Photo from Basic Pay, LLC.
It seems like everywhere I go, I’m accosted by someone wanting a few bucks. I could be walking home or reading the paper on the subway, when someone will call out, look me in the eye and ask me to spare some change. And it seems like it’s only getting worse.
I have neither the money nor the desire to give to everyone who asks. So who gets the few quarters in my coat pocket?
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority would prefer that nobody would. In fact, begging on the subways is illegal. According to their site:
“Most need a healthy meal and a permanent place to stay, but giving them pocket change or a sandwich is unlikely to go very far in solving their problems.”
They created the Connections Outreach Program to connect the homeless with shelter and care. But people still solicit money on the subways, and I sometimes encounter panhandlers several times in one trip.
The Homeless Guy, blogger Kevin Barbieux, describes them like this:
“Panhandling is the act of asking for money or other things from another person. Aggressive panhandling is the act of using threats, force, or other forms of coercion, in order to obtain things from another person. There is a big difference between the two.”
He wrote in a separate post that”
“Feeding addictions is the sole goal of nearly all panhandlers. Sure, they may use some of the money to buy food; even drugs addicts get hungry, but if a person were to give food instead of money to a panhandler, that panhandler will be able to save more of his money for drugs.”
There are no definitive numbers on how many panhandlers there are in New York City, but I would wager there are thousands of them. I pity anyone reduced to begging on the streets. At the same time, I hate that moment when you’re made to feel bad for not forking over your last dollar. After all, you have a home to go to. And that’s where my pity starts to wane.
Joy Victory captured that feeling in The Blog of Joy:
“Then, Irritating Panhandler Man slowly makes his way through the subway car, stopping at each person, demanding that, if they can’t contribute to the soccer team, that they at least give him a big smile… I decided I’d just stare, again, blankly, as if I didn’t speak English, a totally plausible excuse in Astoria. I could pass for Eastern European. Or a Canadian.”
“(I wish I had a tally of every time someone in NYC asked me for money.)”
It’s not that I’m heartless. I realize how fortunate I am, but I just don’t have enough money for everyone who wants some. I’m a disconcerting giver. I don’t hand out money to anyone who looks strung out or demands it. I prefer to give to women or young people. And I try to give to the street and subway musicians and performers.
Why do you prefer to give to young people and women?
I don’t give to anyone on the street as of late, except for street performers.
The last time I gave to a woman I knew, she said she needed food and then went across the street to a dealer after I gave her $5. I give up. There are many organizations in my Toronto neighbourhood who give free food and free clothes and a safe place to stay for the night. The change given on the street 99.99999999% of the time goes for drugs and alcohol.
I volunteer at soup kitchens and the like instead.
I move to New York soon.There is also unemployment and no certitude to have a job.I need to know where free food,shower and acomodation are.Can you give me adresses please?