The sign-holders are a minority among the [Detroit's] vagrants and homeless. They're the handful with enough drive and dedication to spend hours standing in one place, making a sales pitch. They could probably succeed at a real job somewhere with such determination. But who's going to hire a depressed guy with three teeth, a felony record and a drinking problem? So sign-holding becomes their career. And it's a demanding one. They have to be sellers of something that's not a product, isn't a service, and has little benefit for the customer other than perhaps inner satisfaction. They have to sell their misery. And though almost none of them have actual jobs, make no mistake — this is hard work. Here are the stories they tell.
posted by mudpuppie on Oct 10, 2011 - 19 comments

How panhandlers use free credit cards-"What would happen if, instead of spare change, you handed a person in need the means to shop for whatever they needed? What would they buy?"
posted by nevercalm on Aug 29, 2010 - 75 comments

Vietnam employs the Beggar Removal Hotline. To promote a more healthy tourist experience, Denang is employing a reward system for citizens who report vagrants and beggars.

Once they have been reported to the special telephone hotline, the people are taken to the centre where they have health checks and are classified according to need...healthy people are sent back to their home provinces, while those who have physical or mental illnesses are treated at the city's expense.

I feel strange saying this but I think the U.S. should adopt this system. I love beggars as much as the next guy, but cleaning up the streets and helping out the beggars...it's a win/win situation.
posted by gwong on Feb 16, 2003 - 22 comments

S.F. to fight homelessness by....illegalizing panhandling? Yeah, brilliant. First, let's shut down the state's mental institutions and leave mentally ill people to fend for themselves. Then let's tell the cops to make sure they're out of sight by pushing them from one neighborhood of the city to another. Next, let's confiscate the possessions they keep in shopping carts. Finally, since even the Mayor's office says homelessness in the city was up 36% last year, let's criminalize the homeless that ask for help. Yup, that will take care of them!

Let's hear it for representative democracy and its incredible compassion for the disenfranchised.

posted by precipice on Jan 8, 2002 - 40 comments