Reporter Mike Headrick spent a couple of months watching panhandlers in Salt Lake City, including a early twenties fraud named Megan. Megan sits by an offramp every day with a sign announcing that she's stranded and trying to get enough money to go home to Seattle, but as the story reveals, she's really a local girl living with her family in a nearby nice home in a decent neighborhood. They follow her right home and interview her mother, who expressed some feigned surprise when asked if she knows that her daughter is out panhandling every day. Megan doesn't need the money to go to Seattle and if you handed her the bus ticket that she claims she's trying to get money for, she'd absolutely refuse to get on that bus. She doesn't need the money period. But she rakes in about $50.00 and hour, tax free, which her and her boyfriend then go blow on whatever pleases them. (I'm betting the local pot dealers know and love Megan too.)
For years, Pamela Atkinson has been an advocate for the homeless in Utah. And she says most people begging for money are not using it in ways you would hope.
"Professional panhandlers,” said Pamela Atkinson. “In other words, that's how they make their living."
Pamela Atkinson says more than 70% of the panhandlers she sees in the Salt Lake Valley, are not in the situation they say they are.
70%, people. That's the likelihood that the bum you're giving money to is playing you for a sucker. And I know this to be true personally due to my many years in public service, working in the fields of law enforcement and emergency medical services. I got to know several of the regular bums and discovered early on that the "homeless" person standing by the offramp not only has a home but probably owns a car which is parked nearby, and the huckster panhandlers actually fight or work out arrangements with each other to determine which one will work the more lucrative intersections at which times.
One woman I knew who used to beg from a wheelchair on the campus of a university not only had a nice house in decent neighborhood (I've been to it more than once) and a car, but her wheelchair was just a prop and she walked as good as anyone. She wasn't even disabled...but it brought the cash in, and she once laughed when I suggested that she get a job, telling me: "This IS my job, honey...and I probably make more than you do." And she was probably right. There are suckers born every minute and the professional panhandlers thrive off of them.
So how do you help the real homeless, assuming that you want to do that? That's easy. Just do as Pamela Atkinson says and give that money to local churches, Non-profit organizations, soup kitchens, shelters and related services. Such organizations are abundant and they reach out to those who really are in need. Real homeless and mentally ill street people know how to get services from these groups and rely on them for food and shelter. If every single person in America refused to give so much as a nickel to a panhandler tomorrow, the real needy would still be taken care of by the charities and government agencies. The only ones who would feel the pain would be the scammers like Megan who would have to find a real job for a change.
That is why when I see a sign begging for money, I give them a piece of healthy fruit instead. :) You can tell by their response whether or not they truly are "homeless."
ReplyDeleteI was approached by a so called hungry homless person in Indianapolis.He ask for money to eat. I had a take out box with left over pizza.Which I offered. I was told no he wanted cash. I countered with no cash. As you are going to buy dope or booze.he got mad and left.
ReplyDelete