Don't stop giving change to beggars

The Denver Post ^ | August 26, 2005 | Reggie Rivers

[Millee]

I give money to panhandlers. It's not part of my daily routine, but every now and then, a homeless person will be in my line of sight when I'm feeling generous, and I'll hand him or her a couple of bucks.

I don't have any expectations about how the recipient will spend the money. Maybe he'll buy food. Maybe he's saving for a bus trip to another city. Maybe he'll use the money to pay for lodging. Or maybe he'll just buy booze. It doesn't matter to me. I give him money because I can see he needs it.

Last week, a study commissioned by the Downtown Denver Business Improvement District and the city's Office of Economic Development revealed that 44 percent of Denver residents are like me. Our occasional giving adds up to about $25 a year for each of us, which totals about $4.6 million a year to panhandlers.

Denver business leaders and city officials want us to stop. They say, with a straight face, that they care about panhandlers and that our impromptu donations only perpetuate the problems that beggars face. They say panhandlers need tough love if they're going to rise out of poverty. They point to the city's proposed $122 million, 10-year proposal to end homelessness, and suggest redirecting our $4.6 million a year in donations could significantly help fund this program.

With all due respect, I doubt that this study was motivated by humanitarian ideals. Business bureaus and economic development offices typically don't spend time trying to cure the complex problems of poverty, homelessness and panhandling. The objective was to figure out how to keep unattractive, malodorous, poor beggars from driving away tourists and other customers.

And I imagine their concerns are well-founded. There are many people who get nervous and/or scared when they see panhandlers, and they might avoid a shop that had a lot of beggars out front. But I'm not going to stop making my occasional donations to people on street corners.

Panhandlers play an important role in our society, because they are the visible face of poverty. The study in question focused on Denver residents, but a large percentage of middle- and upper-income families Click Here!

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Link To Article Print Article Email Article Article Last Updated: 08/25/2005 10:31:47 PM

reggie rivers Don't stop giving change to beggars By Reggie Rivers

I give money to panhandlers. It's not part of my daily routine, but every now and then, a homeless person will be in my line of sight when I'm feeling generous, and I'll hand him or her a couple of bucks.

I don't have any expectations about how the recipient will spend the money. Maybe he'll buy food. Maybe he's saving for a bus trip to another city. Maybe he'll use the money to pay for lodging. Or maybe he'll just buy booze. It doesn't matter to me. I give him money because I can see he needs it.

Last week, a study commissioned by the Downtown Denver Business Improvement District and the city's Office of Economic Development revealed that 44 percent of Denver residents are like me. Our occasional giving adds up to about $25 a year for each of us, which totals about $4.6 million a year to panhandlers.

Denver business leaders and city officials want us to stop. They say, with a straight face, that they care about panhandlers and that our impromptu donations only perpetuate the problems that beggars face. They say panhandlers need tough love if they're going to rise out of poverty. They point to the city's proposed $122 million, 10-year proposal to end homelessness, and suggest redirecting our $4.6 million a year in donations could significantly help fund this program.

With all due respect, I doubt that this study was motivated by humanitarian ideals. Business bureaus and economic development offices typically don't spend time trying to cure the complex problems of poverty, homelessness and panhandling. The objective was to figure out how to keep unattractive, malodorous, poor beggars from driving away tourists and other customers.

And I imagine their concerns are well-founded. There are many people who get nervous and/or scared when they see panhandlers, and they might avoid a shop that had a lot of beggars out front. But I'm not going to stop making my occasional donations to people on street corners.

Panhandlers play an important role in our society, because they are the visible face of poverty. The study in question focused on Denver residents, but a large percentage of middle- and upper-income families

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in the metro area live in suburban enclaves that are completely devoid of poverty. The tight restrictions of homeowner associations ensure that blight doesn't exist, and the cost of mortgages, HOA dues, assessments and mandatory repairs make it virtually impossible to maintain a home in these neighborhoods without a substantial income.

So if you live in a poverty-free area, drive on highways crowded with your peers, work in an office building full of successful people, and never see anyone on the low end of the economy, it would be easy to forget that poor people exist and that homelessness is a significant issue in Denver.

The suggestion that our $4.6 million in donations would be better spent on other programs is true, but irrelevant. I donate money to many charities, but these impromptu donations wouldn't exist if not for panhandlers. Beggars provoke impulsive contributions in the same way that tabloids near checkout counters provoke impulse buys.

Rather than asking us to boycott panhandlers, business and city leaders should think seriously about what they can do to reduce the social problems that contribute to panhandling. I don't know how much money they spent on this survey, but if their goal was to help the poor, the money could have been better spent by donating it to a program.

If you give money to panhandlers, don't stop. They're not getting rich off your donations, but they are serving a purpose. We shouldn't push the poor out of sight; we should push them out of poverty.

[Terabitten]

Where'd you find that high school photo? I thought I'd gotten all of them back!

