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I've been tramping the streets of London for over a decade now, and I don't know if it's just me, but there seems to have been a whacking increase in panhandling over the last five years. For those not in the know, panhandling is begging (often aggressive) by those who aren't actually homeless/beggars.* There's been a general increase in homelessness since the 2008 recession and subsequent benefit cuts hit as well, but that's not what I'm referring to here.

If you wander round Leceister Square/the South Bank, it's heavily controlled by Eastern European gangs (they also keep hold of the living statue, lucky heather, and various other street activities in that region). The Baker Street region has been colonised by a Middle Eastern lot with identically cut cardboard signs saying 'I AM VERY HUNGRY GOD BLESS' (they recently ousted a group of Romanians for the prime pitches). There are others, but the gist tends to be that they congregate en masse where the tourists go. I'm not sure if it's just me not having noticed at the time, but I could have sworn that there weren't half as many twelve years ago. Or did I just not notice them? Opinions from other Londongoers welcomed.



*You usually see the real beggars/homeless more around the fringes. You can tell the difference because they carry their lives on their backs, are a bit grubby (I've seen panhandlers begging who looked better kitted out than me), and frequent heavily populated spots more off the tourist trail - around London Bridge for example.

Might be that you've just noticed them for the first time - it tends to be rather scary but we can go through life totally overlooking things right infront of us then an event makes us take notice and we see them all the time. A common one is if you buy a new (to you )car you suddenly see that model/brand everywhere where before you didn't (even if its an older car and thus not the new top of the range).

Another reason could be that police cutbacks means that there are just less police on-foot to push the panhandlers on and the panhandlers have caught onto this and are now congregating in bigger numbers.

Begging in London, in the right areas, can be very profitable, so its no shock that there are organised groups controlling big tourist trap areas to get at that free money. It's almost no work all reward (outside of fighting off the competition).


Also the UK has seen an upsurge in tourists this year so that might have brought out more panhandlers after more of that tourist money.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just thinking on it more, but I wonder if our shift toward things like Oyster cards and plastic payment for even small purchases means that many of the old routes to work are no longer that profitable for panhandle/beg on as they once were; since now many of those travelling to and from work won't have the spare change in their pocket.

I know I hardly have any change these days, I might have a note or two at most, but coin change really only has any "use" today in the carpark meters.

So it could be the number is the same, but that they are now focusing more so on tourist areas where people might well have more actual money on them.

I don't know if they were panhandlers or homeless but a few months ago on the Docklands I was surprised to see 3 people moving up and down the train loudly asking for money all with the same spiel. I think someone gave one of them an apple.

When I lived in London, sometimes people would busk on the trains or tubes and ask for money.

At least in such a case they are actually giving a performance in return for the money.

It’s become a lot more common in Norwich over the last few years, whenever i go back there I notice more and more homeless on the streets, as another poster just said it’s likely due to cut backs across the board.

There’s usually some on the footbridge between Canary Wharf and South Quay, where I work.

I’d rather give to charities, so it can be eked out further. But I’ve heard tell from friends I consider reliable sources of beggars trying to hassle and intimidate them into visiting cash points.

I’ve been homeless, and it sucks. But there’s no legitimate reason to hassle people for cash in anything like that manner.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
There’s usually some on the footbridge between Canary Wharf and South Quay, where I work.

I’d rather give to charities, so it can be eked out further. But I’ve heard tell from friends I consider reliable sources of beggars trying to hassle and intimidate them into visiting cash points.

I’ve been homeless, and it sucks. But there’s no legitimate reason to hassle people for cash in anything like that manner.

It's not London, but on my last trip to Dublin I was accosted by two people looking to try to get me to a cash point, and heard from various Irish friends that the situation in Dublin regarding aggressive begging is ridiculous. The vast majority are day-trippers from somewhere else or otherwise looking to make a few easy hundred euro, with all sorts of props and sob stories, and typically less of a "please give me money" tack and more a "please go to that shop over there and buy me X; I know where there's a cash point". I suppose it's meant to sound more reasonable and avoid tripping the "this person will just buy drugs" alarms most people get in those situations.

