What would be the best way to help beggars?

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Oolotea

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I have recently moved to a new town. As now I am a young adult, I am able to manage my own money and learn how to be self-sufficent. I have decided to take studies that let me gain some job experience first and discover what I would like to do with a more practical approach before thinking about entering college.

Since I can choose on what I am spending the money, I am trying to give the spare change I get every time I go to buy groceries or similar to beggars on street and outside church. At first I was of the thinking that give money to the charities and the Church was the safest option (they couldn’t use it wrong), yet I have read some experiences from here and it made me consider it. Who am I to say what they will do with the money? How I know the charities are always a 100% safe option? We’re humans. We may misuse our funds or the money we’re given, although we can learn from mistakes. Nobody is behind us judging how we use it every single day.

The concept of charity has always struck me. I guess it does because I always think I am doing nothing about it and I see everyone else being so dedicated, doing volunteering work or helping (at least it’s what I percieve). I would like to help somewhere, but I might need some time to get used to life here and learn about different organizations. I know that charity is a broad concept. Charity is how we behave with our brothers and sisters too.
Well, I am a failure in both sides, but that doesn’t stop me from trying again and praying. I like to think that the Lord offers mercy to come back and hope to not despair. If giving money is what can I do, then I will try to help that way.

The issue is, last Sunday I gave some spare change to a woman outside church before getting in. I think the woman already “knows me”. Nonetheless, she always tell me how she has to support her two children and has no money to do so. At least she seems grateful; however, some thoughts ran through my mind. Am I really helping this people giving them some spare change? Doubts are making me reconsider what I am doing.

In short, the question is: What would be the best way to help beggars on streets in your opinion?

Thanks for taking the time to read this long post and I am grateful for each one of your responses.
 
The best thing, in my opinion, you can do is keep a couple of cereal bars handy and tape a card that gives them directions to Social Services and/or Catholic charities.

The issue with long-term homelessness and begging is that it is often a cycle that people cannot escape from. Giving money can help short-term but it is not an answer to mental health issues, etc. It is a disservice to give and perpetuate the cycle, especially when there are children involved. Not wrong, perse, but not the best idea. Even if the money is 100% used well, there was a case of a well-known mother nearby my area who was living out of her car. People gave her money and she used it for food and a motel. She never asked more than she needed. One winter there was an ice storm and the hotels were booked…so she stayed in her car rather than go to a shelter. Her, and her two young children, died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Had social services been involved the children would likely be alive. So even if someone is doing good with the money–it doesn’t mean that good will result.

I know many churches in rough areas that have signs not to give money to beggars because after a while “good” beggars are driven away by dangerous ones. One adoration chapel I know of said anyone caught giving money would be permanently banned because there were two instances of beggars pulling knives on women because the homeless community had found an easy target in the Adoration goers. It was harsh but necessary.
 
Oolotea said:
Who am I to say what they will do with the money? How I know the charities are always a 100% safe option?
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You have to do your due diligence. There’s a lot of charity and churches I won’t give to because they don’t run their organization well or understand the issues.
 
When I lived in Chicago there was a notice in the bulletin about the beggars at my parish. It appears that the beggars actually lived at a nearby nursing home and their needs were well met. They were just supplementing their income by begging. I do like the cereal bar idea.
 
stinkcat_14 said:
When I lived in Chicago there was a notice in the bulletin about the beggars at my parish. It appears that the beggars actually lived at a nearby nursing home and their needs were well met. They were just supplementing their income by begging. I do like the cereal bar idea.
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The bar with the business cards isn’t my idea. It was actually the idea of one social service org that was working with Catholic Charities and a (Lutheran?) soup kitchen. They actually stapled special business cards together (they had a map on the back and toll-free numbers) and handed them out in 8 and 12 “packs” so people could easily buy a pack of cereal bars and have them ready to go.
 
An improvement from just tossing money around and if you don’t you hate the poor (not that you’ve ever made that claim), but people on here have tried that with homeless and refugees and sometimes they just throw the food away and/or demand money.
 
