# Calling All Social Workers and Hotel Clerks -- Panhandlers **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 17, 2014, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-social-workers-and-hotel-clerks-panhandlers/693329 "2014-07-17T02:37:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-social-workers-and-hotel-clerks-panhandlers/693329/1 "2014-07-17T02:37:19Z")
In a thread about giving to panhandlers, **LouLou** had this to say… > [@Do you give cash to panhandlers?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-give-cash-to-panhandlers/693041/127): > > Actually, from the perspective of the panhandler, there are a lot of advantages to panhandling that those of us with regular jobs don’t have. > > I work in the emergency room of a large, urban hospital. As a social worker, I talk to most of the homeless/panhandler folks who come through. Because I’m curious about their experiences, I’ve asked a lot of questions about why and how they do what they do. > > Most of the folks I’ve talked to report that they can average around $20 an hour by holding a sign on a streetcorner. They work three to five hours per day, at times of their choosing. The more successful ones pick busy street corners and stand during morning and afternoon rush hours. Within a few hours they have collected somewhere between $70 to $100, and are through for the day. > > With that amount of money, a panhandler can buy a hotel room for the night, a fast food meal, a couple packs of cigarettes and as much cheap booze as they want. If someone is having an _off_ day, there are usually “buddies” around who will share their room and resources, and expect reciprocation when their off day arrives. > > The advantages to this sort of lifestyle is that a person with limited education or job skills can make decent money, pay no taxes on it, set his/her own schedule, and live a reasonably comfortable, if day-to-day, existence. From their perspective, it’s certainly better than punching a 40 hour a week clock for a minimum wage job. > > I make no judgements about the rightness or wrongness of such a lifestyle, but it’s easy to understand why it appeals to some people. So, in your experience, has this been the case? As a social worker, have those who have engaged in panhandling told you their stories? If so, did it parallel something close to this? And for the hotel desk clerks, did you ever have repeat customers that were seriously disheveled, looked (and smelled?) homeless, who paid in crumpled up bills and change? How about bringing lots of similar buddies with them to share their room? Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-social-workers-and-hotel-clerks-panhandlers/693329/2 "2014-07-17T02:44:13Z")
The hotel room in question may not be the sort you or I would ever stay in, but rather a cheap one-star or less place, or even one of those “flophouse”-type places where there is a bathroom or two per floor, rather than a private bath. (Like where Elwood lives in the film **The Blues Brothers**.) Most decent-ish hotels these days seem to demand a credit card up front for any damages/additional expenses, even if you pay up in cash. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-social-workers-and-hotel-clerks-panhandlers/693329/3 "2014-07-17T02:49:29Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > So, in your experience, has this been the case? As a social worker, have those who have engaged in panhandling told you their stories? If so, did it parallel something close to this? And for the hotel desk clerks, did you ever have repeat customers that were seriously disheveled, looked (and smelled?) homeless, who paid in crumpled up bills and change? How about bringing lots of similar buddies with them to share their room? Anyone? It wouldn’t be something a clerk at the average hotel would see happen often, it would be those extended stay ones. But yeah, that’s the kind of people who live at some of those places, because they can’t qualify for a lease. As an intern I went along on home visits to probationers who lived in such places, but I knew about it before that, I thought everyone did. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-social-workers-and-hotel-clerks-panhandlers/693329/4 "2014-07-17T03:05:15Z")
Yes to both, though I’m not a social worker. I’ve worked in a number of psychiatric facilities, community mental health, and community college, though. Lots of people sleeping in cars, couch surfing, trading sex for part of a hotel room, too. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-social-workers-and-hotel-clerks-panhandlers/693329/5 "2014-07-17T03:12:03Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > In a thread about giving to panhandlers, **LouLou** had this to say… > > So, in your experience, has this been the case? As a social worker, have those who have engaged in panhandling told you their stories? If so, did it parallel something close to this? And for the hotel desk clerks, did you ever have repeat customers that were seriously disheveled, looked (and smelled?) homeless, who paid in crumpled up bills and change? How about bringing lots of similar buddies with them to share their room? Anyone? I’ve worked in homeless shelters, and yes all that is accurate, if a little exaggerated compared to the experiences of my guys: $20 an hour is more like a maximum than a typical day, and very, very few guys on the street have a buddy they’d loan more than $5. A more typical scenario is two guys panhandling all day, and each getting maybe $50, which they pool together to get some food, some booze, and a flophouse room (flipping a coin to see who gets the floor). Also pretty common was the guests who’d get some kind of monthly check (SSI, disability, whatever), then spend it all on a two-week bender living in a flophouse and drinking, and show up at the shelter when the money was gone. They’d stay with us until the next check came in, and the cycle repeats. What exactly do you think panhandlers spend money on besides food, shelter, and intoxicants? ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-social-workers-and-hotel-clerks-panhandlers/693329/6 "2014-07-17T03:17:26Z")
