Post in Reactions to Panhandling (was " Petty Crime")

Jun 28 18:31 UTC

After almost a decade of living downtown, I would echo Rick's
experience that I don't fear those asking for money.  At most it has
been a slight inconvenience, and I simply tell people I don't have
money, and look to help them in other ways, like giving to charities,
or pushing for policy change.

As housing advocates will tell you, between 1/3 and 2/3 of the
homeless also have a job, depending on economic conditions.  That's
largely because in recent decades, the minimum wage has fallen far,
far behind the pace of inflation.  Meanwhile, housing, transportation
and health insurance costs have all dramatically outpaced inflation,
hitting low-income households very hard.

I do think one could make an argument that having a substantial amount
of panhandling can make a community a less attractive place to live
and do business.  But it is just one among a very wide variety of
indicators of community vitality, which we attend to in varying
degrees and ways.  The question is how to respond responsibly, and
solutions can take many different directions.

But I believe the foundation of any ethical response that honors
people has to be attending to some of the factors that we know have
caused homelessness.  Homelessness has risen as we've seen changes in
state and national realities.  We've become tolerant to paying wholly
unlivable wages, failed to develop transportation alternatives,
dramatically reduced our support for chronic mental health issues, and
dramatically cutback our social support infrastructure generally.

The levels of homelessness and panhanding are at its core about a weak
community, about our shared weakness.  The Minnesota of my youth would
have never tolerated what we see today.