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DigitalSteven1 t1_j5v51ku wrote

I can't give money to those people, since in almost every case, it's just a scam. If you want to help homeless people, support local policies that support the homeless, volunteer at a soup kitchen, become a speaker for homelessness issues in your town. Giving them $20 doesn't help them.

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YoThatsFed OP t1_j5v9of1 wrote

Maybe in America. I can tell you the homeless people I walk past every day and recognise, the ones I see sleeping out in the cold late at night, they’re not scammers.

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BojangleHeimerShmidt t1_j5wqo0y wrote

Not even in America, the commenter is just ignorant.

Source: I’ve talked with many, many homeless people in the US through NA and happenstance

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mooreolith t1_j5waahh wrote

You may not turn their life around with your $20 gift, but you might buy them a sandwhich, and some reason to stay in a heated place for a while. That's definitely helping. Helping does not equal fix everything forever.

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fenton7 t1_j5xbe6t wrote

The point is that if you give the $20 to a homeless charity they are going to use it to provide 20 or even 40 meals in places where real homeless congregate. Giving money to panhandlers is vastly less efficient not just because many are scammers but also because you aren't reaching most of the homeless population or an organization that can leverage economies of scale to buy efficiently. The people who hang out at busy intersections with signs, particularly in suburbs where they know many easy marks exist, are not representative of the real population or problem.

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mooreolith t1_j5xg3dq wrote

That's a fair point. All I'm saying is it doesn't not make that one homeless person's day. Maybe you see the same people every day after a while.

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Sentsuizan t1_j5y5pid wrote

Give money to people if you feel like being generous, regardless of what you think they may or may not do with it.

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