It's an age-old problem: do you give your spare change directly to the homeless or do you give it to charity instead? Now a local council has been criticised after it decided to lean towards the latter.
Gloucester's Conservative-led City Council has been slammed after it put up posters urging passers-by not to give money to the homeless. The reason? Because they may not actually be homeless.
The posters, found in the city of Gloucester in the south-west of England, instead wants people to contact Streetlink - a site which connects local authorities and rough sleepers - or give their money to local homeless charities.
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The posters have been blasted by the council's opposing Labour Party group, saying they 'demonise' people who are already extremely vulnerable.
"Are you really helping homeless people? In some cases the people you see sleeping rough are not really homeless. They are in accommodation receiving support and benefits," the poster reads.
"Think before you give - change is more than coins."
The poster goes on to advise people that if they are worried about someone sleeping rough, they can contact the local homeless outreach team or donate to a homeless charity instead. But is doing that really that helpful?
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The local Labour Party definitely doesn't think so, as the city council's Labour group leader Terry Pullen and the Gloucester Parliamentary candidate Fran Boait has called for the posters to be removed.
"The posters imply that most homeless people are not genuine but trying to con people out of money," they said in a joint statement.
"This effectively demonises one of the most vulnerable groups of people in our society who need our kindness and care.
"We call upon Gloucester City Council to immediately withdraw these posters."
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The Labour group added that it is 'fully supportive' of initiatives that exist to help homeless people but would welcome them being more publicised in a more positive way.
The group's anger was shared by many other people on Facebook after it was shared by the page Homeless Britain, an account which shares news about homeless people in Britain.
"They seem to have the money to do a poster campaign, but when it comes to help solving the homeless problem, 'oh no we can't find money for that'." one man commented.
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A second wrote: 'I'm so angry. Gloucester council your poster is demonising the most marginalised people who are already left in the cold to perish.'
A third comment said: 'The poster should be headed - Gloucester City Council: are you really helping the homeless? The rest of the text could be deleted and replaced with NO.'
Responding to the criticism, Cllr Jennie Watkins, deputy leader of Gloucester City Council, admitted the council's 'Street Aware' campaign is 'a tough message to deliver' but said giving money directly to beggars may cause more harm than good.
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She said that from much of the work the city has done to help rough sleepers over the past 18 months, workers have found that people are housed and receiving benefits 'in the majority of cases' but are struggling with complex needs which can lead to begging.
"The launch of our "Street Aware" campaign is to raise public awareness about alternative giving," Cllr Watkins said. "It's a tough message to deliver, but we must consider whether giving money directly to individuals is the best way to support them to make positive and sustainable change.
"Giving money to people who beg may make life on the street easier for them in the short term, but, in the worst case, could feed dependency. It takes more than money to turn a life around."
Cllr Watkins added that diverting donations to the city's 'many great' charities and organisations working to help the homeless 'could really make a big difference' and ensure that any funds donated 'directly help those in need'.
Whether you believe in giving money directly to the homeless, or think it just deepens the problem, it's a dilemma that's set to rumble on.
CORRECTION: The original article posted on 15 January 2018 said that Gloucester City Council had not yet responded to the criticism at the time of writing. We are happy to report that this was in fact not the case.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: UK News, News, Homelessness