I was recently out buying groceries at the shops when I was approached by a person begging for money so they could buy some food for themselves. I'm reluctant to give any money to beggars as I believe that some will use the money to buy drugs/cigarettes/etc. instead of food.
What do you do if a stranger asks you for money?
I am a student and I don't have much money TBH. But if I see some homeless or beggar (usually I find around Safeway's when I go buy stuff). I try to get some juice or up&go or fruits something like that. I don't hand them cash as they are addicted to alcohol/smokes and I believe they will spend it on those.
Only sometimes. If I have any spare money after purchasing my needs.
Never. Most beggars are either druggies or alcoholics.. I've already done my part in paying my taxes.
all those times i've been asked for money, it's always been, "have you got 2 bucks?"
always exactly $2 they're after..
Sometimes, but it's not something I do regularly. I do tip buskers more often though.
Oookay this could be a very long post/vent. It happens heaps in Mlbn CBD and I've had some fun experiences.
The worst experience is this arab lady who is shocking (and no i'm not being racist - she is arab and targets muslims).
I'm pretty empathetic to people lesser off than me and generally want to help but too many negatives have made me tighter than scrooge mcducks … to give money to ppl.
PS. All the below ppl I've given money/food to (but after yrs of seeing this scam it's made me change)
Experience 1: Flagstaff Station (yes I work near there) - There was a tall guy around late 30's, always gibbering to himself and just standing knocking his hands together like he had some serious mental issues (made himself look like he couldnt talk). This went on for a year at least… one day randomly catching a tram somewhere I spied him talking to his mate about how he's go out somewhere and the quickest way to get there - on his mobile). Next day… see him gibbering and carrying on. (put me off him)
Experience 2: George - old aboriginal guy (flagstaff gardens) - would always have his arms up in the air and talk to random ppl (never shake his hand as you'll be stuck there). Well George was a fake - you wouldnt know it but he's not crazy. He's just begging for money any way he can.
Experience 3 (Lots of times) - Arab (Egyptian) lady - wears headscarf to look muslim - after Friday prayers hangs around Mosque and greets passerby's as they leave the mosque and generally goes like "Hello brother/sister, I need a little help." Ive been caught out before as I've given at least $20-30 before i caught on (and I'm sure she makes a tidy packet after friday prayers as lots of ppl have goodwill to help the needy after certain sermons). Anyway - as i now know, she is a professional beggar doing this. The worst thing, shes not muslim and only targets ppl who she deems to be muslims as she can speak arabic. I saw her stalking my mother once at Mlbn Central as she was shopping. She was out with her brood of about 4 kids shopping… sees my mother (who i was standing about 20 meters away from) and makes a beeline for her, all whilst wrapping a headwrap/scarf around her - comes up and asks "Hello sister, can I have a little help". Mum was awesome with the shooing away.
Experience 4: Young aboriginal guy at Flagstaff gardens - (he's the one who has a few run ins with the cops as he starts swearing) - i've actually bought him food before and he liked it. Kept on asking for more of the same…. anyway, he's a fake again. Same story as George as to where he's from and what he needs the money for (a train ride back to his country town)…
Now currently we have Lee who has a cardboard sign up and its really sad (call me old fashioned and sexist) to see a female out on the streets but I've seen her on the mobile and on quiet days playing around with her daughter/partner hiding coins). She's perfected the needy look though. I really am not certain off her but I have my doubts why someone who has a mobile should be begging (yes i'm tough now).
There have been others but not really gonna share.. ohh except one.
There was a homeless guy we saw in Wellington, NZ. Very old guy with a huge bump on his head. My mate got out $20 from the ATM and offered it to him. He declined and said he didnt need it. We were so taken aback. Now that was a proper homeless person…. not a beggar who's after ppl's money.
All of these have made me a much more skeptical person to give to a beggar out in Mlbn. It's sad but true… because of these scammers it's changed me.
Saying all of that I ALWAYS give to beggers in different countries as I can assume someone with a missing arm/leg is not going to get the same opportunities that we have here.
And I also give to many charities monthly (weird thing for an OZbargainer to do I know).
Rant over :)
"Excuse me, you got $2 you can spare?"
"I could give you $2 but then you'd be burdened with that debt for the rest of your life, so I'm going to do you a sweet favour, and keep on walking by."