[AnAmericanMother]

Seems like we're on the same page.

[AnAmericanMother]

Hey, man, if you don't get the negatives . . . .

[Zechariah_8_13]

LOL

Almost the same post!

One of my favorite panhandler signs of all time:

"Got Road Rage? Yell at a Homeless Guy! $.50!"

[Terabitten]

Dangit... I *always* forget to get the negatives.....

[RIGHT IN LAS VEGAS]

122 million in 10 years?
For that kind of money I'll have them out in a month!

[JoeGar]

Panhandlers play an important role in our society ...

Barf alert! Barf alert!

[antonia]

"...maybe he'll just buy booze. It doesn't matter to me. I give him money because I can see he needs it. ..."

this explains feel-good liberalism at its worst.

I disagree; this is true freedom  at its best.  Allowing each of us to choose our own paths.  As long as no harm is done to anyone else.  “Liberalism” now means the fascist ideal imposed on everyone by taking money from from tax payers (by force) to impose the state’s will on everyone.

[Walkingfeather]

Yeah and teenager needs a beer, I guess he would buy that for them too.

[Rockingham]

The liberal idea of compassion is revealed here in all its perverse glory: to (1) feel good about yourself and what you do no matter the net effect in the real world on the people that you pretend to help; and (2) assure yourself that you are sticking it to people whom you dislike, in this instance, suburban dwellers who are assumed to have no understanding or experience of poverty because it is not visibly at their elbow.

What a clown!

I don't have any expectations about how the recipient will spend the money. Maybe he'll buy food. Maybe he's saving for a bus trip to another city. Maybe he'll use the money to pay for lodging. Or maybe he'll just buy booze. It doesn't matter to me. I give him money because I can see he needs it.

* * * * *

Panhandlers play an important role in our society, because they are the visible face of poverty. The study in question focused on Denver residents, but a large percentage of middle- and upper-income families in the metro area live in suburban enclaves that are completely devoid of poverty. The tight restrictions of homeowner associations ensure that blight doesn't exist, and the cost of mortgages, HOA dues, assessments and mandatory repairs make it virtually impossible to maintain a home in these neighborhoods without a substantial income.

So if you live in a poverty-free area, drive on highways crowded with your peers, work in an office building full of successful people, and never see anyone on the low end of the economy, it would be easy to forget that poor people exist and that homelessness is a significant issue in Denver.

[Mr. K]

you are correct, it is just that this type of person usually votes government programs to do this type of giving and they really do not care about the outcome.

[nina0113]

Sorry, if you're asking ME for money on the street, you'd better be playing an instrument and playing it well, too.

A few years ago, I heard "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" coming from the top of an escalator as I rode up. When I got there, it was three schoolboys playing their violins on a school holiday, and doing very well out of the rush hour crowd.

[Larry Lucido]

Maybe he's saving for a bus trip to another city.

Why go to another city when there are fools in this city willing to part with their money?

[Clemenza]

Seattle City Motto: "Got Any Change?"

[Larry Lucido]

[sionnsar]

Seattle City Motto: "Got Any Change?"

LOL. Many years ago I realized I needed practice playing in front of people, to prepare for the competition circuit I'd be entering that summer, so I took my pipes down to the Seattle Center during the Folklife Festival, found a corner and started playing.

It was no more than a couple minutes before somebody pulled out a dollar bill and looked for some place to put it. He finally settled on the pipe case (fabric, something like a small gym bag), and before long I'd earned dinner for my wife and myself!

[antonia]

it is just that this type of person usually votes government programs to do this type of giving and they really do not care about the outcome.

Exacly. For example; 

• Government programs that demand that the applicants be better at paper work, than their current circumstances indicate that they are able to deal with. 
• Government programs which give bonus to it's employed for bringing in more 'clients'. 
• Government programs which are named to indicate that that they are benefiting the poor, but are actually fake jobs for political payoffs.

 

[Buzwardo]

I spent a lot of years running restaurant kitchens. Never had a kitchen that didn't need a dishwasher, never had a decent dishwasher who I didn't train to be a prep cook, never had a decent prep cook that I didn't train to be a line cook, and so on.

I for the most part ignore panhandlers, but I've offered to help a couple aggressive ones find a restaurant job. For some reason none of 'em have taken me up on it. . . .

[muir_redwoods]

Several years ago I saw a man about 40 years-old standing at a shopping center with a sign saying he was homeless and needed money to feed his family. In the window of the grocery store behind him as a sign saying "Help Wanted, All Shifts".

I asked him if he could see the sign and why didn't he simply apply for a job. His response?

"Hey give me a break"

sigh

[chudogg]

Denver has the worst homeless i ever seen. Most of em were in their 20s and were a bunch herion-addicted hippies.

Once, i had a bottle of the most god awful tequila (El tequiadora?) and when an older bum asked me for some change i told him to cut out the middle man and handed him what was left, lol!