The world won’t end if you give money to homeless people — I promise
Hundreds of thousands of people experience homelessness in the United States every year. Homelessness can happen to all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons. Marginalized racial communities such as Pacific Islander Americans, Black USAmericans and Native Americans experience higher rates of homelessness than other groups.
Homelessness in the United States is a deeply complicated issue that many organizations work to solve. Local laws can criminalize people experiencing homelessness who sleep outside or panhandle. Cities across the country are using hostile architecture to limit public areas where people experiencing homelessness can exist. None of these things actually address the root causes of homelessness, but are tactics used to limit the amount of people experiencing homelessness that housed residents have to see and interact with out and about.
I live in Washington, D.C. where there are a lot of people displaced by capitalism in the streets and parks. I pass a number of folks every day with signs saying they are “seeking human kindness.” While they are seeking human kindness, they are also likely seeking spare change as well.
A lot of well-meaning people I know choose not to give money to these folks, opting for buying or giving them food. This is a great way to spread human kindness, but there are some underlying judgments in the idea that some people feel uncomfortable giving people on the street cash.
I am a firm believer that anything that helps people is a good action to do, but for a moment, I want to challenge this way of thinking. Because, believe it or not, it is totally okay to give homeless people money.
“I don’t want to give them money because they are just going to buy drugs and alcohol with.”
This is the most common argument I hear against giving money to people who have been displaced by capitalism. Here are some ideas I have that push back against this argument:
You actually have no evidence that the person you gave money to is going to use that to buy drugs or alcohol. While there are folks who experience addiction and homelessness simultaneously, not every person who is homeless is an addict nor is every addict homeless. There are a lot of things that people on the street do with their money that do not involve drugs or alcohol. (A quick aside: If folks on the street can buy drugs with the dollar you give them, I kind of want to know where they get such a good deal.)
What people who experience homelessness do with the money you give them is none of your business. Let’s say that you give money to someone panhandling and then they use that money to buy drugs or alcohol — that is their prerogative. At that point, it is their money. In the working world, there is not the same argument that addicts should not get their paychecks because they might use that money to buy drugs or alcohol. Plenty of people use their money to buy drugs and alcohol. Deciding someone’s worthiness of money based on your moral judgement distracts from the human need for money in a capitalist society. If we start dictating who gets money based on our approval of what they use that money for, there will be no shortage of argument there. (Another aside: There are so many uses of money by the government that I disagree with, but I still pay my taxes.)
There are actually a lot of reasons to give people money over just buying them food.
Giving someone cash allows them to go into an establishment and purchase something. This can be lifesaving in extreme weather conditions. Cash can allow someone to get a hot coffee in a heated coffee shop in the winter or ice water in an air conditioned place in the summer.
Giving someone money can help restore dignity. Many of us take for granted the dignity we are granted in being able to order for ourselves or be served by restaurant employees. This dignity is a huge component to the human kindness many folks on the street are seeking.
It is so much easier to give someone cash as you walk by than to stop, ask someone if they need something and get it for them. This is a solid way to still help if you don’t have cash on you, I still do this when I am in this position. However, making it a habit to give folks cash I have on hand or keeping cash on me for this situation has helped me benefit more people than if I just stopped to help when I had the extra few minutes.
There is a lot going wrong with the world. At the end of the day, as long as we do what we can to help our neighbors and our community, that makes the world a better place. It is equally helpful to challenge some of our opinions in order to increase our neighbor-helping abilities. Destigmatization and rehumanization are key aspects to solving the homeless epidemic in the United States.
Header via Matt Collamer / Unsplash
