Panhandling Project Is a Disservice

To the Editor:

How can it be, when so many charities and government agencies have worked so long and so hard to encourage the citizenry to give money to bona fide charities rather than to panhandlers, that we are given a Web site which proposes to help us analyze our encounters with panhandlers — financed, in part, by the Ford Foundation? (“Panhandling Project Explores Attitudes Toward the Poor,” Technology, August 12). Assisting and accommodating panhandlers, regardless of their race, gender, age, or spiel, through handouts, money, or food, perpetuates a tragedy, is a losing proposition for everyone, and is, in some areas, illegal.

Panhandling supports long-term homelessness by enabling ill and disabled persons to stay on the streets. Street homelessness and panhandling undermine civic order and morale and exact the greatest toll on the homeless themselves.

For many who live and panhandle on the streets, life is a daily nightmare of psychiatric delusion, addiction, and physical illness. Health problems and the risk of accident, assault, or homicide are daily realities. It is estimated that people living on the streets have a life expectancy at least 20 years below the national average.

The philanthropic community should be encouraging the public and the media to reject the illusion that panhandlers and street dwellers are merely vagabonds living romantic lives of leisure who we can choose to accommodate at will based on our analysis of the situation. It is unlikely that the average citizen is equipped to make accurate judgments as to a panhandler’s need, mental condition, or sobriety, nor should this be encouraged. NeedCom and its funders should know that people in need deserve long-term solutions provided by qualified professionals, not our spare change.

Richard Salyer
President
Volunteers of America-Greater New York
New York