I am fucking sick and tired of being asked: “spare some change?” Half of these people are dressed almost as good as I am, young men and women who could be working in a factory or call centre. I was naive when I first came to the city and felt sympathy for them. But when you see them day after day or when you take your family out on a holiday walk and coffee. I actually had to tell mom in front of them, no don’t you’ll be broke by the time you get home! I don’t mind once in a while giving food or a coffee but fuck every day? Fuck off! —Get a fucking job, stop bumming my money
This article appears in Dec 30, 2010 – Jan 5, 2011.
I believe there are real hardluck cases out there but for every one valid street person, there’s ten posers looking to supplement their addictions on your dime. Give your money to a shelter instead.
“young men and women who could be working in a factory”
Yes, get thee to the Buggy Works!
My rule of thumb is to look at their shoes. Real homeless people have shitty shoes.
Jesus christ. Just say ‘No’
….and be glad you don’t live in a place where you can’t sit in a park without being bombarded by people relentlessly trying to sell you things even after you’ve said no 10 times. .
That’s the criteria I use as well, ML – bums don’t wear $200 New Balance sneakers.
haha no kidding on the sneaker comments. One day my 8 year old son said “Wow, Mom, that bum has nice sneakers”
Bums expect to eat everyday?!…the nerve!
The Buggy Works moved to Mexico, ML.
a long time ago, i told of how the downtown area is devided up to panhandlers. there is a guy, who rents out spaces to these people, and if you don’t give him a cut, then you don’t work that area. i watched this one guy, about 30 or so, he sat there with his cup, and looked bad, even smelled bad. i watched him for quite some time. then about 5 p.m., he gets up, walks down the street to scotia square. i follow, because i heard a story on this dude. i follow in to parkade, he goes to a fucking almost new b.m.w., opens trunk, takes out a duffle bag, then goes into the square.goes to the bathroom there, does a change and spruce up, and leaves 15 minutes later. i follow again, unseen i believe. he goes to car again, gets his other bag, then counts money he has in it, rolls coins, goes to bank, cashes in, walks out with close to 300 fucking bucks.never ever again, will i give even one cent to a panhandler. and this was just one guy.
and there’s this red scraggy haired dude, that lives not far from me, that has a huge trust fund from an accident he was in years ago. got something like 10 million or so. his rent and all utilities come from that, and he gets a shitload of money to spend every month. we all should be so fucking lucky hey.
Lifey, that’s put me off these fucking beggars for life. I’ve heard other stories, like the old guy who sits at the library, then hops in his car across the street with his stash of cash at the end of the day.
It’s simple: don’t give them a cent. There are plenty of social assistance programs for these beggars/panhandlers to ask help from. Not to mention, plenty of jobs out there. They’re just too damn lazy to be a contributing member of society and would rather leech. If everyone stopped giving these panhandlers money, they problem would fix itself (they’d all move to Vancouver). Meanwhile the rest of us can sit back in our comfy offices and relish in not seeing them on our streets.
how could you count his money LS? who walks out of a place with money so that people can count it.
if he’s seriously making 300$ a day then fucking good on him. i highly doubt this is true, but if you can make more money sitting around then why the hell wouldn’t you?
just because you can drive doesn’t mean that working makes sense. mental disabilities or even damage caused by drugs makes working not a plausible choice for many.
but yea it def. “spare change?”gets annoying very quickly.
I know who LS is talking about. He stands in front of Tim Hortons day after day. Nice guy but I never give him anything.
Z – you mean you don’t tell them no nine times then just try to steal it instead? 😀
aliar, i was standing next to him in the bank, and tellers do count out cash verbally.make no bones about these people. they make more than some bank managers in a year. and if you deny this, then you must be one of them. and no, they do not all have mental problems. i know of maybe 4 personally. it was a game i played awhile back. i would pick one, and keep an eye on them all day. was i working, in a way yes. i was doing a story for something on it.
Yep I got change and smokes but none for you.
The panhandelers in this city can gargle my balls. Offer them a job and watch how fast they disappear.
‘…gargle my balls’ – that is too fucking funny! My imagination sensors went into overload, boyo.
Judas Priest! Don’t get me started on panhandlers. They are more organized than you think. Cell phones and all. It’s well planned.
I work on SGR. To and from work “Spare Change?”
