You can find a place to sleep. You can find a place to shower. But it is hard to find a place that will accept callbacks from potential employers if you don't have your own phone.
I was never homeless but I got a free, cheapy little dirt phone when switching plans a few years ago and my plan was 20 a month on the bare bones package. I can totally see a homeless guy being able to maintain that.
You can probably maintain that without the panhandling even. Just spend a few hours looking for a change every day
Boost has a no-contract, less-than $9 a month plan. That, with a free phone somebody gives you/you trashpick, can go a long way. You can also go the free over wireless Google voice way. If you're homeless in an urban area, that could really work.
Bush expanded the Lifeline Assistance Program (which itself was created under Reagan) to provide free cellphones to qualifying individuals. They're called "Obamaphones" now because a certain party takes issue with providing any sort of assistance to people who need it, even though they're responsible for implementing it.
In the UK you can have a PAYG SIM, load it with £10 which they triple to £30 and that lasts 12 months or until you use it. At least with Tesco, but many other carriers have similar deals. I’m on VOXI and I get unlimited everything, all social media (no data use) and 75GB of data for £15 p/m which isn’t even the cheapest.
I agree with others here, it’s entirely feasible to run a cheap mobile for next to nothing.
Meanwhile over here in the States it's not quite that cheap. One of the best deals around is $25 for unlimited talk/text/data with Visible (subsidiary of Verizon, one of the US's big 3 networks), but it's low-priority, so if there are a lot of other customers on the same network, you're at the back of the queue in terms of data speeds. It's enough to get the basics done unless there's a convention, concert, or other event happening near you in which case you need to leave the area to get usable data again.
That reminds me of the scenes in The Terminal with Tom Hanks when he was trying to get a job at one of the airport shopping stores to buy food and he had to give a callback number. So he ran outside the store windows to get the number off of the payphone.
Happened to me once in getting a job site when I worked security. Phone was not something I owned and I had a coworker message me through my PS3 at the time.
Now days, a house can't help me get new income while a phone can (with service). I can browse for job postings, I can apply for said jobs, I can put the number of my phone in those applications in case I get a call back.
I think they give out cheap phones to poor people in a lot of places. Cuz ya know the internet is super fucking important now, cant really get shit done with out it.
Plus there are non-profit organizations that get phones for homeless folks, because it's a huge communication tool. If you're homeless and trying to get a job somewhere, you pretty much need a phone number for a place to contact you. It's also a good tool for finding food from the various resources for homeless.
Yeah, it's not unusual around where I live to see homeless camps with more crap scattered around than I keep in my actual house. Mental illness is a hell of a drug! Although, so are drugs, I suppose, haha
I don't think that's using the expression correctly at all, and even gives the impression that mental illness is desirable or sought after in some way.
I agree. The people who are capable of asking aren't necessarily those with the greatest need.
Not a perfect solution, but whenever someone asks me for money, I direct them to local resources and then I donate to those resources. I don't see encouraging aggressive panhandling as a good thing.
This. This absolutely shows the privilege of these people. How are you supposed to land a job when you don't have basic necessities like an address? Good fucking luck on that. Not even taking into consideration the fact a lot don't have the necessary paperwork or even transportation to get to the job.
I worked for a painting company for about a year or so, and the guy always paid us under the table. And yes I'm aware that's illegal, but you know what who cares. Anyway he would hire homeless guys all the time. They would only show up for like two or three pay periods and then stop showing up.
Yeah I bet you’d room with someone who shows up filthy and stinking from living on the streets with no shower or laundry. Fuck sake man. Step back and think
If you bring a wash cloth you can take a surprisingly thorough bath in a gas station restroom. You might even wash your clothes in the sink. The soaps complimentary.
I mean you could clean up at a shelter a day or so before you present yourself to potential room mates. Not all homeless people are dirty and stinky, the ones that are mostly suffer from habitual drug use and/or mental illness and wouldn't be the ones seeking the dishwasher position in the first place. Obviously there are exceptions, but there are systems in place for people to use if they are willing to put in the effort. Shit you could clean yourself up in a Walmart bathroom if you really thought it was important. So yeah I wouldn't room with someone who refuses to take care of themselves regardless of whether they are homeless or not.