The fact that people take advantage of the real growing homeless epidemic by masquerading around as them without caring about the consequences is evil, whether it's local--or rather indigenous--populations, gangs who trained on their own streets and kept moving to find better pickings, or desperate foreigners being bussed into areas by handlers who take the healthiest chunk of the earnings at the end of the day in exchange for "employment".

It's not just the biggest cites, even small towns have some kind of panhandler.

As an example, I was shopping with the wife and kids in Carmarthen a few days ago and a panhandler was camped in one of the busiest streets. Clocked him a mile off as even though he had no shoes and crutches, his clothes wore pristine and feet smooth as a babies arse.

It's bad enough being homeless, but being bullied off by gangs of panhandler scum is the lowest of the low.

Massive lefty as I am, this is why I encourage charity donations rather than giving to beggars.

Yes, the problem of fake beggars is horribly overstated. But even if it isn’t? Money given to (non-religious, and large) homeless charities is better spent.

If you or I bung s quid or two to a beggar, they may eat that night. But passed to a specialist charity, many a mickle mak’s a muckle. They can do far, far more with even small sums because it’s all pooled together.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Massive lefty as I am, this is why I encourage charity donations rather than giving to beggars.

Yes, the problem of fake beggars is horribly overstated. But even if it isn’t? Money given to (non-religious, and large) homeless charities is better spent.

If you or I bung s quid or two to a beggar, they may eat that night. But passed to a specialist charity, many a mickle mak’s a muckle. They can do far, far more with even small sums because it’s all pooled together.

I volunteer for a christian charity that feeds the homeless, it was awkward at first as im an atheist, so i support them whole heartedly, Oxfam and all that, nope, remember reading about how they only give 3p of every pound or some such.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
If you or I bung s quid or two to a beggar, they may eat that night. But passed to a specialist charity, many a mickle mak’s a muckle. They can do far, far more with even small sums because it’s all pooled together.

Unfortunately that's not the case when you donate money, most charities end up spending the majority of cash donations (80-90%) on administrative fees to cover rent, utilities etc before it translates into food or items for the needy. But most people just want a quick way to feel good and to pat themselves on the back and don't look into where the money goes or how it's used. The best way to make sure your donations go directly to people in need is to donate items instead of money. Food, blankets, clothing, socks, underwear, toiletries etc go to soup kitchen a local place run by volunteer staff and ask what they need (besides cash) and bring that in.

If somebody needs a meal then help them directly with food or water, talk to them you might find that they are a pretty good human being who's just down on their luck. When it comes to giving them money that's another story, they're likely asking for money to fuel a habit or because they are avoiding work. There's a number of "homeless" that have recently been popping up in the suburbs where I live that are young college age people that don't feel like they should have to work, they dress down in poor looking clothing and have an unkempt look while waiving cardboard signs asking for help, yet don't smell of living on the street or have the grime on the skin or clothes. If you watch them for a while you'll see them come or go in a nice well maintained car that's parked nearby in the shopping center. I'm all for helping people who are in legit need but there's also a lot of fake homeless who just want easy tax free cash.

There's one thing I think folk should keep in mind though - just because a homeless person is clean and in fresh new-looking clothes doesn't mean they're not a genuinely homeless, there are usually facilities in cities where they can clean up and there are charities that hand out donated clothing than can often be brand new(when I did a summer volunteering at such a charity in my home town, a lot of what we got was unwanted gifts, stuff that wasn't to the reciever's taste or was in the wrong size, but otherwise was fresh off the rack).

Honestly I think a lot of folk just need reasons to ignore beggars without feeling guilty and "they have new-looking trainers and don't reek like an open sewer, so they must be a panhandling gang-member" is an easy way to do that.

