Interesting story that is ultimately damaging to the needy homeless

[Walt Starr]

BEGGARS DEFEND LIFESTYLE

Couple fend off public ire following news article
By DAMIAN MANN
Mail Tribune
ASHLAND — Sudden notoriety and public condemnation have surprised an Ashland couple who make a living as panhandlers and refer to themselves as "affluent beggars."

Jason Pancoast and Elizabeth Johnson, who have three children, think the public has been taken aback by their unconventional image of a well-fed, well-dressed family that lives off the streets.

"What has happened is that we’re going along with a lifestyle that you couldn’t imagine we should have," said 34-year-old Pancoast.

A story in Sunday’s Mail Tribune about the couple, who sometimes make up to $300 a day and once made $800, triggered an outcry from local residents and sparked the interest of national media.

<snip>

http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2006/0113/local/stories/01local.htm

Ultimately, this story will have repercussions to homeless people. Although I make donations to charitable organizations, a similar story about a Denver man convinced me to (almost) never give money to a panhandler. I have often made exceptions for some panhandlers who are obviously suffering from mental illness, but overall, I walk past panhandlers.

[SmokingJacket]

1. They want you to think that beggars are all rich.

How many panhandlers are like these people? Not freaking many.

[Walt Starr]

2. Can't tell the ones who are from the ones who aren't in most cases

That's why giving money to organizations is a safer bet, IMO.

[SmokingJacket]

6. Possibly.

Except that sometimes a buck for a cup of coffee is exactly what's needed.

[Walt Starr]

7. I'd rather just give 'em a cup of coffee than the cash

if that's what they're asking for.

[Horse with no Name]

3. I never support panhandlers--at least not with cash

I have dropped off clothing, shoes and blankets under bridges before they were fenced off.
I have also carried little bags of fruit and snacks to give to the guys who come up to your car on the street corners claiming to need money because they are hungry.
Most of the time they don't want them.:shrug:

[Walt Starr]

4. I've bought food from restaurants in downtown Chicago

and given it to panhandlers with signs saying they're hungry. Usually they take it.

[Trevelyan]

15. They might think you are setting them up for a drug bust.

I gave a dollar to a panhandler who was obviously poor after rummaging around in my backpac and then tried to give him a lunch I hadn't touched and he seemed really scared and almost put his hands behind his back and when I told him that it was my lunch that I didn't have time to eat he reluctantly accepted it and I thought later, he must have thought that I was trying to set him up for a drug bust.

I ALWAYS give spare change or what I have. Jesus said to GIVE ALMS TO THEM IN NEED and I think these stories about people with million dollar homes who are panhandlers are propaganda to get people not to give directly to those in need. Haven't you read about the Red Cross and United Way scandals??

I was furious when I read a brochure at at library trying to convince you not to give directly to the needy but to organizations that the county had spent their very limited funds on such heartless propaganda.

If they spend it on drugs...well, people in America are treated like trash and even US Senators like Libby Dole have stolen hundreds of thousands when they were put in charge of money for the destitute and escaped prosecution with their ties to "important" people.

[Turbineguy]

5. We pulled into a rest stop

There was a pathetic looking kid pointing to a POS car and asking for "gas money" from everybody who walked by. There's a sucker born every minute and I gave him a couple of bucks. While waiting a few minutes in the car for my wife to reappear, it became obvious I should offer him the use of my cell phone to call an armored truck.

A recent article in the Seattle PI talked about incomes of $80,000 per year.

It's probably a good racket if you are not an alcoholic/drug user or mentally ill.

[NanceGreggs]

8. We all have to do what we think is best as individuals ...

... but I have cut off ALL donations to organized charities, and give what I can afford to panhandlers on a day-to-day basis.

At least I know my buck or two is going directly to someone who needs it, with no costs for administration, overhead, support staff, etc.