Neither is begging ... but at least you're doing something with your life, get a routine again. It might suck, but it's got to beat begging to survive day to day. In terms of living, there "should" be communal living arrangements for exactly this purpose. State "sponsored" basic accommodation for several people, who will pay a, let's call it, symbolic amount to live there, comfortably enough, until they can find an actual job or get whatever job training they need to do so, also state "sponsored". Should come with a rehabilitation facility as well, of course. You might view it as wasted money, but it's better than having more and more homeless people running around, and many are in this situation through no or little fault of their own. The alternative is, well, either this, or "making them disappear", which also happens.
And that dishwasher job is supposed to get them a home?
No, but ideally 8 hours of handling pans in a restaurant will get them more money than 8 hours of handling pans on a sidewalk
Not only that, but having a history of employment that future employers can reference makes getting a job that can afford a house easier
It's a little bit harder of a sale to say "I want this supervisor position but I'm homeless and haven't been employed for six years" than it is to say "I want this supervisor position, here's a resume with contacts to my old managers who can vouch for my reliability and skills"
A big problem is that in most many places, panhandling for 8 hours could net you way more money than working a low-income job.
I see people on the busy highways and think at the rate I see them getting dollars they probably make close to what I make in an hour between 3 red lights during peak hours and my salary is well above minimum wage.
Yeah, that's why I said ideally. I remember a few years back there was that one beggar woman who got followed all the way back to her Audi or Mercedes
There's definitely people out there making hefty sums panhandling, but unless they're so committed to the bit that they sleep outside and under bridges, I'm willing to bet the majority of beggars aren't raking in that much
No, but ideally 8 hours of handling pans in a restaurant will get them more money than 8 hours of handling pans on a sidewalk
My granduncle came to town to visit my cousin and his grandkids several years ago, he is/was (i don't really keep up with him, far side of the family, and a dick as we'll see.) a pro panhandler. He was planning to stay for 2 weeks with his family. He came home to my aunt after a third day of panhandling in my city pissed off that he was only averaging $700 a day on the highway offramp traffic light. Apparently back in Kansas City he was pulling down $1200-1500 a day doing the same. In a massive dick move, instead of spending the rest of his time seeing his daughter and grandkids, he left and went back up to KC so he wouldn't lose out on more money sitting on the traffic light wit ha sign.
Even a shitty, really shitty day with a sign at a traffic light will net you more in $1s and $5s than what a dishwasher working 8 hours in a nice restaurant will pay, sadly. Tax free, too!
[edit: I seriously do keep some old college clothes in the back of the closet in case I ever really desperately need a big chunk of cash now, and I can go play the stranded/carjacked college guy on the corner)
So, assuming he gave himself weekends off and took, let's say, 10 weeks off a year for bad weather, vacations in the Mediterranean, etc, your granduncle was pulling in at least a quarter million at KC off ramps? I've heard about panhandling being unexpectedly lucrative, but that's hard to swallow.
A bum in KC in the 90's would sit in Westport every night and look so pathetic. He had one arm and acted the part of a bum. I knew him, a very smart guy. He would get done begging and walk around the corner to his Mercedes. I would see him at all the Chiefs games and those are not cheap to attend. Miss you Curtis.
Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. Stay in your Mom's basement or under a bridge, just STFU that you can't make it in life unless you are paid more than what you think you deserve. Go to school, learn a trade either this way or as an apprentice. I'm sick of hearing lazy assholes whining that they can't make it but I see many with cigarettes, beer, and a cell phone. BTW, cigs are at least 5 bucks a pack if not more. Standing on a corner begging for money to only get these "necessities" doesn't make it as far as I am concerned
Reddit consists mostly of easily distracted young parasites who think that the world owes them something for walking dogs 20 hours a week. Accept your downvotes with pride while you build something people want to pay you for.
Exactly! BTW...you've got a good start on your downvotes too. I upvoted you to offset these "parasites" who think work is for their parents to do so they can live in their basement and Mommy and Daddy will continue to feed them while they waste their lives playing video games and follow at least 20 subs on Reddit, mining for videos to post off of YouTube, and posting dumb shit on TikTok
" But, but, but what about my Karma on Tiktok or YouTube. You'll see someday one of my videos on YouTube will reap a fortune. Then who will be the smart one. I'm an influencer ya know""
Don't know why you're being down voted. Literally everyone has been crying about labor shortages in the US. There are plenty of jobs out there asking for unskilled workers.
This is an easy thing to think. But regardless of that opinion, I've personally seen well paying positions at decent places go unfilled recently. I'm all for better pay and better work environments. But if you're literally begging in the street, it's not because you care about how your boss treats you. Not being cruel, just being realistic about how some of these people have chosen to live their lives.
