Most of the time, I kinda lie and say I only have a card, but there are some tricky mofos who scheme and they're like it's an ATM right there! And this is downtown Minneapolis, the homeless people have no shame...
Usually though, if a homeless person asks me for money, I say are you hungry? If they reply yes, I offer to buy them a burger or something... A lot of the times they accept. Some have said they're hungry and when I offer to buy them food, they say just give me the money. My money isn't going towards crack. I work to hard for it. No Whitney intended. Sometimes, I might ask a homeless if they're on crack or any type of drug/alcohol. One man blatantly told me that he just got out of rehab for alcohol but he just wants something to drink for the night. Blehhhh. I just approach it depending on the situation.