Begging in the suburbs

JupiterKid

Is this a relatively new trend? I live in North suburban Dublin and in the past year at my local shopping centre there are one or two panhandlers looking for "spare change for a hostel."

Now I know begging in the city centre is pretty endemic. But there are large numbers of people there so the takings for those begging would be much greater. Why the suburbs? The numbers are far less even in shopping areas and what is the logic behind this?

cactusgal

JupiterKid wrote: »

Is this a relatively new trend? I live in North suburban Dublin and in the past year at my local shopping centre there are one or two panhandlers looking for "spare change for a hostel."

Now I know begging in the city centre is pretty endemic. But there are large numbers of people there so the takings for those begging would be much greater. Why the suburbs? The numbers are far less even in shopping areas and what is the logic behind this?

There's always people begging outside Drumcondra Tesco and Drumcondra Centra. The same folks.

flogen

Going on a couple of years at least - my noticing it unsurprisingly coincided with the downturn.

Often see people begging at the Spar in Northwood, Santry but also seen guys at the Aldi and Supervalu in Finglas.

In terms of why they go suburban rather than city centre, I guess they're playing a numbers game. Sure there are fewer people at a suburban shop, but there are also fewer beggers, so they've a better chance of benefiting when a generous person comes along.

Ciaran_B

Don't know if it's new. There's been beggars on the Rathmines Road for years. In Crumlin I'd occasionally meet someone giving me a story about a sick child in the childrens hospital and that they need a tenner to get home. Their child must be very sick because they've been doing this routine for years.

dsmythy

Ciaran_B wrote: »

Don't know if it's new. There's been beggars on the Rathmines Road for years. In Crumlin I'd occasionally meet someone giving me a story about a sick child in the childrens hospital and that they need a tenner to get home. Their child must be very sick because they've been doing this routine for years.

The must not care too much for them either if they're not staying with them in the hospital

Buckfast W

There's a woman who begs outside the Spar in Clare Hall and it really annoys me. The staff never move her on and actually talk to her if it's not to busy in the shop which just seems.

She's not homeless she lives in an apartment across the road with her sister. She's just a scrounger or a chancer who probably gets a free apartment while I go to work everyday.

mariaalice

There is something going could be a change in culture less stigma attached to begging more acceptance of disengaging from society, climate change making it a bit easier to sleep outdoors all sorts of things.

There is a homeless person living on a the bit of grass under the road coming in Finglas from the M50, a homeless people were living on the seafront in Bray all that is new.

Leilak

Tesco clondalkin today the usual beggar looking for change for a hostel, it can feel very intimidating

Arcade_Tryer

Buckfast W wrote: »

There's a woman who begs outside the Spar in Clare Hall and it really annoys me. The staff never move her on and actually talk to her if it's not to busy in the shop which just seems.

She's not homeless she lives in an apartment across the road with her sister. She's just a scrounger or a chancer who probably gets a free apartment while I go to work everyday.

How awful.

Credit to you for finding it annoying and continuing to go to work everyday.

Pkiernan

There's even beggars in Malahide now.
Time to build that wall at Campions pub.

myshirt

Arcade_Tryer wrote: »

How awful.

Credit to you for finding it annoying and continuing to go to work everyday.

I nearly choked on my Tall Skinny Latte.

dhaughton99

Slightly off topic but just today while getting a key cut in clondalkin, I noticed a certain begger who does the rounds on Grafton st and surrounding areas with the buggy with no child, getting out of her 16d Hyundai i40. Things must be bad if she couldn't upgrade to a 17d.

Buckfast W

Arcade_Tryer wrote:

Credit to you for finding it annoying and continuing to go to work everyday.

Arcade_Tryer wrote:

How awful.

Well I suppose someone has to pay her dole :-)
Bottom line there's no need for her to be begging and annoying people looking for change outside the shop.

wordofwarning

Ciaran_B wrote: »

Their child must be very sick because they've been doing this routine for years.

Or the women on Dawson St must be starving, as she has prams full of food everyday on the bus home...

Baron Kurtz

"That door's closed". Tesco. Baggot Street Upper. Some may know her.

Ciaran_B

Random beggar spot tonight. Outside the Apple Green petrol station on Agnes' Rd in Crumlin.

Can't imagine he was making much, that station wouldn't be very busy.

Peregrine

There's always someome outside SuperValu in Ballymun and Tesco in Phibsborough. And sometimes outside Tesco in Drumcondra.

Vojera

flogen wrote: »

Often see people begging at the Spar in Northwood, Santry

It really puts me off shopping there, tbh. They follow you the whole way along the walkway. There's a man and two women, at least, that kinda do shifts. Sob story about being homeless and hungry from each of them. I know at least one of them lives around where I live so that's a lie. I also decided to test them a few weeks ago, just to check if they were genuine, so I bought them a few sandwiches and was told "Eh, I'd rather the money".

So f*** that. Nothing more from me.

Victor

Buckfast W wrote: »

She's not homeless she lives in an apartment across the road with her sister.

Where are there apartments anywhere near Spar in Clare Hall? Unless you go across severla roads?
https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.4001005,-6.1712953,3a,75y,85.62h,87.68t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sv-4OHQozEw2p1Mad4zzw-w!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dv-4OHQozEw2p1Mad4zzw-w%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D35.161224%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Buckfast W wrote: »

She's just a scrounger or a chancer who probably gets a free apartment while I go to work everyday.

Just because someone has a roof over their head doesn't mean they are well off.

