I don't give money cause frankly, I don't have much of it myself and in the area I worked in, a majority of them could be found with alcohol so I didn't want to support that.

The area I worked in had a lot of homeless people. So instead of money, I'd give them my free lunch from work after my shift. I knew that I was helping them but I still didn't support any bad habbits. It's not exactly practical to carry extra food with you though.. but if you know you're heading to that area, then maybe you can bring some food if you don't feel comfortable with giving them money.