some tinfoil hat theory out of their ass just so they can justify not giving anyone anything.

[auggierose]

Fries are not healthy. You might be a health conscious beggar. Of course beggars can choose.

[Pooge]

The guy was begging in a McDonald's...

[latexr]

Because fast food restaurants get a lot of foot traffic and they’re less likely to be aggressively thrown out. Another popular place to beg are subway stations, but that doesn’t mean they need a ticket.

Did anyone ask what the money was for? Did anyone offer to buy whatever it was they needed, even if a meal at a better place? Or was the interaction to simply offer fries (probably the least filling, cheapest, far from healthy choice that they likely have been offered dozens of times already) and then do nothing when they refused?

[Pooge]

> Because fast food restaurants get a lot of foot traffic

Which isn't their strategy because the beggar spent probably 2 minutes in the restaurant.

It's not rare to see a beggar ask for money to "get food", get offered food and then decline.