I've known people who have worked within charitable organizations, and the money that is totally wasted would boggle your mind. I know of one in particular that runs a 'fundraiser' event every year, even though it LOSES more money than it generates, and those losses have increased every year since they started the event.

I'm not saying that organized charities are scams; it's just that they've been caught up in the same organizational mistakes as many businesses - i.e. spend $1,000,000 on mail-outs to customers which only generates $10,000 in sales.

Sure there are 'professional' panhandlers who take the money and run --but they're a VERY small group as compared to those really in need.

[theboss]

11. I do the exact opposite

I never give to panhandlers and only give to charities that I know and trust. And I tell beggars where to go.

Most homeless would be okay if they could get clean and sober and/or on their necessary medication. To not steer them in such a direction simply seems cruel to me.

[NanceGreggs]

20. And exactly how is someone living on the street ...

... supposed to get clean and sober, or get the 'necessary medication'?

There are now millions of 'middle-class' Americans with jobs, homes, etc. who are finding it almost impossible to pay for medication. Now imagine paying for it with NO MONEY, and NO JOB AT ALL.

It may come as a shock to you, but MOST homeless people didn't end up that way due to laziness, drunkeness, drug addiction or by choice. Many have wound up there due to being financially wiped out by circumstances beyond their control - like losing a long-time job, then being hit with a medical emergency that wiped out what little savings they had, or living off savings - and eventually having to sell their homes and possessions when savings ran out -- to stay afloat when their Unemployment Insurance ran out.

As for spending their pandhandling money on booze or drugs -- if I was that down-and-out and saw ho help, no hope, and no way out, I'd want to block out the world in any way I could. Drunkeness and drug addiction are often caused by homelessness, rather than homelessness being caused by the former.

I've heard people say it a million times: "THAT would never happen to me. I'd find a way to get a good job and get my life back together." You know who else said that? Ninety-nine percent of the people living on the streets of our cities today.

I hope that if you ever find yourself down-and-out, someone will give you a couple of bucks, instead of a sanctimonious sermon on how it was your own fault ...

[Bluerthanblue]

9. I agree it will stick out, and be 'justification' in SOME peoples

minds- but these people are rarer than conservitive christian theocrats who would support true freedom and equality for everyone, and be willing to give from their own pockets to those who are in need- regardless of the reason, or the enormity of the 'need'-.

In other words, people who truly care, will see this for what it is- an fluke- Everything in life is abused, and mis-used. If we give or care with 'strings' attached, we will find ourselves always tied up in our own knots. I'd rather be taken for a 'sucker' than hold onto what I have out of fear of looking the fool-

[MADem]

