they normally ask me for smokes not change...and i dont give them either...although they normally can tell whos a sucker and whos not

Dang!

hell if people would just stop giving to them and alot of them can work. it get them off the streets. This is one thing I love about my area. You don't see it at all. Go to LA and and your bombared with them....

I make 'em do a song and dance, if it's good I give 'em a couple bucks

Dollar or can of soup is all they get from me, or what I can spare in change. I work at a convienant store and we get homeless people in off the street with hundereds or something like that, and I always look at my job as though I may quit and take up whatever their doing cause they seem to get paid a lot more than I do.

Once there was an old man at a rest area in the middle of no where, obviously hungry. I gave him some food from the cooler and a couple of bucks. This guy needed it, otherwise I normally don't... especially if they're in town and can get to shelter.

Quite a few of the homeless have a mental illness such as schizophrenia. In the Reagan years the monies for the mental institutions were slashed. Many were turned out onto the streets.

Many are alcoholics or addicts. No, it's not a choice.

Some are families that have had financial problems. Many families in the US are a paycheck away from being homeless.

Then there are the ones that make money out of panhandling.

give him whatever I have and don't currently need

when I was, oh, about 13, I was in New York and I saw this poor little girl, with nothing but a little shirt and skirt, and it was in the winter so, I gave her my jacket, a blanket, and a $20

i have given change to the homeless without question
in fact there was one yr my son and i were downtown and there was a homeless guy sleeping in the door way of the music store and my son wanted to take him home.. now thats a loving heart,

In the city I work in, you can get a license to panhandle. Yes. Really.

People I interview can get over two hundred dollars a day... or more, if they admit it.

ill help anyway i can no matter what

id probably give it him, if it was safe to, like there were lots of people around. incase he grabbed my purse or bag or something,

To be alcoholic or addict is a choice.

I pretty much always say I don't have noting and leave it at that.

Reminds me of tonight how this woman run up to me as I got out of work and ask if I had any money because her car run out of gas, then I went to get in my dad truck because my dad was waiting on me and she goes well does he have any or a gas can, I simply reply no. Because one I don't know her and two even if I did have the extra money I wouldn't of given it to her, although at times it makes me think about it. But oh well I'll yet her go bug other people for gas or money etc, for all I knew she could have been trying to scam me or something.

Wink- I work with the mentally ill. Yes, it is a choice. At least where I live. The resources and funds here for homeless are outstanding. I used to work as a caseworker for those severely mentally ill who used to be in institutions. I know it is a choice. My post was not made out of ignorance.

There is a guy that has worked one of the fwy off ramps by my friends house & he has a newer Ford truck parked in the field next door..

I'll buy them food.

I've offered to pay them to help me set up jobs & been turned down.

Once they have become addicted, their choices are not clear.
The wiring of their brains has changed. Their brains are telling them that they need the drugs and/or alchohol to survive just like our brains tell us we need food to survive.

spare some change....spare some change.....(southpark)

You are making it sound as though they are incompetent. They are not.