That doesn't make sense. You gave it to him….
Working and living in the CBD, I very rarely give money to anyone anymore.
I've been abused many times for saying no. I'm not some big tough guy, but I'm not going to stand there and be made to feel intimidated to the point where I feel like I have to give them money or cigarettes.
One regular guy outside my office was real lucky there's surveillance cameras everywhere when decided to get physical… I stopped at throwing him onto the ground. It definitely wasn't worth losing my job over that piece of trash. I had to hold myself and my colleague back. Now he crosses the road when he sees me.
It's the same people that float around different parts of the city. Unless it's someone that I've never seen before and it's obvious that they are in trouble, the rest of these regular beggars can go eat a d1ck.
To be honest, it's not the money or cigarettes.. I just don't like the thought/feeling of being scammed, so if I'm going to give away my hard-earned money, I'll choose who to give it to.
So many 'tough love' advocates here. I give money if I have spare change, when I have been in better financial circumstances in the past, whats a dollar or two to me when someone is sleeping rough? I also do it because I would like to know that someone might do the same should I ever find myself there. 'Today you, tomorrow me' etc.
And who cares if some people spend it on drugs and alcohol. Life can be shit, really shit. I spend money on the same things because it brings me pleasure, this person needs to be a total saint with the objectively terrible hand life has dealt them? So much judgement.
There'll always be some scammers, whether it's on the street (and face it, it can't be a joyous life being a 'professional beggar') or in federal parliament where they waste our money on travel entitlements for their family and friends. People will always take advantage but we can't let it steel our hearts too much because there will always be the truly needy too.
It's not so easy to pull yourself out of these situations and I'm really surprised by the amount of homelessness I've seen in and around Perth these past few years. It's never seemed so significant a problem when I was younger. Maybe it was just ignorance or maybe things are really getting tough. If so, then I think this is the worst time to be encouraging a more callous approach.
(note: didn't neg you)
I don't see how giving money to street beggars can lift people out of homelessness.
For one, organisations and shelters exist to remedy the causes of homelessness. They too, also require funds to operate.
If you had an x amount of money to give, would you give to the street begger or would you rather donate the funds to a charity?
Which of these options:
has a hundred percent guarantee that the money will be used 'correctly' and not for drugs, cigs, alcohol etc. Certainly not giving money to the street begger. You don't know how the money is used. A charitable institute however has the volunteers, manpower and equipment to do a lot of things.
is more efficient with money? A $50 bill is enough to buy food in bulk from a food supplier and prepare a lot of healthy, nutritious, home cooked meals for a lot of people at once. However for a single person with no cooking appliances, he may be forced to spend the $50 on pre-packaged food (think tinned foods, junk food and preserved stuff with longer shelf lives), which is more expensive than buying bulk and less nutritious.
Which of these options encourage beggers to spend their time in the streets begging rather than looking for other sources of help? They may see the activity of begging to be a better use of their time and it also encourages others to do the same. So rather than living in the shelter and perhaps seeking help in their spare time, they instead prefer to just shotgun their own spot in the park and camp out hoping to get as much cash as possible in a day. Again, while they may be getting boatloads of cash, they are not motivated to help themselves and don't put as much effort as those who actively seek help.
TLDR there are lots of ways you can help the unfortunate but simply handing over cold hard cash is probably the least efficient way of doing so.
I've never been very rich and the last thing I am able to do is sign up to a charity. Often if I'm approached by those street stalker types they won't accept a gold coin donation which is about the most I can do.
Look all those ethical 'most good you can do' arguments aside I'm just a human being who doesn't feel like I could be that far from being forced to do the same thing at some point in my life. If the guy uses it to overdose on heroin so be it, life is shit and if he's gonna do it he's gonna do it. Maybe it's enough for someone to get a burger or something, who knows? Maybe they sleep in their car and need a few bucks to top up the fuel or something. If I was wealthier and on a regular income sure I'd be happy to try to do something more productive with my money but all I can really do is chuck the guy who looks hard up a few silver coins or a dollar.
I accept that a big part of my attitude may be that I don't encounter these people very often and if I had a job in the CBD where I walked past a dozen on the same strip every day then I might start to think differently, but if I had a job in the CBD then I could probably refer to my previous statement about actually trying to make a difference with my money (because I'd have some).
