I’m elderly female, have tried to “pointedly ignore these cretins”. I avoid our downtown area which is taken over by street people, as do my friends, with the result our downtown area has become derelict, and we do 99% of business in shopping malls because of safety concerns. I donate to the Salvation Army as they do fine work in our town rehabilitating people.
I sometimes have to travel for work and visit a liberal utopia that was known for its shops and restaurants. I used to patronize some of them when I’d visit. But the town does nothing to discourage the panhandlers. On one of my last visits I had one yelling at me for money because I ignored him (I didn’t stop and kept walking and he kept yelling).
The utopia isn’t much of a utopia anymore. Lots and lots of vacant stores and there have been news articles that the golden goose is on its sick bed. Comments to those news articles are filled with complaints about panhandlers.