That's not to say aggressive gangs of faux-beggars don't exist of course, but frankly for a lot of people they're just the new version of "they'll only buy drugs with it".

Went out for a meal at a restaurant in Newcastle with my girlfriend a few weeks ago. We chose to sit out on the street because it was quiet. And in the space of 30 min we were approached by 3 people. Not people just sat passively on the pavement and begging passers by, they were actively walking up the street and approaching people directly.

Coming from a small town where beggars are extremely rare, I used to give money to most people I met. Hell, the first time I met my girlfriend I gave a tenner to a girl on the street (I'm a sucker for a damsel in distress as my girlfriend knows well , and my GF was with me at the time). But having spent the last 8 months exploring Newcastle with my GF, I've began to notice how futile it is to just give money to people. Theres a begger on almost every street.

If anyone knows of any decent small charities, soup kitchens or homeless shelters in the York area, please send me a PM. I'm moving to York for a new job soon and want to start donating money in a way that is actually productive. My GF says thats a better way to help than giving money directly that might just be spent on fuelling a drug habit.

I don't have change on me, so even if I wanted to give some money to the homeless I can't.

While I've given change in the past, I'm a lot more reluctant to do so in the past few months. I'm now living and working in London and I've noticed quite a few instances of fake homeless. One girl at Victoria, in a wheelchair and begging, suddenly pulls out a Samsung S8 and starts texting, another on the tube asking for change while wearing a £250 Superdry jacket. Many instances like that, there's a few around Euston where I work, and they're the same people all the time, yet as described in the thread earlier, they're all very well groomed for homeless people. I've seen genuinely homeless and they're dirty, unkempt (observation, not a judgement), yet the ones near work look like they've definitely had somewhere decent to stay the night.

Additionally I've noticed there seems to have been an increase in more aggressive styles of begging, groups with a couple of crappy instruments will play the same 4 chords on the tube until you give them money. You having a pint outside a pub, they're there, won't go away until you give money, or the landlord chases them away.

Relevant.

I remember reading a report a couple of months ago which said that the best way of alleviating homelessness was to give homeless people a home.

This sound like "No gak Sherlock" but the point is that with a secure place of abode, lots of other things become possible, such as applying for jobs.

Aye even if its in group accommodation or small flats having a postal address opens a lot of doors; plus it gives them a lot of security and a place to change, wash and store life essentials so that they can more easily fit into the expectations of a worker.


Also its not just the mentally handicapped/ill and addicts but a surprisingly large percentage of ex-military forces people too.

There's also a lot of sanity in clearing the streets as sometimes supporting the homeless can wind up being more expensive than dealing with the issue head on; especially if you consider not just all the charities and their associated running costs; but also things like extra pressure on emergency services*.



*Dealing with addiction, sickness, injury as a result of being homeless as well as things like increased crime levels due to theft etc...

 Valkyrie wrote:
While I've given change in the past, I'm a lot more reluctant to do so in the past few months. I'm now living and working in London and I've noticed quite a few instances of fake homeless. One girl at Victoria, in a wheelchair and begging, suddenly pulls out a Samsung S8 and starts texting, another on the tube asking for change while wearing a £250 Superdry jacket. Many instances like that, there's a few around Euston where I work, and they're the same people all the time, yet as described in the thread earlier, they're all very well groomed for homeless people. I've seen genuinely homeless and they're dirty, unkempt (observation, not a judgement), yet the ones near work look like they've definitely had somewhere decent to stay the night.

As Yodhrin said above, homeless people can still be clean, well groomed, or own phones. Granted, it's much harder when living on the street, and being excessively well kitted should be a sign for mild suspicion. But it doesn't mean a huge amount on its own.

