Across Canada, municipalities have been struggling to alleviate the poverty of increasing numbers of homeless people and panhandlers on city streets. Simultaneously, tensions have risen between these street people and the general public. This thesis is a narrative study of the current conflict between panhandlers and other community stakeholders in Calgary, Alberta. This study presents the diverse viewpoints and voices of people who panhandle, homeless people, the general public, the downtown business community, social service providers, city bureaucrats and police officers. This study examines how identity politics and broader social ideologies shape face-to-face street encounters and influence debates over public policy at an institutional level. The relationship between panhandlers and the public is typically one marked by social distance. The current approach to panhandlers involves treating them as "strangers within our midst." This approach undermines their citizenship and heightens tensions within the community more so than would an approach that emphasizes their commonality with the larger society and their rights within civic space.

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