It worked for a guy near here. But then again, that's only because he was the first genuinely homeless person who would actually accept food instead of asking for money in order to get alcohol... and I was feeling generous. Well, there was one other genuinely homeless guy out here, but he didn't want money or food. You just had to make sure you didn't make eye contact or else he'd pull out an old crank camera and start filming you yelling "HOW DO YOU LIKE IT? HUH!?"
I wonder what happened to that guy. He scared off the emos in this area, so he was a hero in my book.