The fucking government has my spare change.
you run the gauntlet doncha senor…if they were zombies it would be easier
Tell them to talk to the government about the change you were forced to spare so they could choose not to work. If you pay taxes, they’re already getting your change. Save the pocket donations for those who are clearly in need. You can easily identify them. They’re old. They’re weathered. They wear their underwear on the outside of their pants and say “God bless you dear” in dry gin voices when you give them a nickle.
What kind of idiot wears gucci when they bum for change?
Stupid should hurt.
I saw 2 arguing over a spot in Montreal: so one guy goes over to a payphone and pulls out a piece of paper wedged behind it, points to a spot and says “THERE, fuckhead, this is MY timeslot so fuck off!!!” No word of a lie.
…and what type of shoes do YOU wear, ML? *wink*
Re-instate the SGR beat cop – and he can apply the word beat anyway he chooses, I’m sure the gutters can handle the blood flow.
In the summertime they could convert the oval on the common into an amphitheatre and have gladiatorial fights between the bums – winner gets shot!
Bahaha that’s horrible yet highly amusing.
You know….with all the ticket nazi’s wandering the down town…maybe they could be ticketing these guy’s for ‘being parked’ illegally ~;)
OR solicitation…isn’t it illegal to solicit for money…or just on private property ?
I just had an idea.
It is illegal to solicit for prostitution.
Both the prostitute & the John can face arrest & prosecution.
So make it illegal to GIVE money to someone on the street.
Has that been tried ?
I know they’ve tried to make it illegal to collect…but what about the giver ?
” Sorry bud, can’t give you any money, I don’t want to be charged !”
I got a pair of pink pumps that would knock your…socks…off.
More you may be onto something… Or send Canada Revenue out with a receipt book.
“Yo, homeless harry, dump your pockets into this hopper… *ching ching* you now owe me I mean CRA 25%, which has already been deducted. Here is the balance. Thanks for spending at Harper’s Bizarre Bazaar.”.
HAWT, ML. HAWWWT.
What about the aggressive kid that’s always by Scotia Square looking strung out? Anybody know his deal? I’ve had to be really rude to him to get him out of my face. He’s so fucked up that he never remembers me, and how much I dislike him. I’ve tried to have compassion but for months on end this kid is harassing me.
I tried to talk to some beggars, even offered a meal, I got turned down because it would take away from their “money earning”. I have also seen people who had deliberately self-inflicted/aggrivated a condition to increase their begging ability.
I only give to charities, not to the individual.
I’ve agonized over this topic a number of times but I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the money given to panhandlers does go to drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. A recent article in the U.K.’s Guardian cites a homeless charity that asked people to stop giving money to the homeless because most of it goes for drugs. See link below.
They say “Giving to people who beg is not a benign act without consequences,” – we are killing them with kindness. I don’t see why the situation would be much different here. I’d like to think differently but unfortunately that’s likely how it is.
Give your spare cash to the Sally Ann or other homeless charity if you want to help. (If you want to give money to an individual take a moment to see if you can get an honest answer about what they would do with it first.) Otherwise you have to wonder if you are enabling a bad situation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/dec…
An excerpt:
Outreach team members estimate 80% of people begging do so to support a drug habit. The research is corroborated by the results of drug tests by the police on a group of people arrested for begging in Westminster; 70% tested positive for crack cocaine or heroin.
“Giving to people who beg is not a benign act without consequences,” said Mike Nicholas, a spokesman for Thames Reach. “As an organisation that has worked with people on the street for over 30 years, we have seen many lives damaged by hard drugs and alcohol misuse. We have even lost people through overdoses in situations where a significant portion of the money they spent on drugs came from members of the public giving loose change.”
HALIFAX IS ROMPER ROOM CONTRAST TO CALGARY
LISTERENE SMELLIN, ONE TOOTH,POOPY PANTS,BIG TOE STICKING OUT OF BUNNY SLIPPERS , NEEDLE STUCK IN FOREHEAD,SPITTIN ,BUG INFESTED WIG WEARIN ,SLEEPIN IN FRIDGE BOX , CORNER OF SIXTH AVE AND MACLEOD TRAIL …AND THATS THE SHAT ON THE SHITTY HONKIES . PEACE IN !
KUGGS HISSES
CHANGE IN MY POCKET …JINGA LING !!!!