Spanish Eyes

I am going to say something that is probably not popular, but given all the supports people have from DSP, allowances, children's allowances, housing, free medical care and the support of the Vinnies and other charities and so on, there is NO NEED to beg in this country.

In India maybe, but not here. I don't give them anything, it just makes them multiply. Some of them have hard necks.

LimeFruitGum

There are often one or two begging around Avoca Monkstown, or at various points along George's st in Dun Laoghaire. I have occasionally seen a Guard asking them to move on, but they're back the next day. I don't give them anything and I don't see anyone give them anything, but it must be worth it for them. They look well fed with decent clothes and phone, so sorry but I don't see why I should give them money.

Spanish Eyes

LimeFruitGum wrote: »

There are often one or two begging around Avoca Monkstown, or at various points along George's st in Dun Laoghaire. I have occasionally seen a Guard asking them to move on, but they're back the next day. I don't give them anything and I don't see anyone give them anything, but it must be worth it for them. They look well fed with decent clothes and phone, so sorry but I don't see why I should give them money.

The people that need to beg will not do it out of a sense of self respect. Or those that fall through the cracks, usually older men who are not as savvy as their younger counterparts who CAN access supports.

Most of it is a total scam, an industry all of its own. Do not give to beggars, they do not need it. And they are great actors and actresses too.

The people who need support and are not entitled to it are the squeezed middle, working full time, commuting for hours on end, horrendous childcare costs, LPT, paying for bins, the doctor, the hospital, for medication, uniforms, everything in fact, and you have these scam artists with their hands out who get all the above FOR FREE.

Get the picture. We are being had big time.

Buckfast W

Victor wrote:

Where are there apartments anywhere near Spar in Clare Hall? Unless you go across severla roads?

Victor wrote:

Just because someone has a roof over their head doesn't mean they are well off.

Eh the apartments are just across the road there in Belmayne I can actually see them in the link.

And as regards to having a roof over her head I'm sure she's in receipt of social welfare payments because she definitely doesn't work and has a permanent address.

I'm not exactly well off but I don't hassle people for spare change outside my local shop or any other shop for that matter.

mosi

Vojera wrote: »

It really puts me off shopping there, tbh. They follow you the whole way along the walkway. There's a man and two women, at least, that kinda do shifts. Sob story about being homeless and hungry from each of them. I know at least one of them lives around where I live so that's a lie. I also decided to test them a few weeks ago, just to check if they were genuine, so I bought them a few sandwiches and was told "Eh, I'd rather the money".

So f*** that. Nothing more from me.

That reminds me of a time when the OH and myself were going into a shop in town where there was a beggar outside. A man came out of the shop and gave him a sandwich that he had just bought him. As soon as he was gone, the beggar approached the OH and tried to sell him the sandwich.

Victor

Buckfast W wrote: »

Eh the apartments are just across the road there in Belmayne I can actually see them in the link.

You mean the ones that are 450-950 metres away? https://www.google.ie/maps/dir/53.4000843,-6.1711367/53.4033432,-6.1704749/@53.4019555,-6.1736127,539m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!4m1!3e2

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

The people that need to beg will not do it out of a sense of self respect. Or those that fall through the cracks, usually older men who are not as savvy as their younger counterparts who CAN access supports.

Most of it is a total scam, an industry all of its own. Do not give to beggars, they do not need it. And they are great actors and actresses too.

The people who need support and are not entitled to it are the squeezed middle, working full time, commuting for hours on end, horrendous childcare costs, LPT, paying for bins, the doctor, the hospital, for medication, uniforms, everything in fact, and you have these scam artists with their hands out who get all the above FOR FREE.

Get the picture. We are being had big time.

Not everyone who might be entitled to something is actually receiving it, due to lack of knowledge or not having the wherewithal to apply for it.

Ruat Caelum

I remember growing up in a southside suburb in the 80s and for a while in the 90s ... you'd have travellers going door to door to people's houses begging for a bit of money or tins of food, used to happen fairly regularly.

fg1406

Ruat Caelum wrote: »

I remember growing up in a southside suburb in the 80s and for a while in the 90s ... you'd have travellers going door to door to people's houses begging for a bit of money or tins of food, used to happen fairly regularly.

God yeah I remember that. My mother used to buy the local woman a few litres of milk and bread. One day she asked for clothes for the kids so my poor mother bagged up some of our old clothes and shoes and gave them to her. An hour later they were strewn all over the entrance to the estate where she had taken what she wanted and dumped the rest. That was the end of helping her. She actually put her foot in the door when my mother tried to close it on her the next time she called.

Buckfast W

Victor wrote:

You mean the ones that are 450-950 metres away?

Yup yup thems the ones but you'd wanna be crawling on you're hands and knees for it to take 6 mins.

Just on the other point a lot of people are very aware of what they can claim from the social welfare. It would only be if you didn't have a fixed address that you would run into difficulty.

Someone in receipt of social welfare and presumably rent allowance doesn't need to beg outside there local shop unless there spending that money on a drug or alcohol addiction.

It's a pain in the arse getting hassled for "any spare change" going into the shop.

Free housing... Rent allowance... Can someone on welfare just find a gaff, go to the welfare and say "hey, I want to live at this address, pay my rent for me", and their rent gets paid? Just like that? How would that even work?

hinault

Two people sleeping in the doorway of Mount Argus church last Saturday afternoon. A sad sight. The rain was falling particularly heavily that afternoon.