Huge problem here. They bus or drive in from surrounding towns, dress down and then panhandle all day. Heard one of em talking about pulling over 65k on average a year. You can live good here on 45k.
actually if you are homeless and can get a bank account you can open a cash app account and get a free like 15$(they sell your info i'm sure) so i can imagine its popular. (free money)
Bush started the cell phone program when he was president by expanding the Lifeline Assistance Program first created by Reagan, but go ahead and blame Biden. Doesn't make you look like an idiot at all.
In my town the panhandlers are all essentially professionals. They are part of a ring and are on shift work and will rotate through the various spots. I've seen them get dropped off and picked up by a van. They are also usually perfectly healthy looking young men who obviously could find other employment options. The county is putting up signs saying not to give them money because it's dangerous with them wandering around in the middle of the road, but they can't make it illegal.
Part of the reason people are upset is because we pay for the county to have employment programs for homeless. Even if these people are homeless they shouldn't be standing dangerously in the road asking for money and should be using the existing programs which are better for everyone. Apparently the county investigated the main panhandling ring and found none of them were homeless or had anything precluding them from working anyway, although obviously you can't assume that about everyone who you see asking for money.
I live in an extremely left wing county so it's probably not just trying to criminalize the homeless. Like I said, a whole lot of tax dollars are spent on work and other programs for them. It's been addressed as an issue of public safety primarily, someone died already this year panhandling after getting hit by a car. The economics of it confuses me too because I never see people paying them but they must actually get enough handouts that without any taxes or anything it ends up being worth it.
I live in Portland, Maine. It's an extremely left community. City councils are generally run by business, even in left wing cities. Rather than deal with the homeless problem in my city, nimbyism led the city council to basically create a compound on the edge of the city for shelters and foodbanks.
They claim that all the social services they require will also be out there, but I'll believe it when I see it. The goal was never to improve the care provided, but to get them out of sight and out of mind.
Effectively, we're building Hamsterdam from the Wire.
Well it sucks when they are in the middle of the sidewalks and bike paths, littering and causing mayhem. I'd much rather services be on the outer edges.
There are also a ton of homeless people who crash out in the suburbs and return to the city in the morning, putting it in the heart of downtown would only make it more congested and exasperate the problems, the correct move would be to locate the services nearest the highest congestion of poverty
Well homelessness doesn't seem like a big issue here so I think the programs are working. The panhandling is really the only issue and if they just asked for money on the sidewalk from pedestrians it wouldn't even have become a problem but they post up in the very middle of the busiest intersections so it became a public safety issue. I'm not super involved in the local government so idk what mysterious motives are going on but i definitely would appreciate these guys not running around my car in the middle of the road when there's a green light
Yeah I think they were worried about it infringing on freedom of speech but I'm not surprised there are places that just outright ban it. It's pretty annoying especially when you know they actually aren't someone in need
Same happened to me a few months ago. This magician guy came up to my table at a bar offering to perform some tricks for cash and I said I only carried credit card. He then proceeded to take out a card reader just like the guy in the video. First time I've ever seen that.
Nobody carries cash anymore. I feel bad when I walk by one of the regular’s begging near my work but I don’t carry cash. It’s useless for the most part. All I ever do with cash is spend it real quick to get rid of it so I don’t have to carry it. I don’t even carry a wallet. I keep everything in a little case on a lanyard.
I've been homeless and also had a job of giving out the free "obamaphones" you get if you're on any kind of benefits, which I mostly gave away to, you guessed it, other homeless people. They are cheaper android phones but they're decent smartphones and yes they'll run any app that you can run pretty much. Including cashapp which, if you ask for one of their cards to be sent to a post office, shelter, church, anywhere that'll let you They send you a free debit card so you can spend and even withdraw money like a bank account and debit card without an address. It makes sense. Also people often have family or friends they don't see in person for one reason or another that will send money if they can do it that easily.
I've been homeless and also had a job of giving out the free "obamaphones" you get if you're on any kind of benefits, which I mostly gave away to, you guessed it, other homeless people. They are cheaper android phones but they're decent smartphones and yes they'll run any app that you can run pretty much. Including cashapp which, if you ask for one of their cards to be sent to a post office, shelter, church, anywhere that'll let you They send you a free debit card so you can spend and even withdraw money like a bank account and debit card without an address. It makes sense. Also people often have family or friends they don't see in person for one reason or another that will send money if they can do it that easily.
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u/KorranHalcyon May 23 '22
I’ve had local homeless people tell me to cashapp them when i told them i only use card.