Good point.
Re the church - that's why there are no homeless camps on church parking lots and homeless only line up when the church holds a soup kitchen, then go away again. The shelters in your area house and feed them regularly or they know which church on what day does the soup kitchen. If you feel you need to do something, you can donate somewhere or volunteer your time to help. Some people really need help and there are resources out there.
In my area I'm also aware of a cardboard sign at a freeway offramp that is stored there and used by a rotation of different panhandlers, like they had an agreement or something.
Your first point makes sense. That's probably the safest thing to do. The fellow was clearly deranged. I saw him earlier in the week walking around making really weird noises like he was possessed.
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