new thread
This thread I categorize as, "semi off-topic", because a fair number of homeless men are longhaired (at least so in San Francisco, CA), --- although some are longhaired only because of having insufficient $$ to make haircuts a priority, rather than being a longhair by choice or by nature.
Homelessnes is a very difficult and complex problem that will probably never really be solved in our lifetime, if ever. It's been around for as long as human history has been recorded. Therre have been a few times in my own life when I have felt only one paycheck away from having to be out on the streets myself, so I don't talk about the topic lightly.
There's a joke here in San Francisco that I've been told has more truth to it than humor: apparently in many small towns all across America, if a citizenry is having regualr trouble with a local drifter that they can't get rid of, they purchase a one-way bus ticket for him to go out to California, --- usually to San Francisco. The winters are milder here than in most parts of the US, and the city laws are more tolerant of vagrants than most places elsewhere; so, homeless men and women apparently arrive here in droves (as well as locals become homeless during hardships like bad economic times), --- hence, we have a claim to fame here for not only being a desireable and beautiful city for tourists to want to come visit; but, conversely, also having a lot of undesirable pan-handlers (a local term for beggars).
Back in the early '90s, I used to live on Market St., SF's main drag, --- and a place that is swarming the majority of the time w/ people asking you for spare change, sometimes even catching you off-guard by starting off with a well-rehearsed sob story. I have experienced seeing the same individuals, day after day, standing near the same bus stop or grocery store, every day telling the same story of how they need money in order to get back to Oakland or wherever. Working San Franciscans get extremely tired of being treated like they are only a walking wallet, regardless of however moderate an income we make, --- and this mental & emotional weardown & exhaustion has a name: "compassion fatigue!"
My usual habit whenever walking outside in that neighborhood is to have my guard up, walk fast, and make sure that my facial expression has a look that says, "Eat shit and die!" on it... Panhandlers are less likely to approach an unfriendly-looking face that way....
One day when I still lived in that neighborhood, I stepped outside to do several errands, not hearing that a friend of mine was calling to me, and had to repeat my name loudly 3 times in order to get my attention.
"KEN!!!!", my friend and neighbor yelled, finally getting my attention.
"Oh! Hi, Larry, how are you?!", I greeted back, cheerfully... He decided to cross the street to speak easier to me.
"If I didn't know you better, just looking at you with your long hair down all over the place and that hard expression on your face, I'd think you were the meanest SOB on the block!!"
"ME???", I asked, incredulously... "But, I'm nothing but a total marshmallow!"
Funny how we percieve our own selves to be on the inside, yet can convey a completely different outward image.
Anybody else live in a big city that has a lot of homelessness in it? If so, how often do you end up giving money out to total strangers? As for me, I rarely give out anything other than a few coins, --- unless I'm genuinely moved to give more. I work hard for my money, and I don't want it going to someone who might just toss it away on their drug or alcohol habit. But, I do give to women with children, someone who is obviously handicapped that looks more elderly or in serious need of some kind, and also when I can try to give to organizations that shelter and feed the homeless. It's sometimes a hard thing to call, though. Every person has his/her own unique story and set of circumstrances that got them there. I've also occasionally even given to homelss guys simply because they have long hair, --- because I'm sure for every longhaired giver like me, there must be probably a hundred others who might say to them, "Get a haircut and get a job!!" So easy to be judgemental, basing it on a limited outward perspective; yet so hard to get to know the facts behind the scenes.
- Ken
Hi Ken,
I don't mind giving spare change to people who deserve it. Usually if someone I have never seen before comes up to me and asks for money, I ask them why they need it, (some claim bus ticket, phone money, or for food) and instead of giving them the money I buy them a ticket, phonecard or buy them food. Many who ask are drug addicts who want the money to score with, and quickly lose interest when they realise that you won't give them money but buy them food etc. That's the method I use well,
an I rarely help the same person twice.
Also I know of some drug addicts who play a musical instrument or sing in the street and don't mind giving them spare change because they are doing something creative to make the dough rather then do crime. I can respect them for that.
Those that sit on their bums with signs out and stare blankly ahead I don't help at all. We have a generous welfare system in Australia which adequately supports most people so that begging in the streets isn't really necessary unless your either an impoverished student or a drug addict.
I know it's different where you live Ken, and that the US taxpayer gets bugger all back from their taxes that the government takes from them. I support a greater welfare system in the US for people who really need it like disabled, psychiatrics, or victims of economic downturns.
But you never know in these uncertain times when you may be homeless so giving is a bit of good karma in itself.
Most homeless in my area have shaved heads or buzz cuts. There's heaps of long haired men and women in my city so having long hair is not equated with being a bum as such.
