A Philanthropic Idea
Back in April, while driving the long stretch of lonesome road between Phoenix and Tucson, AZ, I started to think about the homeless problem in Santa Barbara. From what I've been told, there was a mental hospital here that closed down a few years ago, and when it finally shut its doors, they just released all of its inhabitants without anywhere else to go. This brilliant idea resulted in the fallout you would expect: there are now lots of homeless people roaming the streets begging for change, sleeping on city benches and in parks. This also happened a while back in Ann Arbor, MI, with the same result.
More recently, the city of Santa Barbara was discussing enacting an ordinance that prohibited sleeping in public places. Offenders could be ticketed and possibly jailed. To the city of Santa Barbara: what is wrong with you? Unless they're disturbing the peace or something, leave these people the fuck alone. Police officers in this city have enough to contend with already, what with the gangs down on Haley St stabbing each other every chance they get.
I don't often give to homeless people when they beg for change, not because I subscribe to some bullshit like "social Darwinism", but rather, because of simple economics. Usually, there are lots of homeless people just asking for change. But among them, there is a small handful that are playing instruments like guitar, and they've got a hat out. They're actually providing a service for me, in exchange for any compensation I might like to offer. I sometimes give money to these people.
I once had a homeless guy offer to sell me a little toy monkey for "42 cents" (the price he quoted me). I liked this offer in the entrepreneurial spirit. Obviously, he had just picked it out of the trash, but I gave him a dollar for it. It's sitting on my patio at home right now.
Whenever anyone asks me for the leftovers I'm carrying home from a restaurant, I always give it to them. Anyone desperate enough to eat my leftovers can have them.
Anyway, where was I...ah, yes, so, while driving through Arizona, I started thinking about this problem. One of the issues that comes up when giving money to homeless people is that you don't end up with any control over what they do with it. You give them five bucks, and they might end up buying a half-pint of booze with it, which is a short-term fix for their day, but doesn't really help their situation. I'm sure not all homeless people are doing this, but as a person walking down the street, I can't differentiate between those that are really trying to get some help and those who want to buy drugs and alcohol.
That's a problem. Really, the best thing to do would be to give any money to a charity designed to offer help to the homeless people. They can pool the money they get from everyone and spend it more efficiently, thereby helping many more people with it. They can stretch their resources farther than each homeless person can on their own. And they'll make sure it goes to really helping them.
The problem with this idea, though, is convenience. In order to donate to a charity, I'd have to go home, look up a charity, spend time trying to find one that's really legit, possibly consider more than one, and then finally find a way to give them my money. It's a big hassle. Just giving a dollar to someone while walking down the street, which is a part of my daily routine, is much easier, because I'm not going out of my way. The other big problem is that a lot of people walking main street in Santa Barbara are tourists...I've seen lots of them give to the homeless, but they're not going to go back home concerned enough to actually donate to worthy causes.
I came up with a solution: put parking meters all along the sidewalks of the main street of Santa Barbara. For theatricality, I decided that we should dress up the parking meters to actually look like homeless people. You label the meters themselves with the name of the charity (the name I came up with was "Change for Charity", with the optional tacky slogan: "A Charity for Change"), a URL to a website, and a brief description of the mission: to take change from people and make sure that it ends up helping the homeless.
This way, if people want to donate change, they can do it at their convenience. The other benefit is that parking meters are secure. Any other means of donation would just invite homeless people to steal from them.
Recently, I read in a local Santa Barbara newspaper that the city is trying to do something about this problem, and they're looking for a way to get donations from people, but they haven't yet determined how to take donations in a secure way. I'm interested to see what they come up with.
More recently, the city of Santa Barbara was discussing enacting an ordinance that prohibited sleeping in public places. Offenders could be ticketed and possibly jailed. To the city of Santa Barbara: what is wrong with you? Unless they're disturbing the peace or something, leave these people the fuck alone. Police officers in this city have enough to contend with already, what with the gangs down on Haley St stabbing each other every chance they get.
I don't often give to homeless people when they beg for change, not because I subscribe to some bullshit like "social Darwinism", but rather, because of simple economics. Usually, there are lots of homeless people just asking for change. But among them, there is a small handful that are playing instruments like guitar, and they've got a hat out. They're actually providing a service for me, in exchange for any compensation I might like to offer. I sometimes give money to these people.
I once had a homeless guy offer to sell me a little toy monkey for "42 cents" (the price he quoted me). I liked this offer in the entrepreneurial spirit. Obviously, he had just picked it out of the trash, but I gave him a dollar for it. It's sitting on my patio at home right now.
Whenever anyone asks me for the leftovers I'm carrying home from a restaurant, I always give it to them. Anyone desperate enough to eat my leftovers can have them.
Anyway, where was I...ah, yes, so, while driving through Arizona, I started thinking about this problem. One of the issues that comes up when giving money to homeless people is that you don't end up with any control over what they do with it. You give them five bucks, and they might end up buying a half-pint of booze with it, which is a short-term fix for their day, but doesn't really help their situation. I'm sure not all homeless people are doing this, but as a person walking down the street, I can't differentiate between those that are really trying to get some help and those who want to buy drugs and alcohol.
That's a problem. Really, the best thing to do would be to give any money to a charity designed to offer help to the homeless people. They can pool the money they get from everyone and spend it more efficiently, thereby helping many more people with it. They can stretch their resources farther than each homeless person can on their own. And they'll make sure it goes to really helping them.
The problem with this idea, though, is convenience. In order to donate to a charity, I'd have to go home, look up a charity, spend time trying to find one that's really legit, possibly consider more than one, and then finally find a way to give them my money. It's a big hassle. Just giving a dollar to someone while walking down the street, which is a part of my daily routine, is much easier, because I'm not going out of my way. The other big problem is that a lot of people walking main street in Santa Barbara are tourists...I've seen lots of them give to the homeless, but they're not going to go back home concerned enough to actually donate to worthy causes.
I came up with a solution: put parking meters all along the sidewalks of the main street of Santa Barbara. For theatricality, I decided that we should dress up the parking meters to actually look like homeless people. You label the meters themselves with the name of the charity (the name I came up with was "Change for Charity", with the optional tacky slogan: "A Charity for Change"), a URL to a website, and a brief description of the mission: to take change from people and make sure that it ends up helping the homeless.
This way, if people want to donate change, they can do it at their convenience. The other benefit is that parking meters are secure. Any other means of donation would just invite homeless people to steal from them.
Recently, I read in a local Santa Barbara newspaper that the city is trying to do something about this problem, and they're looking for a way to get donations from people, but they haven't yet determined how to take donations in a secure way. I'm interested to see what they come up with.