I have occasionally given money to homeless people seeking money on the street. One of them regularly begged outside a rock club I attended and he was there so many years on show nights he was a fixture and was known to/friendly with many attendees and the club would let him step inside to get warm on cold nights. He was also an older disabled gentleman who did not appear to have any addiction or scam going on, which is likely also why the venue treated him so well.

With most other beggars, I do not give them money because
  • Many if not most of them are using it to support an addiction. They will show visible signs of addiction, or claim they want money for “something to eat” but if you give them some food instead they don’t want that.
  • Many others are able bodied people who have taken up begging as their job or even side job in addition to a regular job. The newspaper where I used to live and encounter beggars did stories on this. One guy was collecting 40 grand a year. These folks try to target people they think will give based on age, gender, how someone is dressed. I didn’t like their scam and also didn’t like being singled out as the target of their entreaties while they ignored other people who didn’t fit their profiling demographic for “most likely to give money”.
  • A few of these people will rob you or harass you for more money once you get your wallet out.
  • A lot of this begging activity I encountered took place just a few blocks from a nationally known homeless shelter that I knew was providing these folks with their basic needs like meals.
I feel much more comfortable giving my money to a small local charity that works with the homeless or with specific categories of people in need (example: a shelter for pregnant women in need of a place to live). That way I can better see that they’re helping people than giving to some huge charity fund. I also give money to the missions because to be honest a lot of the people in those countries are more needy in terms of not having basics of food and shelter. Finally, I donate food to food banks. That way I am reasonably sure the food goes to a hungry person and my money is not wasted.
 
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I would be in favor of giving it to a place that feeds the homeless or provides shelter rather than giving someone money directly. Yes, the agency can misuse the funds but in my observation, there’s a greater chance that the individual beggar will be using the money for drugs or alcohol. Anyone can make up a story and say they have kids to feed or are a homeless veteran or whatever. One guy came to the church and said he needed money for depends incontinence supplies for his mother in the assisted living place across the street - yeah, right, like an assisted living place has no such supplies. At least he was creative in his story.
 
In all honestly after working in a location where I have had some people turn down job offers in order to beg, I have become jaded to simply giving money. I will take a homeless person to lunch before I will give money. I typically try and give my money to the church to deligate and to charaties that are vetted. If someone needs gas I will help them fill their tank, if they need food I will buy them food, if they need some help with renting for a night I will pay the landlord. The definition of need, poor, and homeless has changed since the time of Christ and I try my best to help without enabling, an often hard task. When you work for a major retailer you can see what the handouts go to, and I must say its rather grim and I can no longer justify giving cash sadly.
 
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Sunbreak said:
I would be in favor of giving it to a place that feeds the homeless or provides shelter rather than giving someone money directly. Yes, the agency can misuse the funds but in my observation, there’s a greater chance that the individual beggar will be using the money for drugs or alcohol. Anyone can make up a story and say they have kids to feed or are a homeless veteran or whatever. One guy came to the church and said he needed money for depends incontinence supplies for his mother in the assisted living place across the street - yeah, right, like an assisted living place has no such supplies. At least he was creative in his story.
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The issue is that even if a person is using the funds as the “promise” they remain in a highly vulnerable position.

Oh, the man may not have been lying. Just an FYI from someone who’s volunteered at nursing homes and assisted living orgs…basic supplies are always provided but they are often very generic and poor copies of name brand products. The ladies with incontinence and families wore Depends, which, from my understanding were far more comfortable–and even less smelly than the home-provided supplies. I remember finding a circular coupon for a free trial–or maybe it was $1 or something–and I bought 4 or 5 packs for some of the ladies with no families…two of them cried they were so happy. We don’t realize often just how our ability to choose our hygene products can make a world of difference. Even at the retired priest’s home many of the men choose to buy some of their favorite soaps and other hygene products out of their own meager funds because they prefer it. Fortunatly, our retired priests are given funds to do so. Most of the elderly do not have that option as assisted living diverts their SS funds.
 
Assuming you do not live in Manila or Mexico City or New Dehli (where there is gritty, abject poverty), you are talking not about beggars but about panhandlers.

