I live in rural South Dakota, so it’s not a very common that when I walk down the street to Taco Johns or the grocery store that I come across a panhandler. In fact, I’ve never seen one here in Madison. I have seen one in my previous town of 15,000. When I visit a major city, it’s really an interesting cultural difference to see how poverty is handled in rural versus urban settings. You really feel bad for these people, but you also don’t want to enable some sort of addiction or enable their continued poverty, so when do you give, and when do you just keep walking? I talked with a number of urban dwellers that I know and asked for some suggestions. Here’s what I found.

Generally there are a couple of types of people that you shouldn’t give money to. If you go by the same areas on a regular basis, you’ll sometimes see the same people there asking for money for a long period of time. Don’t play their game, if the money you didn’t help them the first time, it’s probably not going to help them now. You can usually spot regulars because they have the cardboard signs, of course there are exceptions.

If the person asking you for money is a kid who’s dressed relatively decent, don’t give hi more her the money. If they really needed it, they’d call their parents to get home. Most of the time they’re just doing it for a sport or for some extra cash. Don’t give them money.

There are some times that you might consider helping someone out. When people are dirty, tired, and hungry sometimes you should give them a break. You might not want to give them money because who knows what they’ll do with it, but it would be okay to take them to the McDonalds and buy them lunch. If your gut feeling tells you to help out the person, go ahead and do it! One donation from you will be nice for them right now, but won’t do much either way when it comes to their long term status as being homeless.

Another time I would probably give money is when the person is playing an instrument. They are actually working for their money and soothing us with a beautiful tune! At least they’re not just sitting on the street, they’re providing some sort of service! If the melody is good, usually I’ll throw in a dollar or two.