First off, on panhandling:
We - my disabled husband and I - lived in a canvas tent up Putney Road from 2021 to 2023. Not once in our two years of being homeless did we ever need to panhandle for anything.
Neither of us work. We have very little income from SSI (Supplemental Security Income) and SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance), and we fall below the poverty line. Since we choose not to spend our money on drugs or alcohol, we always had just enough to afford our basic tenting survival needs and hygiene needs.
No one can go hungry in this town. It's not possible with aid of Food Stamps (3SquaresVT), daily community lunches, food shelfs, etc.
I've often heard the philosophy that once you give money to a panhandler, it is out of your hands - that it's up to that person to decide what to spend it on. Let me ask you folks: What exactly is needed by homeless people other than drugs and or alcohol by the money from panhandling, when hygiene products are handed out by the overflow shelter through Groundworks and food is supplied daily?
Nothing that is essential to homeless survival.
If you want to help the homeless, then provide decent camping equipment, socks, blankets, first aid kits, backpacks, etc. - not money that will most likely be spent on drugs and/or alcohol and further exacerbate their troubles.
The two of us had all the challenges of not having an ID, not having a vehicle, clothing, etc. But we utilized the supports out there in this community and pursued them on our own. We overcame homelessness, and now we are housed.
We plan to continue to write more and continue to work toward trying to better the situation for the homeless. Having been there ourselves, we do know what is best needed and not just as a Band-Aid or crutch.
We have ideas on this subject matter as well as tenting survival skills we plan to write more about at a later time. We just wanted to - now that we have a chance - submit our first article related to the homeless panhandling epidemic and the homeless epidemic in general.
Stephanie Cavanaugh Harrison and Charles Harrison
Brattleboro
This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.