Donation boxes are set up in downtown Indianapolis to help the homeless and control panhandling.
Eight boxes have been installed since 2008, to allow people to put money in boxes instead of giving to panhandlers. But panhandlers are still hanging around the donation boxes, asking for handouts.
"They don't put it in the box," said one panhandler downtown. "Here? 40-50 bucks. Interstate? $300-400 dollars."
[. . .]
The Coalition for Homeless Intervention and Prevention says only about one percent of people on streets asking for money are actually homeless, the rest are on the street looking to make a buck. Since the donation boxes were put up three years ago, $12,000 has been put in the boxes, which is then donated to local groups that combat homelessness around the city.
Wow, only 1 percent actually homeless -- that seems low even to a cynic like me. And let's be honest, even those who are actually "homeless," if you like that euphemism, would rather have the money directly instead of getting it through intermediaries who frown on some of the things it tends to be spent on.
Comments
Last summer while shopping south of Coliseum I guy came up to me asking for money to put gas in his car. I offered to put a couple of bucks in his car, but he then said his car was not here, but down the street. When I offered to take a gas can to his car, he changed his story.
Two days later I ran into the same individual north of Dupont with the same story. When I commented that he looked familiar and was he at a specific location two days earlier, he stammered and left.
I have no idea how many are homeless, looking for work or otherwise. I have come across many who appear to be in need of help, but then learn they make six figures pan handling in NY.