10. A sentence jumped out at me in that story, tangentially related

DeBoer said begging has become so commonplace that you find people at almost every freeway off-ramp.
`````````

If you think back in time, before Reaganomics, you almost NEVER saw beggars, homeless people, street people, whatever the term, except perhaps in very large cities and some countries overseas, where they were quite common. But not here in the good old US of A. I know when they closed a lot of the state mental hospitals the presence of homeless people became more noticeable, but it seems to me that nowadays the numbers are through the roof. People who are just one paycheck back from losing everything are losing everything, and sleeping in their cars.

Land of the free, home of the brave? It's anything but brave the way the government turns its back on people who need help. And these lazy assholes who are raking it in (click on the link, the little girl looks absolutely miserable in the accompanying photo) are not helping the cause at all with their boasting about their "lifestyle."

[Trevelyan]

18. Stephen Meeks life-long ministry to the poor

http://discipleshipdiscussion.blogspot.com/2005/11/christian-response-to-poverty.html

"The Poor Will Always Be With You" by pastordan Thu Dec 1st, 2005
Back on Tuesday, I linked approvingly to this post on the work of one Stephen Meeks, who apparently has a life-long ministry to the poor. I agreed with his perspective at the time--that combating poverty is a gritty, painstaking, soul-by-soul business, and that nothing much in the way of grand gestures works to relieve poverty for the long term.

I wouldn't say that I disagree with Meeks now, but on second thought, I think his vision is much too limited. First of all, as Elizabeth D points out in the comments, Meeks doesn't address any number of conditions: chronic mental or physical illness, the rapaciousness of corporations, the kind of debt poverty seen in many developing nations these days. See, for example, the case of Argentina. Their economy is far from perfect, but it's gotten a damn sight better since they told the IMF to take a flying leap."

I agree - Reagan/Bush would not fund the Mental Health Care Systems Act that Sen. Kennedy and Rosalyn Carter worked so hard on for FOUR YEARS (WaPo wouldn't even cover the press conference that Kennedy and Carter gave after 4 years of work according to Mrs. Carter's "First Lady From Plains".) She was proud that they managed to fund it for one year that Reagan/Bush could not steal but after that....

There are so many acts of Congress like the above that Reagan/Bush/Clinton and Congress don't fund WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW!!!

[ret5hd]

12. To those that think this story is typical:

"Empire of Scrounge: Inside the Urban Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trash Picking, and Street Scavenging" by Jeff Ferrell

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0814727387/sr=1-1/qid=1137182324/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-1637314-1001445?%5Fencoding=UTF8

I know Jeff (not very well, met him at a few community meetings). A TCU proffesor with a degree in criminology.

Due to a combination of choice and circumstance, he spent 8 months living and researching the lives, skills, and tactics of those that live off of the things the rest of us discard: lead tire weights, brass door knobs, aluminum cans, clothes, food (stay away from chicken and pork, take the vegetables), shoes, bicycles, etc etc etc.

An excellent book...i recommend it highly. Of course, there are those that think "those people just need to get a job", and this book will do nothing for them.

[dogday]

13. Let's see the hundreds of stories of people

who have nothing at all and live in the shadows....

[ret5hd]

16. see post #12

[Trevelyan]

19. It is true that the MSM rarely has stories on the homeless

http://stephenmeeks.blogspot.com/ Kos has a religious section - http://discipleshipdiscussion.blogspot.com/2005/11/christian-response-to-poverty.html

"Okay, I said that I would only address the things that work. Sorry, I got off track a little. So, what works?

#1. Physical aid (stuff and money) in EMERGENCY situations--which means short-term aid.

#2. Physical aid plus mentoring on a one on one basis (I've never seen any mass approach to poverty work.)

#3. Mentoring and opportunity on a personal basis.

These work. The government can't do these (Except in natural disasters like Katrina.). No National organization can do them as well as you and I on an individual basis. This is where the church (the people, not the institutions)can show itself to be different, other, holy. This is where the world will find a light in the darkness. This is the city on the hill, and the salt on the earth. This is the Kingdom which he longs for us to know and enjoy."

"Thanks Tony for posting this, too--I might have missed it otherwise! Awesome sharing, Stephen! I think all the churches I've been a part of have done a fairly decent job of donating money and material goods, but where they've fallen short is in donating their time. And as we've said before on this blog, it's the relationships, the gentle mentoring, the living out of our faith that's going to make the difference. Thanks for the reminder. I pray this will become the heart of our churches."

[meow2u3]

14. These aren't real beggars

They're lazy con artists who give real beggars a bad name :mad:

[Wordie]

17. There are always going to be scammers.

They are, thankfully, the exception rather than the rule. The majority of homeless people have landed in a bad situation and want to get out of it, not profit from it. It's also important to remember that the panhandler on the street often doesn't really represent the typical situation of homelessness: there is a sad abundance of families with children. This doesn't mean, of course, that the street person should be shunned and forgotten, merely that there is a lot of homelessness that we don't see on our streets.

As far as panhandlers are concerned: one city I knew of issued vouchers for area restaurants that concerned citizens could buy from non-profit agencies that dealt with homeless issues. They then could hand the vouchers out rather than giving out cash. It was a good solution, imho.