Thanks for the replies. I think I was getting hung up on the amounts ($70 - $100 a day) juxtaposed against the idea of getting a hotel (versus a flophouse, et al.) when I was assuming that the sort of panhandlers I had in my mind’s eye were real and truly homeless. And I understood completely that they’d get a small bit of food and whatever their vice of choice was. I was simply thrown off and wanted to see if others had experienced the same thing. Now, I’m even happier I asked, as I was way off base on what I was envisioning. ---
**Author:** ![LouLou7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LouLou7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouLou7)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-social-workers-and-hotel-clerks-panhandlers/693329/7 "2014-07-17T03:30:56Z")
I should qualify that I work in a Veterans Affairs hospital, so the people I see hold “disabled Veteran” signs, even if their disability has nothing to do with their military service. That may bring in a few extra dollars and up their hourly average. It may also be the case that one _disabled Vet_ is more likely to help another disabled Vet through the buddy system than just random homeless guys. And if you’re staying in a motel room overnight, you don’t have to be dirty and smelly. You can take a shower if you want, and some motels have laundry areas. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-social-workers-and-hotel-clerks-panhandlers/693329/8 "2014-07-17T03:59:14Z")
I appreciate the explanation, **Lou**. I didn’t want to derail the other thread with all my questions, but I was pretty lost. Of course, I’ve never lived in a really big, inner city (Dallas and Austin was as large as it got for me, although I was never "downtown), so understanding what all that meant would’ve taken up more of a hijack than the other OP probably would’ve liked. Oh, I did get that they could shower once staying some place. That’s why I addressed the clerks who would see them when they first came in, ostensibly sans bath. ---
**Author:** ![Magicicada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c67d28/32.png) [@Magicicada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magicicada)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-social-workers-and-hotel-clerks-panhandlers/693329/9 "2014-07-17T06:56:10Z")
Giving more of a small town perspective, when I was a motel clerk/housekeeper (at what we will euphemistically call a budget chain), we definitely had our homeless regulars. I don’t know how much money they pulled in, but a night’s stay ran $30-$40 and that got them a clean (albeit shabby) room with working heat/air, a hot shower, doors that locked, and 2 beds. The more successful among them skipped the panhandling and instead worked their way through the various churches asking to have their room paid for a night. When they ran out of churches, they would approach individuals in parking lots. The churches would often also provide food from their pantries, which would invariably be left behind when the guest checked out, because (a) they didn’t have any means of cooking it and (b) they really weren’t into generic canned peas. We’d end up collecting it and redistributing it, like some present no one wants that keeps getting regifted. I remember one guy who had a dog. This dog was not starving. People would give the guy so much dog food that it was standard practice for him to stop one of the housekeepers as he was leaving the next day so he could remind her to go to his room to collect food for her dogs. (Oddly enough [and the reason the OP’s title caught my eye], I have also been a social worker, but I wasn’t really around a homeless population in those jobs. So, um, I can’t add any wisdom there.) ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-social-workers-and-hotel-clerks-panhandlers/693329/10 "2014-07-17T13:34:48Z")
My wife is a social worker, and the issue she sometimes faces with clients is families that will panhandle with their _kids_ :eek: . Not surprisingly seeing a woman with a dirty and sad looking three-year-old garners a lot more sympathy, but panhandling with your kids present is against the rules at least here in California. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-social-workers-and-hotel-clerks-panhandlers/693329/11 "2014-07-17T14:24:19Z")
These responses have been enlightening. Thank you all for sharing your experiences and I appreciate learning more about something I wasn’t very knowledgable in. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-social-workers-and-hotel-clerks-panhandlers/693329/12 "2014-07-17T15:44:32Z")
I’ve known a reasonable number of people who grew up in generational poverty and would only panhandle when they were desperate. It’s hard to get into the positive numbers and able to actually rent a place while working a minimum-wage job, to say nothing of the lack of references. If you’ve got kids, or a spouse or family member who steals what you’ve earned in order to buy drugs, so much the worse. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-social-workers-and-hotel-clerks-panhandlers/693329/13 "2014-07-17T21:12:06Z")
**susan** , that’s so true and another reason I always give to panhandlers when I can. Their circumstances can prevent them from ever getting a leg up, so what’s a couple of dollars from me? Maybe it would contribute to a good night’s sleep or a hot meal. You just never know.