Actually, it silly to say not to judge the homeless, since absent doing so, one does them little good. Perhaps you really mean, don't condemn the homeless.
Recently, around where I live, criminals masking as homeless have infiltrated the homeless population in order to case out places to rob. Ideally, the cities would "police" the homeless by first establishing that they are indeed homeless and secondly by providing them safe places to spend their nights and to target social services to those locations to provide assistance in feeding and providing medical care to not only help the homeless but limit the spread of disease among them (they are more prone to disease due to their weakened condition).
Some homeless are extremely violent and people have been assaulted by them. Those individuals need to be removed from the street and institutionalized and given our "catch and release" policies in California regarding crime, a register of known violent homeless needs to be maintained so local authorities can protect their citizens. It is critical to "judge" between those homeless that pose no threat to citizens and other homeless people and those that do.
It is also important in towns like mine whose lifeblood is tourism to mandate what and what is not acceptable homeless behaviors by the homeless. Failing to do so, undermines the town's support to them (many of our restaurants distribute unused meals to homeless people), but the inclination to help declines when your business has been hurt by the homeless.
Our churches regularly hold food and clothing drives to collect food and clothing to help the homeless. It is important, that citizens view the homeless as "down on their luck" and needing help and not as a threat to the citizens of the town.
One important behavior that must be curtailed by the homeless includes leaving needles in public restrooms or using public restroom toilet paper rolls to clean needles by injecting the roll with a used needle to clean off any blood (in some cases the needles break-off and remain in the toilet paper rolls and pose a health threat to children using the facility.
Virtue signaling by declaring you gave someone your last two dollars does not solve the problem of homelessness and while it may make you feel better, a better approach is to contribute regularly to those agencies in your town that provide assistance to homeless.
Panhandlers come in two categories, those who really need help and those who don't, and you have no way to tell the difference in fact, you are more likely to feel compelled to give to professional panhandlers that know how to panhandle than those that really need your money but don't know how to do it.
What we should all be is generous. Generosity goes beyond giving someone some money, but instead it includes the effort needed to make sure your money is going to those that need it. Numerous stories have been printed in our local papers of people who have been observed panhandling and at the end of the day, hopping into their car and driving home. These stories highlight the fact that professional panhandlers are soaking up money that needs to go to the homeless. So, I encourage people to give generously but to also research the recipient of your largesse and if you can't, then seek an organization that does.
One such organization in my community is linked below. I am not suggesting you give to this group but find one in your community.
https://lovefam.org/