The most accurate telltale indicator I find is the lack of personal effects. Someone who is actually homeless more or less carries their lives with them. Bin bag/trolley of stuff, sleeping bags, duffle bags full of dirty clothing, bottles of water, etcetc. When you've got nowhere to go and have to be prepared for the worst on your own resources, you can't afford to stash your stuff somewhere a street cleaner might sweep it up or bin it. I've seen a few of the phoneys with a sleeping bag for a cushion to sit on, but the actual homeless have everything they can carry to make life just that little bit more bearable.

I find the second most likely indicator to go with it is, and it absolutely breaks my heart, often a look of utter despair and misery. You tend to see it with the younger ones, the recently homeless or runaways. Sitting in a station or street surrounded by people ignoring them at absolute rock bottom. Your average 'God Bless' panhandler doesn't have it, because he's going home at night for a warm meal. He might be a bit uncomfortable, but when the van comes around to get him later, he knows he'll be alright.

To carry on from my original query, I've found from poking around that a lot of the more recent commercial begging/panhandling is linked to Romanians. Some of it is crime gang related, but it's mostly down to the fact that you can earn more in a day begging in a prime spot in London than you can on the dole in a week back home. Which is a bit sad that the economic disparity is so great between the two countries. Given that Romania only got access for its citizens to the Uk within the timespan I mentioned in the OP, it would appear that I'm not imagining the consequent increase. It's been seen in Nottingham, Birmingham, and Manchester as well, with police data showing that the majority of those pulled in for begging actually aren't homeless.

Definitely best to give to the homeless shelters. Whilst someone referred above to their admin costs, that's really dependent on the charity. Some (like the National Lifeboat Association or Oxfam) are tripping over cash and waste it left right and centre. Others not so much. Assuming the charity is reasonably well run, MDG hits the nail on the head in pointing out that they can organise what's needed far better than the average person. Or many a mickle maks a muckle.

Romanians have been a problem for several years, for instance the lot that the police had to move away from Hyde Park Corner.

Of course there are loads of "good" Romanians too. My predecessor at the Wine Rack was a Romanian young lady, who was doing a great job and moved home because she became pregnant.

Broadly I’d agree there’s an increase, but it’s not as bad as many cities where there are people begging everywhere. Years ago I went to Blackpool, out of season, and was constantly approached and followed down the street by people asking for money. They all had a story, like saving for uni (yeah right), that the Big Issue was banned (outright lie), that they had medical bills, etc. One came into the Wetherspoons we were in an went from table to table asking for money while people were eating and drinking. That’s just not fething on, but staff seemed wary of just telling them to get out.

One thing I have seen come and go is this thing on trains where someone would put a pack of tissues by everyone with a piece of paper saying they were homeless and had kids to feed and to give money for the tissues. Then they’d return back down the carriage and pick them all up fishing for money. I’m not sure why I don’t see it any more, maybe Londoners just don’t give enough money to make that worthwhile or perhaps transport staff cracked down because they clearly weren’t travelling with tickets.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
If anyone knows of any decent small charities, soup kitchens or homeless shelters in the York area, please send me a PM.

My brother lives in York so I'll ask if he knows of any.

 Overread wrote:
Also its not just the mentally handicapped/ill and addicts but a surprisingly large percentage of ex-military forces people too.

The ex-military aspect is an interesting one. There's a case in the courts near me about a homeless man claiming to be ex-army who was beaten up by three squaddies he'd failed to convince he was actually ex-army.

The government must be paying attention judging by today's topical headline.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45162892

I could have sworn it was just the other week the government was claiming that their £10 million initiative from a year or two back had dealt with the problem of homelessness, but oh well. It's good to see it being addressed either way (even though only half the cash is new and the rest from pre-existing budgets).

 Howard A Treesong wrote:

One thing I have seen come and go is this thing on trains where someone would put a pack of tissues by everyone with a piece of paper saying they were homeless and had kids to feed and to give money for the tissues. Then they’d return back down the carriage and pick them all up fishing for money. I’m not sure why I don’t see it any more, maybe Londoners just don’t give enough money to make that worthwhile or perhaps transport staff cracked down because they clearly weren’t travelling with tickets.

