Isn't it odd...

[Texas_Signmaker]

When you see people at the intersection with a sign that says "Just lost job and have 3 kids, need help"? Right now when literally everywhere you go there is a "now Hiring" sign. I feel like telling the guy to go to the nearest non-residential building and ask for a job.

 

[Gino]

There are all kinds of extenuating circumstances and I'm not about to judge someone really down on their luck. However, it doesn't seem feasible that they can make more than a few bucks an hour that way.

 

[Boudica]

There are all kinds of extenuating circumstances and I'm not about to judge someone really down on their luck. However, it doesn't seem feasible that they can make more than a few bucks an hour that way.

Oh you would be surprised. A number of years ago a racket got busted here. People with nice homes and nice cars were "spare changing" around town. They were raking in more money than their jobs were bringing in. It was quite the scandal. Shocking how much money they were getting. They even dragged their kids into it. It was disgusting.

 

[netsol]

There are stories in NYC about these panhandlers getting more than you earn working a full time job in NY
Depends on how good a story you pitch & how agressive you are

If they are any good, you pay them to go away

 

[netsol]

Better they are panhandling than pushing you in front of a subway car

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

The guy I saw was aggressive.. He was walking all in between the cars and looking directly at the drivers with a confused look as to why no one was giving him money. The bum on the other side was just sitting in a chair in the median. I know people have different excuses... but this guy's sign said he just lost his job and was clearly able body enough to walk around the intersection. It just seems less believable right now when EVERYONE is hiring.

 

[netsol]

Tex,
You were originally from ny, i think?

 

[netsol]

And isn't half the country refusing to go back to work?

 

[Johnny Best]

He's working! He is a small businessman. You have to put "God Bless" on the sign to get the heart strings.
We have them around the Walgreens and Grocery stores. I give them $5 all the time. I do not go to church so it is like putting money in the basket. At least I know where it is going, and not some pastor with a girlfriend on the side paying for her apartment.

 

[GAC05]

It's a growing problem here. They tried to clear them off the roads with the police (you can't stand on the medians) but it didn't work.
I tried a few cold calls to see if I could sell them some better signs to increase their sales numbers but they are not the profit generators one might think they would be.
At least here you can't freeze to death during winter

 

[SignosaurusRex]

Oh you would be surprised. A number of years ago a racket got busted here. People with nice homes and nice cars were "spare changing" around town. They were raking in more money than their jobs were bringing in. It was quite the scandal. Shocking how much money they were getting. They even dragged their kids into it. It was disgusting.

Those that give to these so-called "Homeless", "Destitute", "Down-and-outers" (and what-ever-else reason implied) pan-handlers, are in fact part of the problem.
In most all areas across the nation, there are plenty of social safety nets for these people if they really want the help. Most do not want anything other than cash.
Unfortunately, we, the tax paying, fund these safety nets that seem to only squander those funds and the problem continues to metastasis.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

A lot of these people have other issues and no matter what, nobody is gonna hire them. They have to eat too. We've all seen the shock journalism crap but that took a lot of digging and does not represent the norm.
Not gonna lie, I think the same thing when I see them but then remind myself, I wouldn't give them a job. So if you won't, why do you expect someone else to?

 

[visual800]

No lie we got one down here that will take cashapp....his sign has his cashapp name AND he lives in a neighborhood behind me because he rides his bike to the instersection where he works

 

[Stacey K]

Lucky in my little town we don't have that - not often. I seem to know SEVERAL young people that are losers and don't want to work. They have these grandiose ideas that they are going to be millionaires and self-employed but live with their parents and don't work. Parents don't want to kick them out because they have no place to go. One continues to fool his parent into thinking his new job has told him 3 times that he has to wait another week to start. What company in their right mind hires you and puts off your starting date 3 Mondays in a row? Only the employer of a kid whose Dad gives him money, a car and a place to live for free. Based on these parents my parents should be in jail for cruelty LOL (kidding)

 

[Boudica]

A lot of these people have other issues and no matter what, nobody is gonna hire them. They have to eat too. We've all seen the shock journalism crap but that took a lot of digging and does not represent the norm.
Not gonna lie, I think the same thing when I see them but then remind myself, I wouldn't give them a job. So if you won't, why do you expect someone else to?

Wa state is abundant with resources and help. And they keep pouring more money into it. Housing, food benefits... There's so many resources, no one should ever go hungry. Heck, just a week ago the local salvation army had an abundance of food, and were begging people to come take it.
But you make a good point, I would not hire 96% of the panhandlers I see.

 

[MNT_Printhead]

I am just astonished how much worse it has become over the last 10 years not just here in Denver, but everywhere I have traveled. I was in Norman, OK around Thanksgiving and there were homeless sleeping on Main St inf front of entrances to businesses; there were homeless when I lived there briefly 15 years ago, but they left the city and stayed down by the Canadian River. My cousin told me there was clean up operation on the river that resulted in a few tons of garbage being removed.

 

[GAC05]

Wa state is abundant with resources and help. And they keep pouring more money into it. Housing, food benefits... There's so many resources, no one should ever go hungry. Heck, just a week ago the local salvation army had an abundance of food, and were begging people to come take it.
But you make a good point, I would not hire 96% of the panhandlers I see.

4%, so you say there's a chance?

 

[GAC05]

I am just astonished how much worse it has become over the last 10 years not just here in Denver, but everywhere I have traveled. I was in Norman, OK around Thanksgiving and there were homeless sleeping on Main St inf front of entrances to businesses; there were homeless when I lived there briefly 15 years ago, but they left the city and stayed down by the Canadian River. My cousin told me there was clean up operation on the river that resulted in a few tons of garbage being removed.

My son had an overnight layover in Hawaii on his way back here in December. Even late at night, he said it was wall-to-wall homeless right down in their money-making hotel district.

 

[binki]

When you see people at the intersection with a sign that says "Just lost job and have 3 kids, need help"? Right now when literally everywhere you go there is a "now Hiring" sign. I feel like telling the guy to go to the nearest non-residential building and ask for a job.

Holding that sign is their job. They can make some pretty good money doing that.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

They're everywhere here, mainly all around the truck stops. Lots of lot lizards and their pimps wandering around. There are a handful living in their cars in the parking lots, that is kind of sad to see and makes you wonder how they got in that position. The county started making property owners cut and maintain the underbrush on their vacant land to try and run them out. Just another added expense.