You are best to follow the example of the Good Samaritan. He did not hand over a bag of coins to the man on the roadside, instead he directed his donation to a place that was equipped to provide shelter, rehabilitation, medical care, etc.

If your local food pantry, homeless shelter, crisis center, received in donations HALF of what good hearted people hand over to panhandlers, they could change your community in amazing ways.
 
Instead of giving her ‘loose change’ or ‘extra cash’, maybe bringing her an application form for food stamp benefits or an application for disability income, such as SSI or SSDI, would prove more ‘long term’ than infrequently and very randomly. Phone numbers, addresses, directions, etc… could help the homeless receive the monthly benefits they are eligible for. They can also even get State Medical Insurance.

Referrals and Resourceful Places and Phone numbers…

So the next time you give her some loose change, she might use that change to contact the Agency that might be able to help her out via pay phone.
 
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The appropriate response then would be to find out what Mom in the nursing home needs or even wants and then buy it for her and give it to her directly, rather than giving money to an intermediary son. Without checking it out, you sadly have no idea if she (a) exists, (b) has a desire or need for a specific item, as opposed to not really caring or even being in a mental state where she is not aware of a specific product.
 
Giving them money directly is the best thing to do IMO. Many saints made a living from begging.

Unless you have 100% proof they are going to spend the money on gambling or prostitutes or crack, then you can feel good giving them cash.
 
I’m not sure I’d have the courage either, but…if you have time, maybe share a meal with them? From the times I have dealt with people, many are desperate as much for someone to treat them with decency as for material needs.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
The appropriate response then would be to find out what Mom in the nursing home needs or even wants and then buy it for her and give it to her directly, rather than giving money to an intermediary son. Without checking it out, you sadly have no idea if she (a) exists, (b) has a desire or need for a specific item, as opposed to not really caring or even being in a mental state where she is not aware of a specific product.
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I didn’t state the poster should have given money–but that wanting such things for his mother may not have been a lie. More of a PSA.
 
The saints you speak of lived in times and places where there was true poverty. We in the US or Canada or in the EU or in other developed nations have social security nets.
 
That’s untrue.

I’ve been homeless before to the point of sleeping on park benches and digging through trash for food.

True poverty exists in every American city. Crushing poverty that you can’t possibly imagine if you’ve never lived in it.
 
I’ve worked in outreach, either as part of my father’s worldwide ministry, as a volunteer or later as a paid professional for my entire life.

In the US today there are programs, facilities, options for those who are willing submit. How many people who come to my office as homeless, but, they will not take a space in a safe place because they won’t take a drug test or put their dog in a foster home or sleep in a women’s only facility while their boyfriend goes to the men’s ward.

Before I get a lecture about the dog, there was a time back during the 2008ish financial crisis when we lost EVERYTHING and we were 24 hours from homelessness. You bet your boots that I was as attached to my dogs as to my child, but, my child was a teen and the place where I could go allowed him to stay there as well. The dogs, I gave them away. Yes, it was sad, but, it was that or no roof over my head.

Except that there was a plan B. If I would have swallowed my pride and called my in-laws or my parents or my sister or my brother or my brother in law or one of my aunts or some old business acquaintances, they would have let us come sleep on the sofa or floor until we could find something else. I was too full of pride to make those calls, so, I gave away my dogs and most of my earthly possessions including my boat that we did not even have time to sell,and went to live in a place that was not pretty or comfortable.

Granted, I did not have a mental illness nor an addiction, but, I do have a profound physical disability that makes finding a job 10 Xs more difficult than an able bodied person.

Even for those with mental illness and addictions, I now live/work in a town of around 30K and do outreach into nearby small towns. IF someone is willing to be submit to the rules, I can find a place for them, and I am only one person. In large cities the resources abound.

I am sorry that no one offered to get you into a shelter or other program. I am sorry that no one pointed you to SNAP and food pantries and other places to eat. That does not negate the work that is done by a army of people who would be able to do more if they had more donations. We can stretch a dollar into two full meals! We just need people to donate those dollars.
 
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