They started doing standard announcements on the train the minute they spotted them on CCTV along the lines of 'Tissue distributers are supporting Crime Gangs, don't give them a penny'. Then it died out sharpish. People are less likely to be taken in by it when the guard has literally made a train wide announcement. I certainly haven't seen it since.

 Ketara wrote:

 Valkyrie wrote:
While I've given change in the past, I'm a lot more reluctant to do so in the past few months. I'm now living and working in London and I've noticed quite a few instances of fake homeless. One girl at Victoria, in a wheelchair and begging, suddenly pulls out a Samsung S8 and starts texting, another on the tube asking for change while wearing a £250 Superdry jacket. Many instances like that, there's a few around Euston where I work, and they're the same people all the time, yet as described in the thread earlier, they're all very well groomed for homeless people. I've seen genuinely homeless and they're dirty, unkempt (observation, not a judgement), yet the ones near work look like they've definitely had somewhere decent to stay the night.

As Yodhrin said above, homeless people can still be clean, well groomed, or own phones. Granted, it's much harder when living on the street, and being excessively well kitted should be a sign for mild suspicion. But it doesn't mean a huge amount on its own.

The most accurate telltale indicator I find is the lack of personal effects. Someone who is actually homeless more or less carries their lives with them. Bin bag/trolley of stuff, sleeping bags, duffle bags full of dirty clothing, bottles of water, etcetc. When you've got nowhere to go and have to be prepared for the worst on your own resources, you can't afford to stash your stuff somewhere a street cleaner might sweep it up or bin it. I've seen a few of the phoneys with a sleeping bag for a cushion to sit on, but the actual homeless have everything they can carry to make life just that little bit more bearable.

I think that's a great point, and it relates back to my post about the ones I see round Euston. There's a fair few who definitely fit your description; they are surrounded by bags of belongings, some even pitch up small tents on the pavement, but the ones I'm suspicious of, including the examples in my original post, really do have nothing; just a jumper to sit on, possibly a sleeping bag that's somehow in immaculate form despite the rough sleeping?

 Ketara wrote:
I find the second most likely indicator to go with it is, and it absolutely breaks my heart, often a look of utter despair and misery. You tend to see it with the younger ones, the recently homeless or runaways. Sitting in a station or street surrounded by people ignoring them at absolute rock bottom. Your average 'God Bless' panhandler doesn't have it, because he's going home at night for a warm meal. He might be a bit uncomfortable, but when the van comes around to get him later, he knows he'll be alright.

Exactly, a lot of the ones I've seen have the exact same wording, puts you off a bit.

 Ketara wrote:
To carry on from my original query, I've found from poking around that a lot of the more recent commercial begging/panhandling is linked to Romanians. Some of it is crime gang related, but it's mostly down to the fact that you can earn more in a day begging in a prime spot in London than you can on the dole in a week back home. Which is a bit sad that the economic disparity is so great between the two countries. Given that Romania only got access for its citizens to the Uk within the timespan I mentioned in the OP, it would appear that I'm not imagining the consequent increase. It's been seen in Nottingham, Birmingham, and Manchester as well, with police data showing that the majority of those pulled in for begging actually aren't homeless.

That's something I was thinking of but was afraid to mention it of fears of being called racist, I have noticed that the individuals who I am suspicious of appear to be of Eastern European origin. I'm glad I'm not the only one to have noticed this, but there is a pretty lucrative thing going on. Imagine you sit outside Oxford St, you probably have at least 100 people go past you every minute. If just one of those people gave an average of £1, that could average out to £60 an hour, tax free. You do that for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week and that's £4800 a month, no tax, no NI payment, no student loan, all yours. While I'm working on averages and obviously it'll vary a bit, that's a ridiculous amount of money you can get just from panhandling.

