Homelessness and Panhandling in Toronto

[Admiral Beez]

Some panhandlers have been very aggressive and said derogatory things to me, making me feel unsafe.

If Torontonians would just stop giving money to beggars I guarantee you this scourge of begging would vanish within six months. I do not understand why the police do no enforce the Safe Streets Act against begging at the roadside, since almost every exit downtown from Gardiner and in the Bayview Extension (River Street, Rosedale Valley Rd, etc. and outside Castlefrank subway) has beggars walking up and down into traffic to collect coins, which is against the law.

Now the common argument is what would the police do with these guys. They have no money to pay fines, and will not show up in court for summons anyway. However, NYC solved this issue through the establishment of "neighbourhood" courts, where the police take you immediately for begging, graffiti and other minor street crimes, and then if found guilty you were immediately put to work in cleaning streets or other community service. Now, you might not like the sound of any of that, but again, if people would simply stop giving money to beggars, the begging would stop. Same as you don't feed the bears in Algonquin Park, if you do they'll keep on coming, if you don't, they'll leave you alone.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I find it incomprehensible that there are so many mentally ill people, who seem to be in need of help and often violent, yet nobody gets them off the street. There are lots of seriously mentally ill people I see walking around, year after year, and nothing is done to help them. It seems that in Toronto, if you lose your mind and all your faculties, you are on your own. That's scary!

We had asylums for the mentally ill, but Bob Rae and other levels of government closed them down, preferring to move them to rooming houses and voluntary meds.

 

[indense]

Those of us who live here have a higher tolerance for what we call aggressive. So many tourists from around the world visit a few days in Toronto, go home and their strongest memory of the city is the panhandlers.

In September I brought my girlfriend to Toronto for the first time to show her around the city. On the first day she asked me, completely horrified, "Who is that man and why did he ask you for money? Do you know him?" And my girlfriend has spent months backpacking around India so she's not completely foreign to panhandling, she just didn't expect it in a non third-world city.
Tokyo has a huge number of Homeless people but they will never ask for money. The only time in almost two years here that I've been asked for change was from some older white guy with an English accent. Damn foreigners.

 

[Catapult]

Unfortunately it will be difficult to get rid of homelessness and panhandling. What bothers me is that some these people set up camp (literally in some cases) on our sidewalks. I have on many occasions had to step over them or walk onto the street to get by them. This is not good for them or me. It is terrible for tourism. Why can't the authorities keep them moving. It really has become a problem downtown.

 

[Admiral Beez]

If we don't put a stop to begging we're going to look pretty bad during the Pam Am Games. Homelessness you have to live with, especially in that timeframe, but begging outside banks, near bus stops, at the side of the road, etc is already illegal and can be dealt with swiftly.

 

[tkip]

While I find it irritating....

To have to deal with panhandling on the streets, I'm really not for arresting people asking for spare change. This just sounds like an all out attack on people who are at society's complete mercy.

I agree that there should be areas in the public and on private property where they shouldn't be panhandling and so you ask them to stop or move along but when you start rounding up people, detaining them, you're not solving the problem.

If we decided as a society to remove people from the streets and get them into housing and job programs, this would be different. But we go down a slippery slope when we start removing people because the sight of them bothers us on our way to work. It's creepy.

 

[urbanboom]

If we don't put a stop to begging we're going to look pretty bad during the Pam Am Games. Homelessness you have to live with, especially in that timeframe, but begging outside banks, near bus stops, at the side of the road, etc is already illegal and can be dealt with swiftly.

Yeah, really bad compared to homeless-free Rio that just hosted the games

On this side of the Atlantic, we look like paradise in this respect.

 

[GraphicMatt]

At the Maxwell Meighen Shelter at Queen & Sherbourne they have young students come by many Friday nights who take some time to talk to the homeless men there. The guys just look incredibly happy to have someone to talk to. They tell stories about their lives.

It's easy to forget the human element.

