Beggars in NYC

[Dari]

Anyone here lives or travels to the city frequently? the begging situation seems to have exploded in the past couple of years. Now, instead of the usual suspects we have a smorgasboard of various types.

1. I took the E train to Queens and this lady was begging for money. Everytime someone would ignore her or say no she would punch her own head in a very violent manner. It's really disturbing if you're travelling with children.

2. I've also seen able-bodied grown men begging for money. THey say how they just lost their jobs and they're ashamed to be doing this. These are usually young, white males who should be able to do any type of manual labor but here they are. These types get a lot of sympathy but I find it hard to believe.

3. Then there are women who parade their children around on the subway or squat near buildings begging for money. I think these are the 2nd to worst types because the children are either babies or less than 10 and should be elsewhere.

4. The worst are young men with children begging for money. These men are either from southern Europe or the Middle East/Southwest Asia. I just don't understand how a young man can do this. No shame.

FWIW, the only time I give money to (homeless) people is when they don't ask for it. But these new types of beggers are really pushing the envelope.

 

[rh71]

Some see it as good income - just another job.

Watch this one pulling on your sympathy strings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyfFXcJE2Z4

 

[HamburgerBoy]

The only time I will help a homeless man is when he actually offers to work for it, instead of moping around all pathetic-like. Cigarettes for arson is a fair trade in my opinion, and they typically agree.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

I wouldn't be surprised if many of these people post as the modern progressive trolls on the forum.

There's a subset of these young kids that feel like the world owes them. They live in their parent's basement with a useless art or law degree bitching that they aren't making $150k / year just for being an awesome person.

Then when life starts repeatedly kicking straight in the nuts all of the sudden everything and erybody is racist, and that is why they're being held back.


Thank goodness we have lots of smart young kids who shun these losers.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Some see it as good income - just another job.

Watch this one pulling on your sympathy strings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyfFXcJE2Z4

LOL yet the modprogs will tell you these people ended up like this because of the evil "1 %ers". That the "big biz" doesn't let them work.

Give me a break..


Shoot at least she's actually hobbling around. I have less of an issue than with the people who have learned how to fully utilize our Dear Leader's welfare/handout train, bringing in $40k a year tax free while driving a late model chrysler.

 

[gotsmack]

The last time I gave money to someone I was in Salt Lake City in Feb and a guy in his mid-late 20s dressed normally asked me for a dollar because he needed it to make ends meet. He said he was working as a contractor (home construction projects type) I asked him what he was going to do with the dollar and he said he didn't have a good answer for me except to keep it with the other few dollars he had.

I gave him the money because he was honest.

 

[mmntech]

A lot of New York's homeless are mentally ill or crack addicts, just like most cities. There's nowhere for them to really go since they closed the asylums. Shelters aren't really equipped to deal with that, nor can they force them to stay. Most of these folks are harmless but there are some that have attacked people who try to argue with them or look at them the wrong way. That's why most New Yorkers recommend ignoring them and not making eye contact.

There are a lot of fake homeless as well. Think about it. You sit in a high traffic area, 7-10 people might give you a dollar an hour. If you sit for 8hrs, you're making the equivalent of minimum wage completely tax free. Most New Yorkers recommend just ignoring them. There's been a couple of infamous cases here in Toronto about that. One lady would dress up in rags and pretend to have severe Parkinson's. The news followed her home one night, to a big house in wealth suburb outside the city. She was just grifting people.

As for your last category, those are most likely gypsies. They've been filtering into North America since many European governments have gotten fed up with them. Though not at a big enough rate to have the whole nomadic caravans they do there. They're ethnically closer related to Indians than southern Europeans or Arabs.

 

[darkxshade]

The ones who parade their children around saying their homeless are the ones that make me go wtf the most.

 

[Hacp]

Its a situation that isn't going to change. The previous mayor didn't do much about getting rid of these people. The current one is willing to do even less. How can a city be beautiful and prosperous, the envy of the world, if we have hobos smelling up our subways?

 

[brianmanahan]

the only time i gave money to a beggar is when i thought he was going to attack me if i didnt

otherwise, no way

 

[crownjules]

There are some that make a profession out of it. When I worked in Boston, I'd see the same 2-3 guys downtown everyday for 5 years straight. One of them even had the audacity to be drinking Starbucks coffee while "begging". This is a guy who'd frequently curse under his breath at you when you walked by and didn't drop anything in his cup. No, I'm not going to give you money because you choose to do this rather than get a real job.

Some people just have no shame.

 

[darkxshade]

There are some that make a profession out of it. When I worked in Boston, I'd see the same 2-3 guys downtown everyday for 5 years straight. One of them even had the audacity to be drinking Starbucks coffee while "begging". This is a guy who'd frequently curse under his breath at you when you walked by and didn't drop anything in his cup. No, I'm not going to give you money because you choose to do this rather than get a real job.

Some people just have no shame.

What if he made more money than you, how would you feel then?

He also have the advantage of tax evasion over you.