 Valkyrie wrote:
I'm glad I'm not the only one to have noticed this, but there is a pretty lucrative thing going on. Imagine you sit outside Oxford St, you probably have at least 100 people go past you every minute. If just one of those people gave an average of £1, that could average out to £60 an hour, tax free. You do that for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week and that's £4800 a month, no tax, no NI payment, no student loan, all yours. While I'm working on averages and obviously it'll vary a bit, that's a ridiculous amount of money you can get just from panhandling.

Yep and that's a big part of why they do it and why there are gangs that protect their lucrative spots. Tax free, no work, no records. It's very easy money and even better if you then send or take it home to a country where the £ is worth far more and thus inflates the value. I recall seeing it on the news decades ago although I think at that time it was Irish they were focusing on.

Again it was the same, it isn't the whole race nor people but a crime group (or several) from a single country that get notoriety and tar the rest with a bad name.


Your real homeless person, if in such spots, often as not has a serious alcohol or other drug addiction, so the money just gets lost feeding that habit directly. Which is not to say that all homeless people are in such a way suffering, but that those who have potential to earn decent money from their spot and yet are still living on the streets are like as not unable to improve their standing.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Romanians have been a problem for several years, for instance the lot that the police had to move away from Hyde Park Corner.

Of course there are loads of "good" Romanians too. My predecessor at the Wine Rack was a Romanian young lady, who was doing a great job and moved home because she became pregnant.

There are two big families at my parent's church. Lovely people. One of them renovated my parent's entire house. Which I was especially pleased with because it created storage space in the attic for my Wargaming collection.

I’ve got too many panhandling stories across many cities to recount. But I’ve certainly hardened my stance towards them. The ones I especially won’t tolerate are the ones who approach you when you’re at a bank machine or sitting down for something to eat.

I’ll never forget the one who was always in the same spot begging for money while wearing the best Nike guddies with the latest Samsung, and who also kept putting on weight. Absolutely ballooned she did, easily piled on 100+ pounds over a year or so. Really poor and starving there.

 Future War Cultist wrote:
I’ve got too many panhandling stories across many cities to recount. But I’ve certainly hardened my stance towards them. The ones I especially won’t tolerate are the ones who approach you when you’re at a bank machine or sitting down for something to eat.

I’ll never forget the one who was always in the same spot begging for money while wearing the best Nike guddies with the latest Samsung, and who also kept putting on weight. Absolutely ballooned she did, easily piled on 100+ pounds over a year or so. Really poor and starving there.

Another annoying stereotype based in nonsense.

Do you know what one of the key factors in rising obesity is? Poverty. Because the less you have, the more you have to rely on cheap processed crap bulked out with cheap low quality carbs. Now maybe I'm way off, but your average homeless person probably isn't buying fresh organic produce at Waitrose, and neither is your average shoestring-budget soup kitchen or struggling food bank

Try living on meat-adjacent slurry products(mmm, chicken nuggets o_0), tinned crap, cheap white bread, cheap white pasta etc etc for an extended period and you'll "balloon" plenty. Even moreso if you're eating nothing but that gak, but irregularly, because in that kind of situation your body will decide you're in a period of famine and start converting as many of those carbs as possible directly to fat in order to guard against future lean periods.

Also, do you know what one of the first things a lot of homeless charities will do for service users who actually have a vague hope of getting back into society(ie, they don't have an utterly crippling mental health disorder or addiction problem)? Get them a phone. Some of them hand out donated handsets or phones bought secondhand with PAYG sims, but plenty will take out a minutes contract(with, typically, a pretty good phone included) if the user has proven trustworthy enough.

