Homeless Encounter - WWYD?

Had another one one time at church. Guy comes into the service -- while it's going on -- and starts asking to see the pastor. Afterward the pastor (a family friend of ours) meets the guy, who starts in with the story about how he and his kids are homeless, living in the car, can the church give him some money to get through a few days, etc.
The pastor tells him this particular church doesn't give money directly, but can help. He offers him some food, offers to get him in touch with an outreach program that can help with the housing situation, and some other stuff that they do on a regular basis.
Guy declines and quickly leaves.
The pastor isn't the most street savvy person I know, but afterward said even he'd sniffed out that the guy was just looking for money.

 

My church does the Ziploc bag thing, as well, although the sock thing is new. Good idea.

I've also had a friend who was into feeding the homeless load up on $5 McDonald's gift cards and hand those out instead of cash.

I would never give cash. Never, ever. And when they try to get me coming out of the store, I go right back in and ask for the manager, who usually knows if the panhandler is habitual or not (and usually runs them off). Hackyville also has an anti-panhandling ordinance, although we also have homeless basically living (sleeping) in a chain soup/salad/sandwich store and a couple of fast food joints in a semi-respectable neighborhood...

 

I inferred from EMH's original post the kids were already ensconced in a motel within fairly short walking distance, so my total time involvement would be something like:

1) Escort mom back to motel and drop her with kids -- 5 mins.
2) Go to front desk and pay cash (not debit/credit card) for another night -- 5 mins.
3) Head over to grocery store and buy a day's cheap grub for 4 people -- 15 mins.
4) Return, drop off the food, be on your way -- 5 mins.

So a half-hour tops should do it.

I've seen variations of the Ziploc bag thing suggested with a number of seemingly useful things to offer, but I've noticed quite common the suggestion is either a bar of soap or a deodorant stick, which to me seems like a pretty condescending and asinine thing to do, even if the homeless person does kinda smell, which is not unheard of.

 

Those gas station cons are far too common. A woman tried it on me at a local Costco station, saying she just needed money for gas to get home with her family, then she continued to make the rounds hassling other customers. I finally said something to the gas station attendant, that he should do something. He flipped out on me, even suggested that the customers were in the wrong for not helping her out. He cursed loudly and ranted. I finished getting my gas and drove around to the front of the store. I tracked down a manager, who asked if the woman fit a certain description. Turns out, she had pulled that same scam many times and all employees were told to call the police immediately if the situation came up again.

Kind of a nice feeling knowing your instincts were right and you picked up on it when somebody was trying to pull a scam.

 

Might have told this story before: One morning about 9 a.m. I was in my car at an intersection, and I gave some money to a panhandler who looked really downtrodden. Had a bunch of singles in my wallet, so I just grabbed them and gave him a fistful of dollar bills and said, "Now you get some food with this, OK?" And he says, "Yessir, I will. I will." There was a McDonald's right there on the corner.

Light turns green, I drive through the intersection and look for him in the rear-view, and he's in a dead sprint, ass over elbows, for the liquor store about 50 yards behind the McDonalds. I was laughing so hard I almost drove into a ditch.

 

We used to have people doing the "Five bucks for gas" scam outside the bars. I learned the best way to deal with them was tell them you had a 5-gallon can of gas in the trunk of your car and ask where their car was parked. That's when they usually say "no thanks."

 

I follow my stepfather's lead with those situations. If I see a homeless person in front of a grocery store, I'll sometimes ask them if there is something they want to eat. Sometimes they're completely gracious and ask for some soup or something like that and other times they'll start yelling, "What you don't trust me to buy something on my own?" and I just walk away.

 

When I was in high school I gave a couple dollars to a homeless guy begging in front of a store. 20 minutes later, I saw him in line with four 40s in the cart. Money well spent...

 

It's a tough situation. I was with my oldest kid around Christmas and I wanted him to see how rewarding it can be to give back and I walked up to a homeless guy and said, "Hey, can I get you a sandwich or some soup?" and he MFd me right in front of my kid for not giving him cash.

 

God, half you all should write/work for Rolling Stone.