That said, there's a difference between the chronic homeless who have spent decades on the street and the younger kids who are often runaways, burn outs and drug addicts. The latter group is far more likely to be aggressive.

 

[ladyscraper]

In September I brought my girlfriend to Toronto for the first time to show her around the city. On the first day she asked me, completely horrified, "Who is that man and why did he ask you for money? Do you know him?" And my girlfriend has spent months backpacking around India so she's not completely foreign to panhandling, she just didn't expect it in a non third-world city.
Tokyo has a huge number of Homeless people but they will never ask for money.

What a ridiculous idea she had. So only third world cities have panhandling? I've seen it in Brussels, New York, London, Amsterdam, Los Angeles and I'm sure there are more that I'm not thinking of right now.

It's true that I didn't see it in Japan - although I did see homeless people lugging around ENORMOUS carts stacked like 20 feet high with cardboard. I can respect that they are working for the money but it looked pretty bad to a tourist anyways. I guess it just depends what you are used to.

 

[Johnzz]

What a ridiculous idea she had. So only third world cities have panhandling? I've seen it in Brussels, New York, London, Amsterdam, Los Angeles and I'm sure there are more that I'm not thinking of right now.

I've lived (and worked) in central London for 8 years now and have never seen panhandling.

That would be bad for tourism...

 

[ladyscraper]

I've lived (and worked) in central London for 8 years now and have never seen panhandling.

That would be bad for tourism...

I lived in London only for 1 year so I'm not an expert such as you but I definitely saw it. That was like 8 years ago now though and definitely not "central"

 

[tkip]

640 today....

I was listening to Mike Stafford this morning and was quite amused that apparently some poverty activists were upset that some vouchers/flyers are being distributed for people to give to panhandlers in the place of money. These voucher/flyers can be used to get a free meal at one of the kitchens downtown somewhere.

I don't have the full details though I think that when you go for a meal, there are staff there prepared to help you. The show was funny as hell though.

Apparently these activists are outraged that you don't have the right to refuse money and instead offer a meal voucher as a replacement. The host was rightly puzzled and annoyed that you not only have the right to refuse money now, but you can't offer something else instead such as a meal voucher.

He also commented on how a growing number of the younger people are outright asking you to fork over more now and I agree. This is something I've experience myself on occasion and it just boils your blood to hear some idiot sitting on his ass, pretty much demand you fork more over.

My roommate rarely gives out cash. She offers a meal or gives them food if she was some on her. I only give cash if I look at the person and it's obvious they're living on hard times. I don't give anything to a young person who is just sitting there. Especially with their friends, girlfriends and their pets.

It's truly unfortunate that a large number of con artists, freeloaders and misguided activists are just hurting the image of what real homeless people go through as they struggle out there.

And have you ever noticed that the number of homeless people begging seem to be mostly white males? I'm not seeing as many women or minorities out there begging.

 

[kettal]

Very often, I'll have half a pizza or some other leftovers on me. I offer it to beggars who ask me for money and about 50% will just refuse to take it.

 

[Tdot_one]

Homelessness doesn't seem that extreme in Melbourne. I am pretty sure if housing was more accessible and rent-assistant was provided, this issue would be mitigated. The phenomena is the result of innaccessibility to housing.

Houselessness, as George Carlin has suggested, is the problem.

 

[golodhendil]

I've lived (and worked) in central London for 8 years now and have never seen panhandling.

That would be bad for tourism...

I don't know if studies have ever been done asking how many tourists will not go to / go back to a city because of their homeless people or panhandlers, but it certainly hasn't seemed to have deterred the tourist numbers from rising in HK, NYC or Boston. Imagine how disturbing it would be to see all sorts of people, with various limbs missing, prostrating on the streets in Causeway Bay (one of the main shopping districts in HK) begging for money from passerbys. Or an old man in rags sitting on the sidewalk, holding up a sign and asking for donations outside the LV flagship on 5th Ave in NYC.