San Francisco Seeks to Persuade People to Give to Charity, Not to Panhandlers

May 13, 2008

San Francisco Seeks to Persuade People to Give to Charity, Not to Panhandlers

Officials in San Francisco hope a new effort to use 10 old parking meters to collect spare change will help the city’s homeless population and cut down on panhandling, reports The San Francisco Chronicle.

Instead of giving directly to panhandlers, the money will be given to charities that help the homeless, the newspaper reports. Other cities, such as Denver and Baltimore, have used this method — which does not necessarily raise a lot of money for charity — as a way to cut down on panhandling.

At least one charity official, Sister Bernie Galvin, executive director of Religious Witness With Homeless People, panned the plan, calling it “utterly ridiculous.” She said it was based on a stereotype that all panhandlers use every nickel and dime to buy drugs and alcohol.

“Forget the children, forget the mothers who are struggling to raise their family homeless or in inadequate housing,” she said. “Will the city never give up on trying to find ways to make the lives of homeless people harder?”

Another San Francisco Chronicle article reports on results in other cities with similar programs.

Comments

Until this country addresses the homeless problem as a major issue and an unnecessary in the world’s richest and most advanced country, it won’t matter whether the quarters go into a parking meter to a charity or into the hands of the homeless, because this will not solve our greatest shame. We need to tackle this with thoughtfulness and determination, with medical care and training, with understanding and consideration. This Sister has first hand exposure to the plight of these people, and they need our attention.

— Annette Ketner May 13, 05:22 PM #
I agree completely! Seeing homeless people and panhandlers makes many people uncomfortable (myself included, I will admit) and though one’s initial reaction may be to “hope they just go away”, we must remind ourselves that these are our fellow citizens and neighbors.

— Katie May 14, 02:35 PM #
And because they are our fellow citizens and neighbors, let’s not do more harm than good because of our uncomfort, guilt, etc. If you were to attempt to put indiscriminate panhandling on a scale of least effective philanthropy to most effective philanthropy you would find it didn’t belong on the scale, instead giving to panhandlers is found on the scale of most damaging activities to society to least damaging activities to society. Of course there would be a few outliers on the philanthropy scale but very few. It damages the giver by satisfying their conscience so they don’t go do something that is truly worthwhile and it damages the receiver by cutting down their dignity and sustaining their homeless state. I hope many cities follow San Francisco’s example.

— John Mecham May 14, 04:15 PM #

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