Pitfield, on Panhandling...

[bizorky]

The status quo is one in which the homeless, beggars, pan-handlers, alcoholics and drug users living on the street has become an accepted norm. While I bear no ill will against these people, I can't help but to be confused by the defenders (?) of the poor who argue that the street is their rightful place - as in to live on it with all the potential problems and dangers. It makes no sense.

As for those individuals who beg simply because it is easy money, I find it quite pathetic. In my opinion, this is the kind of attitude that has been bred by not dealing in any constructive way with the issue of homelessness and all the other orbitting issues revolving around it.

 

[andreapalladio]

Everyone has different circumstances I understand. But I think more of them could be off the streets if they wanted.

Did it ever occur to you that if you didn't have daddy to pay your way you would be one of those people who "wanted" to be on the street?

 

[unimaginative2]

As he's told us, he works three jobs. It might be fun for you to try, but you can't legitimately impugn his work ethic.

 

[miketoronto]

andreapalladio that is just rude. I have a friend who could no longer live at home with her parents, and what did she do? She got two jobs, and lives on her own, and does fine.

Its about your self worth and work ethic.

And I would not talk, because you probably have a very well paying job anyway.

Ontop of that, eventhough I don't need to, I actually do have three jobs(my managers like me so much I have decided to keep the two other jobs that are not my full time job). So I know about working hard. For two months I had to get up at 3:30AM to get my ass to work for 5AM at a downtown office. So don't even lecture me on work, and money.

My parents do not pay anything for me, except for keeping food on the table and the house going. I do everything else myself.

 

[Sir Novelty Fashion]

"My parents do not pay anything for me, except for keeping food on the table and the house going."

Whoever the doppelganger was, I can promise you s/he's gone.

 

[tudararms]

Canada in general, and Toronto in particular have got to be among the most compassionate and socially responsible places in the *world*!!! If there is any place where there is little excuse to be homeless it is surely here where there is plenty of assistance, welfare, social help for those who truly want it, not to mention all kinds of charitable organizations out there too. Thank god. This does not mean that anybody has the 'right' to beg, panhandle and make the streets their home. We have to make this distinction. If the social services available are not adequately addressing the situation then we should be addressing those social services!! Any Torontonian should have the right to access the streets and public areas of this city unencumbered, and without being harrassed, without feeling intimidated and without having the public domain looking like a shanty town. The only right the homeless have is the right to assistance. The brutal honest fact is that the homeless are a burden to society, one that a compassionate society will accept with the objective of helping them onto their feet, to being healthy and productive members of society. To advocate for the rites of somebody to be homeless and beg seems absolutely ludicrious to me. This is compassion gone awry indeed.

 

[doady]

First high-rises and now panhandlers. Why not just move out of the city altogether? If you cannot accept these elements of the city then don't live there. Move the 905 where there are no high-rises and nobody on the streets at all.

 

[DarnDirtyApe]

It's certainly not "normal" to have panhandlers on every street corner, or people living in bus shelters. Do you realize how badly our city looks to tourists when they see this? Do you know that NYC stopped allowing people to panhandle and was widely lauded for making the city a more pleasant place for visitors?

 

[andreapalladio]

There aren't people panhandling on every corner, nor are there people living in bus shelters.

 

[miketoronto]

There are so people living in bus shelters. There was a bus shelter right in the CBD near York Street that was taken over by a homeless guy for ages.

 

[andreapalladio]

I live and work downtown, and you are a suburbanite who only uses the city as a theme park. You don't have a clue what you are talking about.

 

[adma]

Don't forget that panhandler-looking feller at King + Yonge

 

[DarnDirtyApe]

andrea, I also work downtown, and will be living there shortly. Obviously "every corner" is an exaggeration, but there are quite a few people sleeping on the streets, living in a bus shelter (that guy is still there as of two days ago) and panhandling. There's a guy on Bay just north of Wellington that stands around with his baseball cap in hand all day, everyday - I often feel like suggesting he go find a job in one of the hundreds of businesses located nearby, I'm sure at least one of them is hiring!

I really think that this is a problem of a few people taking advantage of the kindness of others. You know we're not talking about that many people when so many people know who're you talking about when mentioning specific panhandlers.

 

[andreapalladio]

so give him some change - it won't hurt you, and you'll feel better about yourself when you go back to the burbs.

 

[DarnDirtyApe]

Easy there bud. Take that chip off your shoulder and calm down.

First, I live near High Park so I'm not exactly in the burbs (unless you have a really broad definition of the suburbs). It may not have the urban grit of wherever you live, but we have our share of people who choose not to live in conventional abodes and prefer to depend on the kindness of others for the primary source of income.

Secondly, I won't feel better about myself because it really doesn't do a lot of good to give some guy on the street a couple of bucks. I'd rather give regular donations to United Way, or charities that help people get off the streets and into housing. In most cases by giving money to a panhandler you're only perpetuating their dependant lifestyle. If nobody gave money to him he'd have to get a job like everyone else.

It's not about being mean to panhandlers. The point is that there's no good reason for people to need to beg for money on the streets. We have a social safety net designed to help people who aren't able to take care of themselves, all they have to do is want help. Obviously we should provide carrots to get off the streets and into stable housing, but for the hardcore homeless it's going to take something more, and I think banning panhandling is a start.