If you’ve walked down University Avenue recently, you’ve probably wrestled with the question of whether or not to put change in a panhandler’s cup. That concern and others, including the problems of mental illness and the stigma of homelessness, were addressed by Prof. Don Barr and unhoused community member Jeff Talley at an event about homelessness yesterday.

The event, entitled “Homelessness and Housing,” closed a week of Students Taking On Poverty (STOP) events for National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.

Barr gave a PowerPoint presentation about how he began working with the homeless community, his contribution to the recently built Opportunity Center in Palo Alto and the importance of using “unhoused” rather than “homeless.”

“People I have talked to have told me, ‘Don’t use the word homeless. I have been living in this community for 20 years; this is my home. I’m not homeless, I just don’t have any housing,’” he said.

Additionally, Barr said, unhoused community members have reported that the worst thing about being homeless is the stigma and “the way that people do — or don’t — look at you.” Many of the unhoused have medical or psychological problems, and the best way to help is through housing coupled with medical services, he concluded.

Jeff Talley, a resident of the Opportunity Center who has been in and out of homelessness for the past five years, shared his experiences from the street and described the prejudice against like him.

“I worked jobs and tried to hide the fact I was homeless,” he said. “When they found out I was homeless, their perception of me changed.”

For University students who volunteer with the unhoused, Talley thanked them but also advised caution.

“You have people out there who can be perfectly normal on medication and then will suddenly start talking to a lamppost,” he said. “And you have criminals. No doubt in the homeless community that there are criminals. If you come down, you really are appreciated, but never forget where you are.”

On the subject of panhandling, Barr and Talley agreed that the money received is usually used for drugs, alcohol or cigarettes.

“I have put in three to four thousand hours of work, and I have yet to put a dime in a cup,” Barr said.

Audience members said they enjoyed the presentation, especially Talley’s candid description of life on the street.

“It was a lot the things I had read about, but the first time I heard testimony from an unhoused person,” said STOP member Kathryn Kliff, a junior. “There was no sugar-coating. It wasn’t about trying to pull on your heartstrings.”

Junior Debbie Warshawsky, the founder of STOP, said that she thought the discussion offered an excellent way “to put a face on homelessness” but stressed that Talley’s experiences were not shared by all of the unhoused community. She added that the presentation might have been one-sided due to the unexpected absence of Mae Law, a homeless woman who was scheduled to speak.

“I think the speakers tonight gave the impression that you should never give to panhandlers, and I’ve had a different experience with it,” she said. “When I was in Washington, D.C., I interacted with an elderly woman who panhandled so that she could have $10 a day to sleep in someone’s apartment. And the two times the previous winter that she didn’t raise the money, she ended up hospitalized.”

“After tonight, people may think that you shouldn’t donate at all. I think they should think for themselves, and if they do donate, donate out of the goodness of their hearts,” she said.

Despite differences of opinion on the appropriateness of charitable giving, audience members said the event prompted feelings of empathy.

Fourth-year chemistry graduate student Bridgett Payne summed it up.

“Jeff was so personable and normal,” she said, “it made me realize that they’re not all that different from us.”