Shit getting real. Dirty streets in SF drives away big conference.

[aminalmutha]

I was accosted at a drive-thru in Richmond by a lady who wanted money. I offered to buy the lady some food, but she told me she only ate “health food” and needed the money instead.

Yup, been down that road. Ignore, period.

 

[KooLaid]

Actually, what’s easier is you don’t even engage. They want to suck you into their shitty world, even if for a minute just to get something out of you. Don’t let them. Don’t answer them, don’t look at them. You don’t owe them shit. This is how phone scammers get people. Same concept; people think they have to answer. You don’t.

I am a pro at ignoring panhandlers. I busted out my mad skillz last week when out with a coworker. Different city, same bums. He was impressed.

Support you local soup kitchen etc but fuck panhandlers.

So one day I decided to be a dick and have fun with it, so I responded to one seriously harassing panhandler at 711 in an asian language and some engrish. Yeah, he didn't get very far and he felt that if he spoke slower that I would understand his english better.

I was accosted at a drive-thru in Richmond by a lady who wanted money. I offered to buy the lady some food, but she told me she only ate “health food” and needed the money instead.

We had an extra costco pizza that we JUST picked up and decided to give to a guy standing at the corner holding a sign. "Homeless, need food. Anything helps". So we hand it to him and pull away. As we round the corner, that fucker slings the pizza box full force into the bushes. Fuck that guy.

 

[afm199]

If I get panhandled by a solicitor trying to raise money for Greenpeace or Donald Trump, I usually answer in Russian, followed by a phony eastern euro accent:" not having english."

With panhandlers, I usually ignore them, though if I hear a tone of honesty and authenticity, I might answer back. One time in a hundred I might actually reach into my pocket. Part of my conscience says that I should answer each person, even if it is just: "Fuck off."

 

[aminalmutha]

So one day I decided to be a dick and have fun with it, so I responded to one seriously harassing panhandler at 711 in an asian language and some engrish. Yeah, he didn't get very far and he felt that if he spoke slower that I would understand his english better.



We had an extra costco pizza that we JUST picked up and decided to give to a guy standing at the corner holding a sign. "Homeless, need food. Anything helps". So we hand it to him and pull away. As we round the corner, that fucker slings the pizza box full force into the bushes. Fuck that guy.

In college, I bought a dude a burrito who was panhandling outside a Taco Bell. I really didn’t have money to spare, but I spared one for him. Dude said he couldn’t eat beans. But do I have money.

Well, fuck you sideways, bruh!

Never again. If they want food, they can get food.

 

[Eldritch]

If I get panhandled by a solicitor trying to raise money for Greenpeace or Donald Trump, I usually answer in Russian, followed by a phony eastern euro accent:" not having english."

With panhandlers, I usually ignore them, though if I hear a tone of honesty and authenticity, I might answer back. One time in a hundred I might actually reach into my pocket. Part of my conscience says that I should answer each person, even if it is just: "Fuck off."

I never ignore, I treat them like people. I just say, "No, thank you."

 

[bikewanker]

I never ignore, I treat them like people. I just say, "No, thank you."

I like this.

 

[Eldritch]

I like this.

Thanks, feel free to use it. I put some not small amount of thought into the right way to handle these situations as my obsessive hyper-analytical ass often does. Especially since I have to represent a leadership character down in the hood due to my strong presence.

Most asking for money don't even really bother to look up. They will ask again as I pass again.

The value in those is the other people around you see your acknowledgement of a human situation happening.

Some others will be confused, thanking them as if they had offered me something. From my perspective, their request for my money is an invitation for me to participate in their personal life experience. I have chosen to politely decline, for reasons that to me are obvious, and for those others that choose not to participate in the life experience of these people, they will have their own.

I suggest you that have them seek rational and practical answers for yourself that are as free of prejudice as you are able to conjure.

The value for these and those that look up up and simply do not continue the event is that they are acknowledged as persons that exist and who are part of a larger equation.

One of the more complex social challenges in communities like the TL, is that people living the grotesque lives of poverty, madness, and illness that they do down there, they begin to feel deeply dissociated from people who live healthy normal existences.

This divorce form the social contract accounts for a significant amount of the socially irresponsible behavior down there. Shitting in the street in the middle of the day, etc.