But you say it right there in your post; you've "hardened your stance", which is what all the nitpicks and excuses are about in the end, a way for people to excuse themselves from responsibility for one of the more visible manifestations of the political choices we make as a society. It's the same process that ends up with people convincing themselves that the rate of benefit fraud is approaching 50% when the reality is that it's less than 2%, or that a person must be a chancer if they claim disability benefit but don't have any immediately obvious physical ailment - deep down, everyone who's not an actual literal sociopath knows the way we treat the poor and vulnerable is grotesque and inhuman, but it's easier for folk to talk themselves into the mindset where they feel bad for the real poor, the real disadvantaged, but that most of the people they see who appear to be those things are just faking it to take advantage of their sympathy than it is to acknowledge the problem and either do something about it, or just admit to themselves that they don't actually care enough to try.

I've never been to the area, but when I did go to Europe I was advised by a fairly wise person to avoid, at all costs, any sort of panhandlers and to never give them money. I was told specifically to avoid anyone with children as part of their 'pitch', as the children would swarm you. Basically he told me that if they approach you- move back and keep your distance, keep moving and don't let anyone block you off or put their hands on you- this is how pickpocketing works. Fortunately, I have a wallet that I keep in my back pocket for stuff like that- and it is completely empty. My travel wallet is a bit more clever and you'd practically have to shove your hands down deep into my pocket enough to scratch my genitals to get it... and I don't keep cash there. Or I use one I have that looks like a cigarette pack but is actually for cards and ID.

So have fun with the $6.00 Wal-Mart wallet, kiddos.

Anyway, here in the US we have quite a few panhandlers in some of the cities I frequent as well as the one I live in. They're often in areas with either lots of shoppers, or lots of nightlife. It's advised you do not give anything to them, because there are cases of them gathering friends, following people, and trying to mug them. You have to be especially careful if you are on a bicycle or motorcycle stopped and they see you, or they will block you off and start talking to you- and a couple more will come up behind you- you might lose your wallet, you might lose your bike. There's a funny mental image I have from a friend who got his scooter jacked by two hobos, and the one sitting on back giving him the finger and cackling with about three teeth on display as they sped away.

Another place we find them here are gas stations. When I was younger and more altruistic, I had a guy realize I was in the military and came to me and, rather convincingly, made me believe he had just finished his military career and was trying to get his pregnant wife back to Missouri, and pointed to a rather heavily pregnant woman in a truck nearby. He wasn't dirty or unkempt, so it seemed believable. He asked for 20 dollars to get some gas so he could make it to a nearby town, and I gave it to him. He does the whole God bless you thing, takes the money and goes inside... and this other dude walks out, gets in the truck with the pregnant woman and leaves... and the guy I gave money to comes out with a case of beer and leaves on foot to the alley.

I do sympathize, I am not under the impression that they are all 'not really homeless', but now I see them as:

-Mentally ill, and handing money to them may not be the best way to help them.
-Addicts, and handing them money is actually the WORST thing.
-Swindlers exploiting goodwill, and that's disgusting to me.
-Many of them are actually homeless people with unfortunate problems and need actual aid.

It's cold, but I just conclude that my pocket money won't be really enough to help them with their problem. So I will sometimes ask if they need food, or if they need to get to a shelter, but if they say they need cash money I tell them I do not carry it and walk away.

Yodh, there's something to what you're saying (your point about the poor/homeless living on crap quality carbs is accurate, and could be further supplemented by looking at the social conditions such people often come from and how it conditions eating habits). At the same time, there's more than a slight tinge of 'holier than Thou' judgmentalism and assumptions about other posters tacked on at the end. A less antagonistic tone might go down better? All friends here.

@ Yodhrin

Enjoy your little self righteous gurning session there did you?

If she was homeless, then could you explain to me why she got picked up and dropped off by what appears to be family members driving what was then a fairly new BMW? And why she was always so clean and tidy? And why she had keys to a house in the university district? Could it be that she’s not actually a genuine homeless person but is actually instead a pan handling fraudster? Which are the topic of this discussion after all?

I know genuine homeless people when I see them. And I’ve done work to help them too. Which is why I detest the fraudsters so much. So spare me your sanctimonious self righteous bollocks.