I am not sure if this is what you feel or not (and this may be over-analyzing), but for many people, homelessness is a problem that should be delegated for othe

I am not sure if this is what you feel or not (and this may be over-analyzing), but for many people, homelessness is a problem that should be delegated for others to do something about. They don't like the presence of them in their neighborhoods (for whatever reasons) and they often have misconceptions of homelessness that exacerbate the problem. What works for me is to just chat with them. They don't all beg, but even if they do, one thing they all have in common is the need for ordinary conversation. The fact that someone posted a story about A/B testing a homeless person's sign sends me two messages. a) They are thinking about homelessness and want to do something about it. b) They are trying to relate it to another problem that many other (non-homeless) people experience. I'm not sure what the author's motivations are, but they definitely got their message across, and they will definitely get people talking about it.