I don't give beggars money… I buy them food… Like a subway and give them that. Easy way to find out if they are after smoke drug money…..
If they don't want it .. Lunch for me lol
I'm in two minds with this.
On one hand it is nice to help someone less fortunate than you out. On the other hand if they are going to go straight to a servo or 7-11 or wherever and buy cigarettes or a can of VB then why should I fund that?.
For example
The other day this guy came up to me after I had grabbed some food before my Uni class and asked me for money and he REAKED of cigarettes.
So I said I didn't have any change which actually was true. If he had come up to me about 2 minutes earlier and asked for money I'd have offered to buy him a snack box or something (I was at KFC). I was also at this point about 10 minutes late so I rushed off. If I were in less of a rush I'd have offered to personally buy him something for under like $5 from KFC or 7-11.
I prefer to buy the big issue once in a while to help them out.
I trust my instincts more often than not and most people will get declined especially in the city, if time permits I may offer to buy them food, I have in the past offered food I had been eating (only untouched food) or what change I had in my pocket, but I increasingly don't like carrying money at all, so most people will be declined. If you have experienced some beggars before you can judge someone who is genuine from someone that is hiding something. I'm sure most of us have our own stories of people that just don't want help, but there are some genuiine people out there…
The only time I gave anything was when there was a beggar in Town Hall station begging for spare change so she can get a ticket to get home. I passed the same place the day after, and the beggar was there again asking for the same thing. From then on I never gave any one of them anything anymore.
I don't give. Vast majority of beggars you see on the streets are "professional" beggars.
The ones that genuinely need help have already reached out for and received help from all manner of homeless support services available or been reached out to by the outreach arm of a homelessness support service. Those left on the streets don't want to be helped and prefer to earn their money by begging.
Source: I work for a government organisation which used to offer a phone based help line for homeless persons. Speaking to the operators I know that anyone who wants acommodation can easily obtain help for free without begging. And whilst there genuinely aren't enough shelters and support services to go around on any given day leading to "rough sleepers", if you want help, eventually you will receive it.
I got to know a young beggar in the CBD. I knew he had a home to go to and was getting youth allowance. I asked him why he was begging - his response was that he gets money for nothing. He said he gets up to $350 a day. He had the latest Iphone. He was regularly bought takeaway for lunch and said that he had people buy him new clothes and was even given a bike. All for sitting down with a handwritten sign on cardboard for a few hours.
If you feel charitable, give to a recognised charity. At least you will actually be helping someone rather than supporting a drug/alcohol habit.
When I was doing it tough I had to smoke rollies.
If someone asks me for money and they smell like cigarettes, they have more money than I do.
So they get SFA.
UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.
- The Lorax
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There is a man in Burwood NSW that kneels down with his head down and holds a coffee cup for hours on end. It's pretty depressing to see him in that position. I gave him a sandwich once and he seemed pretty happy with that. He's not too old either. Probably late 20s/early 30s. I see most people give him a meal and chat to him which is nice. I don't really believe in giving money that way. Offer them a meal or some clothes and if you want to donate money give it to a (preferably secular) charity focussing on homelessness in your respective city.
Live to give!
We never know where any of our donations go.. eg of my "official" charity donations at least 30% and as much as 70% goes to expenses, which is basically paying the people who work there, I assume most of them drink and take a few drugs, so thats the same.
Anyone who's life is bad enough that they need to ask me for money in the streets is welcome to afew sheckles and they can do what they want with it if it improves their lot.
Oh man, that happened to my boyfriend! (he's American). He doesn't live in LA but similar story— he told me that when he got his first paycheck as a teen, he had like $60. He'd literally just got it when a very down on his luck looking homeless guy wandered out on the trail and asked for $5 for food. My boyfriend was young, and was feeling pretty generous and happy, so he decided to give him $20. Guy was like, 'thanks man,' and pulled out a thick wad of $20s— at least about $200 dollars worth— added it to the roll, and shambled off. Dude had more money than my boyfriend. My boyfriend said that in hindsight, he should have asked for change back! He also didn't seem particularly grateful. I'm not sure what it is about US beggars and rolls of cash, but it's obviously something that happens there.