 

[Orignal Earl]

Shoot at least she's actually hobbling around. I have less of an issue than with the people who have learned how to fully utilize our Dear Leader's welfare/handout train, bringing in $40k a year tax free while driving a late model chrysler.

lol
Every time you post that it reminds me of your proof that you witnessed

Your story was that everytime you went to the DMV which has a parking lot right beside the Welfare office one. There was always lot's of new cars parked there, right beside the DMV building

 

[mrjminer]

I think it's pretty easy to spot the real homeless from the fake homeless pieces of shit doing it instead of getting a real job or to supplement their income.

For the real homeless, I don't ever just give them something when I encounter them. Like the last time I went to Chicago, some guy asked me for some change, so I got some directions to the brown line off him then gave him a buck. Real homeless are all too happy to help if you give them a little cash.

 

[John Connor]

I was sitting in the car near a McDonalds and there was this homeless guy sitting outside. He could barley walk because he either was drunk or didn't take his meds. I can't tell you how many people gave him a meal. Some gave money. One right after another. One person gave him a whole bag of food and a super size drink.

I know one thing, if I'm on the street and hungry I'm going to a McDonalds! LOL

Oh! Where the fuck do they get the cardboard and the marker to make the sign?

 

[Lifted]

The guys are back with their squeegee's at key corners as well. They start wiping your windshield with their filthy squeegee before asking.

de blasio is off to a fine start.

 

[BUTCH1]

Some see it as good income - just another job.

Watch this one pulling on your sympathy strings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyfFXcJE2Z4

I hope someone recognizes her from the news story and spits a huge hocker right in her face, that would be a method of making her think about getting a real job.

 

[akugami]

Once saw a beggar, looked to be in his early 20's, with a sign...and a dog. I wasn't giving him a damned penny. I felt bad not giving him any money because of the dog. But on the other hand, how poor are you if you can afford pets?

 

[Mai72]

You should give.

 

[Printer Bandit]

any homeless person that has a funny or witty sign will always get money from me.

 

[Dari]

Saw a beggar on a Samsung Note 3 today in front of the Duane Reade near the Masonic Temple on 23rd street. WTF? Also, a bigger, stronger beggar has replaced a physically-handicapped beggar at my subway station.

 

[zerocool84]

Umm yea because a ton of people lost their jobs from the economy going to shit. Many are still out of work.

 

[MongGrel]

They used to stand around at main intersections down here in FL in this area, and some said they were making 40K + a year doing it.

Basically just Panhandling all day.

But they passed a few laws to stop that.

Not looking for another job when you've lost one is no excuse.

I've been there enough the last few years after getting screwed myself.

 

[Kaido]

Anyone here lives or travels to the city frequently? the begging situation seems to have exploded in the past couple of years. Now, instead of the usual suspects we have a smorgasboard of various types.

Whether or not I donate really depends on the individual. I mean, there are shelters & soup kitchens available all over the place, so it's not like you're totally screwed like you would have been in the past. One thing a middle school teacher taught us was to look at their fingernails...if they were dirty, they were usually actual beggars. If they were clean, they were usually panhandlers.

I agree about able-bodied people, especially young people. I mean, some people struggle with severe depression, PTSD, etc., but if you have the energy & ability to walk around begging all day, I'm sure there's a farm truck somewhere you can hop on to make a few bucks for the day - that's not much different than spending 10 hours a day asking for change on a street corner, right? I mean, if I can tell someone is really in need & I have some spare change, I don't mind. I saw a dude recently at a stop light that I gave some money to...older guy just standing there looking completely beat at life. I've never seen anything so sad in my life. Just standing there with the snow coming down, too beat to even walk up to cars. It was like 30F out too.

It bothers me when people are in that situation - you want to help them, but it's hard to make any real change because in most cases, if they really want to help themselves, help is available through shelters, soup kitchens, etc. I have a friend who worked in law enforcement & told me that people in the city (Hartford) would get themselves thrown in jail all the time, especially in winter, because you get food & shelter and avoid the violence of the street, especially if you were a woman. It's hard to believe that people would make that choice over stepping it up, but everyone comes from a different background, so it can be a real struggle for some people.

The people I feel the worst for are the ones who don't even beg, the ones that you can tell have some sort of mental illness or other type of trauma, and obviously didn't have a good family safety net to fall back on to take care of them. Makes you wonder how they survive life. It makes me wonder, too, what would happen if my job & income disappeared and someone threw me out resourceless & friendless/family-less on the street in some random city. I've read about some millionaries who have done that, like the guy who spent a year living as a homeless man to see how life was on the other side of the coin. There was a guy who died a few years ago who was homeless, turned out he actually left behind $4 million, but just kind of retired from living a normal life:

http://www.npr.org/2009/07/27/111091624/homeless-man-leaves-behind-surprise-4-million

 

[Kaido]

any homeless person that has a funny or witty sign will always get money from me.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/49/142649790_e3a40987a4_z.jpg?zz=1