# clean well groomed homeless people **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 14, 2011, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134 "2011-12-14T05:38:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/41 "2011-12-15T07:18:39Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Not all donations are for the homeless, but also for the poor. Also, I think they have to ask that to cut down on the amount of heavily stained, worn clothing that they just send to places that make rags. Lots of donation centers like Goodwill get practically unusable donations from people who assume the poor have no right to be “picky” and who treat the centers as a free dump. I’d think they would do better to not limit themselves to new and just throw out anything they got that was unusable. Particularly these days as I can’t imagine there are that many people that can afford to give away a bunch of new stuff! > [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > [Here](http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/hatecrimes.html) is some info on violence towards the homeless. That was an essentially useless cite as it applies to what I said about street corners during the day. > [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > I lived for eight years in the local men’s homeless shelter here in central WA, so … That was really interesting stuff - wish there had been places like that when I lived up there, tho I was in the B’ham area when I was po’ (hi **flatlined**!). Anyway, I would have been quite happy to work for a warm place to sleep back then. > [@](#): > > OTOH, we often get temperatures well below freezing, down into the single digits, here in central WA, and I’ve never heard of a homeless person dying of exposure here. Not saying it’s never happened, I just haven’t heard of it. I suspect those victims in Seattle were caught unaware by, and unprepared for, unexpectedly cold weather. I think it was because it was in Seattle so no one really expected it to get all that cold even during the winter. Were you living up there in, um, the late 80’s some time I forget the exact date, but it snowed like 2-3 inches downtown? That was one of the years they reported some of the homeless dying. Also, back then it seemed like most if not all of the street people were addicts and/or totally nuts and so may not have been able to make the decision to get out of the cold, or even notice it. > [@](#): > > My guess would be that SoCal has better services in place to help the homeless. I wouldn’t be too sure since the state is broke and has been for quite some time. We’ve always had a severe drain on our social services even before the mortgage/unemployment disaster, and our county was actually bankrupt not that long ago. > [@Kolga](#): > > Do you think they just vanish in a puff of smoke when the sun goes down, only to reappear at sunrise the next day? Please note that I was responding to the question of why someone who isn’t homeless would want to stand on a street corner here and beg. So, yes, they do vanish when the sun goes down, tho I doubt it is in a puff of smoke. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/42 "2011-12-15T08:21:47Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > I think it was because it was in Seattle so no one really expected it to get all that cold even during the winter. Were you living up there in, um, the late 80’s some time I forget the exact date, but it snowed like 2-3 inches downtown? I grew up in Vancouver (WA, not BC), but moved to Wenatchee in 1983. I remember, though “really cold” in Vancouver usually meant “just cold enough for the puddles to be iced over in the morning but the ice melts before noon”, and 2-3 inches of snow being a “blizzard” (though in, I think, '79 or '80 we got hit with two+ feet of snow all in one go, which was completely bizarre). Unpleasant, sure, but survivable if you have a warm coat and blanket and a place out of the wind. In Wenatchee, though, we usually get 2-3 heavy snowfalls over the course of winter, dropping anywhere from a few inches to a couple feet. But the thing here is that we can go long stretches where the temperature rarely or never gets above freezing, so that snow hits the ground and just sits there week after week. If it goes away, it’s because of sublimation, not melting. So people here are prepared for that more than somebody in Seattle would be. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/43 "2011-12-15T09:11:04Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > I suspect the middle-class bum-for-hire exists on the same plane as the steak-and-lobster-buying, Cadillac-driving welfare queen. What about the guy who won the lottery and carries it all around town in trash bags? I know it’s true, because, like, someone I know read it in the paper once. :rolleyes: ---
**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:** [December 15, 2011, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/44 "2011-12-15T12:34:52Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > I’d think they would do better to not limit themselves to new and just throw out anything they got that was unusable. Particularly these days as I can’t imagine there are that many people that can afford to give away a bunch of new stuff! I’ve usually seen, “new, like-new, or ‘gently used’” - the latter meaning used but doesn’t look shabby. These sort of clothes help the homeless or poor to get jobs, help them send their kids to school without shame, that sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/45 "2011-12-15T14:44:26Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > (I am talking about those who are standing on the corner calling themselves homeless and asking for money and/or a job.) Most of these people are not homeless. This is their job. In many cases they are part of an organized ring and they are being paid to stand at that intersection and collect your money. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/46 "2011-12-15T15:16:28Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > Also, I guess I don’t consider one to be homeless if they have a friend that will let them live with them. I had to do that once in the distant past and didn’t consider myself homeless. Even if you didn’t consider yourself homeless, if you were dependent on the charity of others for shelter and their couch for sleeping then yes, you were indeed homeless. However, as a _functional_ human being, presumably without addiction or mental health burdens, you were able to maintain relationships with others such that they were willing to extend such help, and were also able to hold your stuff together sufficiently to attend to basic hygiene and the like. Thus, you did not fit the _stereotype_ of “homeless” and (also presumably) were able to get back on your feet relatively quickly. The well-dressed, clean folks you see claiming homeless may, indeed, but such people who are _temporarily_ in a bad spot. Or they could be a scam, yes. It can be difficult to tell. Anyone who has worked with the homeless, in soup kitchens, shelters, etc. will be able to tell you of people who were homeless yet managed to stay clean and decently attired. They also tend to be the ones who don’t _stay_ homeless. > [@](#): > > I guess I just don’t get how the can show up on their corners pretty much every day looking good, and I forgot, also well fed, and still be homeless. OTOH, my definition of homeless is “someone who doesn’t have an indoor place to sleep” so maybe it’s just a matter of degrees? Yep. A matter of degrees. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/47 "2011-12-15T15:22:52Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > This is where you’re mistaken. Very few homeless people actually sleep outside. Where would they? You can’t sleep on the beach, in the park, or really anywhere without being hassled by the man. They’re sleeping inside somewhere. Have you led a very sheltered life that has caused you to have strict and stereotypical notions of what homeless people look (and smell) like? I’ll cut curlcoat some slack on this, as she’s in southern California, but in a lot of places sleeping outside much of the year can be fatal. Chicago in winter, for example. For that matter, I have on a couple of occasions encountered people lying in the street (well, on the sidewalk, actually) who had frozen to death during a Chicago winter. A human being _has to_ have shelter for about six months of the year around here or there is a good chance they won’t survive the night. There were also a couple occasions we had to shoo a bum out of the back seat of our car when we lived in Rogers Park - it seems one of the local homeless had retained the key to his Festiva when the bottom fell out his life. An old model Festiva key opened virtually all Festivas made, though often it wouldn’t start the car. So he’d climb into whatever local Festivas he could find for shelter. It was scary the first time, then became annoying. He never took anything or damaged the car, but yeah, having to knock on the window of your own car and say “buddy, get moving, I have to go to work now” was one of those weird living-in-the-big-city things that are funny only with the passage of years, not at the time they actually happen. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/48 "2011-12-15T15:45:40Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Most of these people are not homeless. This is their job. In many cases they are part of an organized ring and they are being paid to stand at that intersection and collect your money. Cite, please? This sounds like some cheap story you read somewhere that you believe over all other stories about the homeless just to make you feel better. I was homeless in Seattle in the mid '80’s, and it was no picnic. The shelters were few, and all were of the type that made you stand in a long line for a chance to get in, and if you _did_ get in they kicked you out between six and seven in the morning. Any free food you got was usually fast carb and little actual nutrition. Occasionally I would save up the money I got from giving plasma(back then you got between six and eight bucks a visit) and spend the night in a cheap dive…but that stopped the day they messed up my arm putting the fluid back in. Most days I started out on an empty stomach and no energy, which doesn’t work if you want to _find_ work. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/49 "2011-12-15T15:53:49Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > I’ve usually seen, “new, like-new, or ‘gently used’” - the latter meaning used but doesn’t look shabby. These sort of clothes help the homeless or poor to get jobs, help them send their kids to school without shame, that sort of thing. Also, I suspect that if they didn’t specify “new, like-new, or gently-used,” 90% of what they got would be crap that they then need to spend their very limited man-hours on sorting through and throwing out. Most non-profits/social services prefer to spend their money mostly on the actual services to help the poor/homeless, not on busywork and overhead. Also, if you donate your sneakers because they’re so worn out they hurt your feet, odds are they will hurt the feet of whoever gets them, too. That’s not particularly helpful. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/50 "2011-12-15T16:05:20Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > I don’t know - are they allowed to essentially live at the shelters? It varies by shelter. In some cases yes. In other cases, a “shelter” is just mats on the floor of an old building at night, the most basic sort of place to sleep. > [@](#): > > This. I am not kidding when I say that most of these guys are wearing better clothes than I am. Maybe you should shop at Goodwill or the Salvation Army, then. 