Lend a Dollar, or Lend a Hand?

In an attempt to make ends meet, more and more civilians turn to street corners to solicit money, a term referred to as panhandling. Although many homeless people participate in panhandling, not every panhandler is homeless. Panhandlers may also consist of both employed and unemployed males and females with or without any ties to family. Typically, they solicit money in areas highly populated by pedestrians or where there tends to be traffic such as, busy intersections. Panhandling can also be found all around the country, in areas where it is both legal or otherwise illegal. The question is, why do people do it?

In Henrico County, Virginia, laws prohibit people from standing in the medians while holding signs. At several intersections they have signs such as the one pictured. Because laws can not legally ban panhandlers from being active, due to the First Amendment, areas that wish to ban it must find different ways to do so. By making it illegal for panhandlers to stand and hold signs in the median, they have to remain seated. This means that drivers are less likely to be distracted at busy intersections but it also means that the panhandlers profit less.

8News spoke with a panhandler in Henrico County whose name is JT Stone. Stone insist that he is a war veteran that is truly homeless and uses the money he gets each day to get by. He is frustrated by the panhandlers who are not homeless and do it just to get some extra cash. "At the end of the day, they are going home. They can shower, turn on the T.V. I'm going back to the woods," Stone said. 

A big problem a person may face when a panhandler comes up to the car window at an intersection is, deciding whether this person genuinely needs help or if this person is just looking for a way to be able to buy drugs or alcohol. Unfortunately, there is no way to know. Without a back story or facts, all the public has to go with is the sign the panhandler is holding or what he or she is wearing. As Stone stated some "do it just to get some extra cash" and those who do that, make it hard for the American public to give cash to any panhandlers, including the ones who actually need the money.

A homeless man in New Orleans, named Drew, whose wife is schizophrenic, claims to have lost all of their money and identity after it was stolen at a bus station. Since then, Drew and his wife have been panhandling to make ends meet. On a good day Drew and his wife make about 30 dollars, which is just enough for them to eat. Drew explained to Chris Rose, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter that, although some may enjoy it, he does not enjoy panhandling and that people will often shout “get a job” to them. By the time that he says “give me one” they have already rolled their windows up and driven away. He says that, what people don’t understand is that without a means to identify themselves, they cannot get a job.

Meanwhile, a few minutes down the road from him, a young woman named Jesse, quit her job as a waitress to panhandle. “I started flying the sign and found out I can make as much—or more—money doing this than I did at the restaurant. In half the time" she said. To play on the emotions of the public Jesse writes “God Bless” at the bottom of all her signs because it lets “passersby know that you're safe, you're good, you're just unlucky, but you're right with the Lord.”

Almost every American, at some point in their lives have been or will be in a position where they have to decide what to do when a panhandler approaches them, whether it be at an intersection, the entrance to a store or in the subway. "The panhandler reminds the American public that not everyone is making it in our society, and that makes them uncomfortable," says Michael Stoops, a director for the National Coalition for the Homeless. It is up to each person passing by to decide whether they want to give panhandlers money or call the number on the signs and get them real help. 30 dollars a day might suffice for a week or two but what happens when it’s a bad day or even a bad week? Rather than lending a few coins or a couple dollars it might be best to lend a hand.