Panhandlers showed up on Main Street in downtown Steinbach last week and caused quite a stir with their signs that read, 'Refugee Family Looking For Help To Pay Rent'. A number of local people reacted by contacting local agencies that work with the needy. Irene Kroeker of Steinbach Community Outreach responded by going to talk to the panhandlers.

"And they did say that they were originally from Romania and that they were currently living in Winnipeg. They are on EIA currently, or welfare. If you're on EIA and get Child Tax Credits for three children, you should have enough money for rent. And then they are also asking for food. I stood there for awhile and watched and food was not the first thing that they would like, they really wanted to have the money."

Kroeker's colleague, Myra Gerbrandt, says many people were conflicted about how they should respond.

"There are people that want to give and that want to buy the groceries and that want to hand money over and that's great. We want to have compassionate hearts. The question is: How do we have compassionate hearts but not necessarily be enabling whatever it is that's causing them to do this? We want to look at long-term solutions, we want to continue to have soft hearts, but we can maybe do that without handing over money."

Gerbrandt and Kroeker suggest the best way for us to respond to these people is to treat them with dignity and then refer them to one of the local agencies like Steinbach Community Outreach where they can get the help them claim to be looking for.