The only time I ever was to be found asking strangers for money was as a volunteer for Oxfam duing the Biafra crisis, long before professional fundraising tainted such activities with chugging. Nowadays, it would seem you have to be Saint Bob to get past that one. We would always sum up a customer asking how much for some second-hand clothing: are they really needy (in which case they'd get it for just enough to allow them to keep their self-respect) or were they acting down to add to their wealth - in which case they'd get it for less than they'd pay from Marks, but enough more than a fair price to compensate for the charity to the poor. Everyone ended up happy, and Oxfam got a good whack.

I think there are two levels of panhandling. If you're truly needy (and by that, I include the hour of day: if you're fit to work and it's 9am, then go and find a job, but if you're not, it's below 10C and wet, then I'll help you find shelter) then I'll help. I spent enough nights in the wet when in the infantry to know the difference. I'm fairly canny on the scams, the kid who's been drugged to be out of it, but is chubby and so not starved, the busker who's doing better than his day job. Heck, there's a professional harpist in Brittany who started that way, I showed her basic hand position, she rented a harp, couldn't practice in the flat because of housemates so took it onto the front doorstep to practice. End of half an hour's concentration and she's learned her first tune, and better still, had more money in front of her than she'd earned that day temping. By the end of the week she'd turned pro, with a repertoire of five tunes, and spent the next year busking. Then she went to a summer festival and started winning things. Elena, of Seddrenn.
Similarly, there was a musette squeezebox player in Brussels, always used to accept from the Sisters of the Convent. Until one of them was late, saw him leaving in a top-of-range beamer. Busking can pay well.

However, what drives me crazy is the failure of the public authorities to take their responsibilities properly. I've said it about the NHS failure to support the miliary and the RBL letting them off the hook, and the same applies here. There's now a problem that the outreach may not be credible from the Auythorities themselves, but then tbhey must help what does work to solve the problem.

Of course, that's in the UK, in the US your political bipolar system has its own elephantine peculiarities. The only way to eat an elephant is to prepare a plan, begin at the beginning, and stick with it. Of course, donkeys don't. The alternative is to fuck the thing, which requires a tolerance for an excessive amount of trumpetting, and the patience to wait an unconscionable amount of time to see if anything produces. Of course, most American elephants are male, but the philosophy may still be worth trying, if only to teach them to get out of the way.