>>1784719You don't understand how bad it is.
I live in Ohio. In 2019 I was downtown, a stretch where there's usually a bunch of panhandlers. Waiting to cross the street, I heard two guys talking about "how good it is" (that is, generous Midwestern people giving them money), so I stayed to eavesdrop, acted like I was on my phone.
In my city, these people aren't around when it's cold out. They go to some warmer place (California, Florida, etc), and they do the reverse when spring comes around. Because the begging's not good, in the places with a continual homeless problem. Normal people harden to the idea.
Lots of cities have "free bus fare" programs for homeless. As in, one-way ticket, don't care where you go, just don't come back. (It's easiest to find stories about the ones in NYC and SF.) I knew this existed, but I had never personally seen evidence of it. One of these guys was from SF, the other from San Diego.
I quickly went from "oh that's kind of clever", to "that's infuriating". These guys were talking about it, not like a vacation, but seasonal work or something.
"Yeah dude, I come here every year. It's too good not to. Look me up, I'm always in front of this building the first few weeks, then I might move."