Sometimes we get guys housed who have been dope fiends on the streets for 30+ years. Some of them have to be forced to sleep in their own apartments and not the hallways of the building, because they say they cannot stand the quiet.

They have to be trained that it is not OK to piss in the communal Kitchen Garbage Can or shit in the Lobby potted plants, and that they have to use the private bathroom in their private apartment.

I have had people leave the housing and choose to go back onto the street because they simply could not accept the changes of being in a clean place with peace and quiet and a community to be accountable to for their behavior.

When you treat these folks like humans in your brief interactions with them, you help remove them from becoming that far feral.

 

[bikewanker]

I really like it now! Appreciate your sharing the thoughts and experiences behind what would seem to be a simple response.

 

[aminalmutha]

They’re not all feral. I am not going to get sucked into a gas station con job, respond to “gimme money muthafuka (not even close to the worst thing said to me)”, get hit up (basically mugged) at the ATM, etc. So I will do the most human thing I can and remove myself from the situation. Unless they are aggressive enough for me to forcefully tell them to back off.

Very little I can do to individually help that person. And I am not willing to risk my safety by dropping my awareness or allowing myself to get distracted.

 

[Agent Orange]

This is why I walk around with my airpods everywhere now. Usually playing a podcast and either mishear or don't hear what they are saying and keep walking.

 

[KooLaid]

One of the more complex social challenges in communities like the TL, is that people living the grotesque lives of poverty, madness, and illness that they do down there, they begin to feel deeply dissociated from people who live healthy normal existences.

This divorce form the social contract accounts for a significant amount of the socially irresponsible behavior down there. Shitting in the street in the middle of the day, etc.

Sometimes we get guys housed who have been dope fiends on the streets for 30+ years. Some of them have to be forced to sleep in their own apartments and not the hallways of the building, because they say they cannot stand the quiet.

They have to be trained that it is not OK to piss in the communal Kitchen Garbage Can or shit in the Lobby potted plants, and that they have to use the private bathroom in their private apartment.

I have had people leave the housing and choose to go back onto the street because they simply could not accept the changes of being in a clean place with peace and quiet and a community to be accountable to for their behavior.

When you treat these folks like humans in your brief interactions with them, you help remove them from becoming that far feral.

Question, serious one, how do you know this? Do you work with the homeless? Degree in social work? Just wondering because it's very insightful and detailed and I never thought about these aspects

 

[Eldritch]

Question, serious one, how do you know this? Do you work with the homeless? Degree in social work? Just wondering because it's very insightful and detailed and I never thought about these aspects

My degree is in Business. I have had what most people who get to know me call an, "unusual insight into people," pretty much my whole life. I have been a full time professional charity worker for the last 10 Years. I spent 2 years doing work for a Criminal Justice Reform Policy group that focused on juveniles trapped in the system and the reintegration of the convicted into society. Then I spent the next 8 years working on housing the homeless in San Francisco, primarily in the Tenderloin.

I work closely with the City and other leading problem solvers in the region on this topic, and you probably will not find a more entrenched expert on homelessness in San Francisco on this board.

They’re not all feral. I am not going to get sucked into a gas station con job, respond to “gimme money muthafuka (not even close to the worst thing said to me)”, get hit up (basically mugged) at the ATM, etc. So I will do the most human thing I can and remove myself from the situation. Unless they are aggressive enough for me to forcefully tell them to back off.

Very little I can do to individually help that person. And I am not willing to risk my safety by dropping my awareness or allowing myself to get distracted.

No one suggested you do any of that. I suggested quite the opposite. Make eye contact, observe who you are dealing with, you say "No, Thank You," and don't even stop walking. That is all.

 

[bojangle]

I was accosted at a drive-thru in Richmond by a lady who wanted money. I offered to buy the lady some food, but she told me she only ate “health food” and needed the money instead.

Shoulda told her to go beg at a health food store.

I like to jingle the change in my pocket while telling them I don't have anything.

They don't care about coins. They want paper money.

No one suggested you do any of that. I suggested quite the opposite. Make eye contact, observe who you are dealing with, you say "No, Thank You," and don't even stop walking. That is all.

That's usually what I do, though sometimes I pretend not to see them.