Regards
Duncan
I work in DC very near to where the Franklin shelter was until last month. The idiot mayor (yes you, Mr. Fenty) closed the shelter in the bizarre belief that it would get the homeless out of downtown. It hasn't.
I am a soft touch. I give them all handfuls of change without waiting for sob stories. A few get a little more, and some of them I get in the habit of chatting to, but then they dissappear as suddenly as they came. I just hope it is because they got somewhere to live.
There is one young woman I often see who rides a bicycle and asks for handouts. The first time I met her she zoomed up to me on her bike at great speed while clearly nine months pregnant. I have not got up the nerve to ask what happened to her baby. I bought her lunch one day because she said she was hungry and had no money.
I used to chat almost daily with one guy who spent most of his time in a folding chair in the middle of a traffic circle. I bought him a dollar store radio after someone stole his at the shelter. I did feel I had been taken for a sucker a bit when he described his trip to England. How does someone who spends all day begging afford an airline ticket and a passport? I didn't ask where he stayed while he was there - under Charing Cross railway arches, perhaps? Maybe the whole trip was imaginary, or maybe not.
The other day I was talking with a homeless guy and dropped my glasses getting my money out of my pocket. He needed glasses, and I promised to get him some dollar store glasses. That's where I get mine - why pay more? Spent some time today trying to find him to give them to him. I thought I might have seen him asleep in an alley, but couldn't be sure it was him because he had cardboard across his face to keep the light out of his eyes, and didn't want to disturb a complete stranger. Homeless people are hard to find when you actually want to.
On the contrary, I live in a country where you don’t see anyone begging.
So when I first got to Scotland to live there for a while I was shocked to see what I had been used to seeing in movies. They were a bit scary to be honest.
Around here, the thing that most of the people begging for money do is stand at the top of the interstate highway exit ramp where there is a red light and cars have to line up to make a left turn onto the street crossing over the interstate. If I have some loose money or change, I will usually give it to them whether longhaired or no. I do get suspicious though when a guy is standing out there with long hair that's neatly combed and tied back and looks better than mine! One guy though really got to me one day, he was asking for food or money, and when I gave him some money, he looked down and was so embarrassed, and you could tell that it was really disheartening and humiliating to him to be begging on a street corner. I didn't know what to do and he didn't either. It's so sad anyway, all of it. But on the other hand, I've heard that a skilled beggar can make a decent living. There are actual "professionals" in the field. I too try to keep in mind how few steps away I could be from the same position. Circumstance work in bizarre ways. Angels, demons, karma, fate -- I don't know how it all works. Give and you shall receive.
Hello,
Montreal, I would say, is becoming San Francisco East, (or Version Française), for its diversity culture, multiple Summer festivals, and large Gay community.
Having traveled to San Francisco in the eighties, I was amazed that at every street corner on Market Street people were asking me for money, and a lot of them were creepy, incoherant, rating and raving. It was annoying at best.
In 2008 Montreal, St-Catherine Street became infested with junkies, and all kinds of mentally ill folks who were aggressive panhandlers. Most have short hair, and at times, I told them "Get a haircut and get a job", when they hound me for spare change.
I also get pretty angry at them when they come out of nowhere and put their cup in my face, or yell at me from across the street. These are examples of "aggressive panhandling techniques".
I have given to coherently speaking longhairs, and those who had a real "hippy-like" attitude, traveling the country, doing odd jobs, like picking fruit in the Okanagan Valley, and being cheerful despite their hardship. These are extremely rare today.
Back in 1984, I had a good job in IT, and a colorful hippy was always begging near my work place. I often gave him a two dollar bill, and struck conversation with him. He was a pleasant character, and travelled the country hitchiking, and was always clean, his hair was way down his back.
Years later I meet him in the countryside in Eastern Quebec, he settled down, with a wife and kids, works as a computer programmer, and kept his hair long.
Compassion fatigue is setting in Montreal today, and even recently, I notice I get panhandled much less often than last year. I think people call cops on aggressive panhandlers. Only a few remaining sitting at street corners with cup and a card telling their sob story.
Also during the Jazz Festival, the Film Festival, and Francofolies (French music festival), the aggressive panhandlers seem to disappear miraculously, only to reappear when the festival is over.
I usually give to musicians, coherant speaking longhairs, the handicapped or elderly. There are very few homeless families or single moms with kids in our streets. Our welfare system has no time limits in Canada.
This week I am going to Paris (France), and one also has to watch out not only for aggressive panhandlers, but pickpockets in public transit systems. The problem seems worse in Italy, where I had friends lose their money in crowded places.
The sourpus face look seems to help keep these creeps away, and avoid looking like a tourist, and for that, my long hair helps.
Have a nice day,
Georges in Montreal.
I dont have much to say on the subject but you pretty much said it all to be the way it is for about all of us. You are a very smart person so far that i can tell.