What's the Deal With Cardboard Sign Holders?

Seeing more people in the area “flying” a sign, as they say, made me want to study this scenario a little more. I wanted to know what was the true motivation for holding a sign. What do the people need and why do they think that holding a sign is the best way to get it? Is giving money to the sign holder a good idea or will it just prolong his or her problem and aid someone’s alcohol, drug or cigarette problem? I also wanted to know if the people holding signs were just simply not aware of the services available in this area? I have an internal struggle when I see a person on the street corner holding a sign asking for money. I want to help, but I worry that helping that person with cash may be the wrong thing to do. I think most people have those same thoughts. I have heard stories of sign holders doing pretty well for themselves almost making it a career. On the other hand, some of the sign holders I have seen were truly in need.

I knew that in order to conduct this study I would need to have pretty clear parameters to get results that could be looked at without bias. I determined to use 2007 to document in a fair and accurate manner as many interactions with sign holders as possible. All results are unduplicated however if I outreached the same sign holder more than once I would offer the same help as I previously had without counting them in the study again. I limited my response area to the north end of Flathead Valley and I kept track of my response times. The only specific criterion for the study was that the person had to be holding a sign asking for help. I spread the word to other United Way organizations and services as possible asking if anyone sees a sign holder call me.

I received calls from Eagle Transit (the local bus transportation service), Kalispell Taxi, United Way, Flathead Job Service, Flathead Food Bank, local pastors, business people and a few I happened across while running errands in town. Calls came at all times of the day but never later than 6:00 pm. I noticed that calls came in streaks. At times there were one or two weeks without any sign holders. Summer days and the days right after a holiday seemed to be especially quiet. This could also be times that my callers were not available.

My process for interacting with the person holding the sign remained nearly the same every time. First I introduced myself by first name and shook hands. This brought the person to ease knowing that my intentions were good. I then simply asked, “How are you doing?” This naturally led the person into telling part of their story. Then I would introduce myself as the director of Samaritan House and offer shelter, meals, job search help, help accessing other programs and benefits etc… I always had Samaritan House business cards with me as well as business cards from United Way, Flathead Food Bank and the phone number for HelpNet/Neighbors In Need. Ultimately I would offer to pay the sign holder $50, let them do laundry and feed them lunch and in return they would have to sweep and mop the shelter, a job that takes probably three hours when all of this was complete if they decided not to stay at the shelter I would give them a ride back to the place I had picked them up.

In tracking my response time I averaged 45 minutes from initial call to arriving at the location the caller relayed. I was personally able to provide the outreach to all of the sign holders with the exception of a couple of occasions when a trained case manager provided the outreach service. Still with a response time that averaged 45 minutes, 26% of the sign holders were gone when I arrived.

The locations the sign holders were met were all outside of Kalispell city limits. One sign holder even relayed that he was given a ride there via a local police officer after he was told that it was illegal to hold a sign in the city limits. Upon further discussion I learned that this police officer scolded him about his alcohol use and offered to bring him to the Samaritan House, he was not interested. .

Most of the sign holders I outreached were male. 7% of sign holders I outreached were female. 9% claimed to be part of a family. All sign holders claimed to be from the area with the exception of the months of July, August and September. In fact on a few occasions during those warmer months I was told, “This is a just passing through town kind of thing.”

It is interesting to note that on some occasions sign holders would stand on the median of an entrance to a parking lot or store. Upon further conversation it was pointed out that this was in order to reach traffic both coming and going. I did not have any success with sign holders who used the median.

The signs stated everything from “Fallen on Hard Times” to “Vehicle Problems, Anything Helps”. Some signs I documented stated, “Husband Hurt Back, Need Help”, “ Out of Money, Anything Helps”, “Veteran, Need Help”, “Need a Miracle, Anything Helps”, “Need Work”, or my 2007 favorite “Ugly, Broke and Sober- Will Work”. Common sign themes were “Need Help” and “God Bless” I suppose this to be a more effective tool. I also noticed a few dogs accompanying sign holders.

“Need Work” did not hold his sign very long at all. In fact, he had with him a bag a carpentry tools.

“Husband Hurt Back” relayed that her family did have housing but made too much money for public assistance programs and were not qualified for any sort of disability program. She presented a difficult scenario of miserable limbo between being able to make it and qualifying for programs.

While outreaching sign holders I observed them receiving money, groceries, coffee, dog food and phone numbers from kind strangers passing by.

As a result of this yearlong study I spoke with 68 people on the street corner holding signs in 2007. As I mentioned earlier 18 sign holders or 26% were gone when I arrived. In all fairness, because they were gone I do not know if these 18 were people I had previously outreached or not. In my efforts to total unduplicated numbers I should not include these. 35 sign holders or 51% declined any offer of help other than cash and ultimately refused any attempt to make them self sufficient. And finally, 15 sign holders or 22% got in my vehicle or were able to drive themselves to the shelter. Samaritan House was able to help those 15 sign holders in a major life changing way, seeing them through to self-sufficiency.

So what should you do when you see a sign holder?

Based on these results and in good responsibility I feel that giving money to a sign holder is not always the best way to help them achieve success. At Samaritan House we create an environment to identify and conquer the situations that led to the problem in the first place. It takes more time and isn’t as easy as giving five bucks but empowering people to take control of their lives and have success is worth all of the time and effort.

If you see a sign holder and feel led to help them you can give Samaritan House a call at 257-5801 and a qualified case manager or myself will outreach them as soon as possible. Together we can guide people that truly want help down a road that will lead to hope, success and restored self-esteem. Samaritan House sincerely thanks this kind and generous community that gives faithfully to us so that we can continue to give our fellow citizens a hand up.

Thank you for supporting your local homeless shelter.
Chris Krager