Sieg Kirchner Try offering them food and hear the rude comments. You're screwing up their day by meeting their actual need for food. They want that money for other things that are more important to them than food.

My daughter is a gypsy bluegrass musician. Her band has occasionally run out of money between gigs and thrown open the guitar cases in front of a grocery store. They make good bank when they do it. One of the things she has learned in doing that is that the "homeless" get angry over it. Entertaining people makes better money than standing there looking dirty. But she's also gotten to know some of these so-called "homeless", even gone to their camps and apartments. Whoops, did I say apartments. Yeah. She's learned that most of those standing on corners in the Lower 48 are professional beggars, which is why they get angry when you offer them food. They have a roof and food. What they want is money.

Mostly it's a scam. The truly needy would take food instead of money.