Discussions

I've been seeing panhandlers more and more recently in our city, What's your thoughts on this

My thoughts are that its really sad the amount of poverty in our city, that a person has to put themselves out there on the street to panhandle for money. At what point does a person become so desperate that they have to resort to that? Because I can tell you, a lot of people wouldn’t/couldn’t have that kind of courage. What a tough life they must be living. So very sad indeed.

I think it's a tad foolish to make judgments about people when I can almost guarantee majority of us have never ever been in such a situation. Although I've never stood outside asking money from people, I have lived on 40$ a month for food. It sucks. How low has society gotten when we can sit in our warm houses complaining about people who can't afford a warm meal every day....the homeless situation is rampant in Brandon. Life can change in a matter of seconds...  
let's hope we don't have experience homelessness before we learn to have empathy for them....

Panhandling is a symptom of larger problems. Addiction, lack of mental health services, lack of affordable housing, access to employment issues, poverty, just to name a few. All of these are ongoing issues in Brandon, although hardly unique to this community.  
 
If there's been an uptick in panhandlers (IDK, I haven't really noticed more than usual), it could be attributable to the cold weather. It could also be simply that they moved locations for a multitude of reasons and are more visible now.

Do we have to do this every other month? Lol.

I agree that some of them have an mental health problem.. Take a good look at them you will notice that there are some of them that have 100.00 head phones on and Bran name jackets and or Hoodies and bran name shoes ( guy that sits on 18th by Home Depot ) … Makes it tough for the people that really need the money ..

Direct them to the local charities you donate to.