😃 Seriously - you can pick up some _amazing_ deals there. I recently had someone come into the shop at work with a pair of boots they bought for $5 at the Goodwill. These boots retail for over $200! She brought them in to have the polished, shined, and weatherproofed, it was a steal - but someone _donated_ those boots, not wanting them anymore, although they were nearly new. We have a regular customer at work who buys shoes and boots at the thrift shops and brings them in for repairs and polishing, then turns around and sells them on eBay for profit. It’s how she makes her living. I’m not saying all the poor folks you see wearing designer stuff got their second-hand, but it’s more common a means of doing so than you might think. Heck, for that matter, my current winter parka was originally purchased by a former roommate for all of $10 at a Goodwill store - she used it for years, then left it behind when she moved out, and I’m still using it. It’s at least 20 years old just based on how long I’ve had it, but it’s been well cared for and is still very servicable. New, it was probably well over $100 at the time. > [@curlcoat](#): > > Ah. Perhaps that is why we have folks who prefer to sleep in parks and underpasses rather than in shelters. Yes, because some shelters are quite dangerous. It’s not unknown for robberies and rapes to occur during the night. I’ve heard that homeless women are more likely to avoid shelters due to fears of rape and violence. Not _all_ shelters are dens of crime, just some. > [@](#): > > I merely do not understand why it is that the homeless in one place looked homeless, and the ones in another look better off than I do. I am beginning to think that the latter are not truly in need. So… you judge whether or not someone is deserving of help solely based on appearances? It’s a bad catch-22 when a homeless person who keeps themselves together enough to be clean and decently dressed is then deemed as “not needy enough” despite still being homeless! > [@](#): > > Well, then, many of these guys are paying $100 or more for their shoes while begging for food. Or they got those $100 shoes for $5 at the Goodwill store… > [@](#): > > Huh, yeah, I had forgotten about that. Why is it that they only take new or like-new things? Seems like it would cut way down on what would be available for donation. Because if they didn’t say that they’d be inundated with rags so foul as to be unfit to scrub floors with. Too many people use donation boxes as trash bins as it is. > [@](#): > > However, as I said upthread, I am talking about the same “homeless” beggars that I have seen for the last 15 or so years, still clean and well cared for. Well, OK, those might be scams, sure. We all know there are scammers out there. However, just because a person is well dressed doesn’t mean they’re scamming - it is possible to be neat, clean, and decently dressed AND homeless at the same time. > [@curlcoat](#): > > I’d think they would do better to not limit themselves to new and just throw out anything they got that was unusable. Particularly these days as I can’t imagine there are that many people that can afford to give away a bunch of new stuff! Well, OK, except there’s the cost of throwing the garbage out. In my area vast parts of the county have no municipal trash pick up. You have to pay a private company to haul trash away, and you pay for every bit they haul. Or such a place would have to hire someone to drive the trash to the dump directly, and even if they got a volunteer driver there’s still the cost of gas and vehicle maintenance. In other words, it costs them money to deal with garbage, and money that goes to trash removal doesn’t go to people who need assistance. And, as my examples above note - there ARE people who are donating new stuff! I don’t know where these people live in my area, we’ve been hard-hit by the Great Recession in my region, but they’re out there. I can only assume they’re the same people who drop gold coins in Salvation Army kettles this time of year. Thrift stores in well-to-do areas will also see more designer wear donated, and likely newer and higher-quality items. That might also have an effect on how well dressed the poor and homeless are in such places. Finally, one more example: One of my current coworkers is, in fact, homeless. She fled her home state to evade an ex-boyfriend turned abusive (he beat her into a coma. When she recovered sufficiently to leave the hospital she left the state and wound up in our area.) She currently sleeps at a shelter of some sort, but she is required to be up at 7:30 and leave the premises during the day. She lost _everything_. She share a room at night with two other people. She has no means to secure anything of any value at all at the shelter, so she must carrying anything she cares about (including spare clothing) with her. The clothes she wears were donated by a local church. There is some issue with her qualifying for foodstamps I’m not clear about, and in any case, the only kitchen facilities she has access to are the fridge and microwave at work. The boss buys her lunch every day she is at work. Nonetheless, she comes to work on time every day, despite being without a car. She is always clean and presentable. Her clothes are neat and look good. No one would ever imagine she’s homeless, or destitute, and dependent on others for even the clothes on her back. She is trying to get an apartment, but it’s very hard with nothing saved, low wages, no bank account to keep her money in, and no local references. She’s afraid to give references from back where she used to live, for fear her ex-boyfriend might somehow track her down. Meanwhile, her shelter keeps yanking her around. Today she has to be at a meeting a 1 pm. They _don’t care_ that she is scheduled to work at that time - despite all their clamoring about how important employment is. They want her to save money, yet won’t even put lockboxes in the shelter for people to keep their valuables/money in until they have sufficient for the minimum to open a bank account. It’s a mess. At this point, social services do as much to hold her down as to help her out. So yeah, at one of my company’s store locations the nice, well-dressed, well-groomed. middle-aged woman at the front counter running the cash register and greeting customers and answering the phone is a homeless person. The wealthy customers (she’s in the store in the “rich” town) haven’t a clue, which is just as well, because quite a few of them would be horrified at the notion they are interacting with the homeless and destitute. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/51 "2011-12-15T16:05:36Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Cite, please? This sounds like some cheap story you read somewhere that you believe over all other stories about the homeless just to make you feel better. There are probably not going to be any studies that are going to satisfy this. I shared upthread an anecdotal story that I witnessed, and there are usually a handful of local news stories every year where they gotcha ya panhandlers going home/getting picked up/etc. I wonder if it would be worthwhile to try to get our local homeless continuum to add panhandling information to the annual homeless count survey, and see how many of the highway intersection locations turn up. I know that the shelter I volunteer with (that serves predominantly chronically homeless that are more likely to panhandle) don’t venture out to the highway locations (again - anecdotal). ---
**Author:** ![markm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@markm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markm)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/52 "2011-12-15T17:00:35Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > There are probably not going to be any studies that are going to satisfy this. I shared upthread an anecdotal story that I witnessed, and there are usually a handful of local news stories every year where they gotcha ya panhandlers going home/getting picked up/etc. > > I wonder if it would be worthwhile to try to get our local homeless continuum to add panhandling information to the annual homeless count survey, and see how many of the highway intersection locations turn up. I know that the shelter I volunteer with (that serves predominantly chronically homeless that are more likely to panhandle) don’t venture out to the highway locations (again - anecdotal). Yeah, when I was a kid, we had one around here. He’d hang out in front of Wal-Mart with a cup full of pencils. You’d give him a donation; he’d give you a pencil. He had this big sob story about being a veteran and homeless, the whole thing. He was only around during the warm months. He had stories to tell, and even though he was homeless, he gave half of what he collected to some veterans charity. After the local paper started doing some research, turned out he had a nice home locally, a second one in Florida where he wintered, and not a dime of what he collected went to any charity, just him. No cite and not since this was over 20 years ago, not going to try to go through microfiche archives to find proof, but it does happen. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/53 "2011-12-15T17:08:44Z")
It’s a large leap from this: > [@markm](#): > > Yeah, when I was a kid, we had one around here. He’d hang out in front of Wal-Mart with a cup full of pencils. You’d give him a donation; he’d give you a pencil. He had this big sob story about being a veteran and homeless, the whole thing. He was only around during the warm months. He had stories to tell, and even though he was homeless, he gave half of what he collected to some veterans charity. > After the local paper started doing some research, turned out he had a nice home locally, a second one in Florida where he wintered, and not a dime of what he collected went to any charity, just him. No cite and not since this was over 20 years ago, not going to try to go through microfiche archives to find proof, but it does happen. to this: > [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Most of these people are not homeless. This is their job. In many cases they are part of an organized ring and they are being paid to stand at that intersection and collect your money. wouldn’t you say? ---
**Author:** ![markm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@markm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markm)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/54 "2011-12-15T17:15:15Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > It’s a large leap from this:to this:wouldn’t you say? Meh, I only noticed your “cite please” as Munch’s quote/response and so was just giving another anecdote to show that while it does happen, there won’t be a lot of data about it one way or the other. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/55 "2011-12-15T19:21:07Z")
> [@Little\_Cat\_Z](#): > > I passed a chick with a cardboard HomelessPleaseHelp sign. She had on a Burberry backpack in very good shape, even while she was begging. I offered her $50 for it. No go. I guess she wasn’t that desperate. She didn’t even make a counteroffer. Well, why should she? 50$ won’t go far, it certainly won’t get her off the street and in a couple of days she’ll have no money\* and \*no backpack to keep her stuff in. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/56 "2011-12-15T19:28:33Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > I know this is an inane thing to ask about, but I see it so much here, so… > > Is there a legitimate reason why a homeless person would be clean, shaved, freshly shampooed/trimmed and wearing clean well cared for clothes? If one is truly homeless, doesn’t that mean lack of access to most of that? > > (I am talking about those who are standing on the corner calling themselves homeless and asking for money and/or a job.) > > When I lived in WA, most if not all of the homeless that I saw there were the shaggy dirty drugged out looking sort. Here in S Cal, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that wasn’t wearing better clothes than mine and who looked as if they had just stepped out of the shower. Since we have had newspaper articles about non-homeless folks who make money preying on peoples’ good intentions, I have never given any of these clean cut folks anything because yeah, I’m suspicious. Do I have a reason to feel that way? Or can you actually be homeless and still well dressed and groomed? At my former church, we’d allow homeless people to use the shower in the basement when they wished, and also had a clothes closet available to them, to provide them with all sorts of attire. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/57 "2011-12-15T19:50:22Z")
Here’s two recent cites from this month. > **[Eau Claire police warn: Panhandlers aren’t necessarily needy](https://www.twincities.com/2011/12/13/eau-claire-police-warn-panhandlers-arent-necessarily-needy/)** > > A lone figure stands shivering along a street near Oakwood Mall, clutching a handmade cardboard sign with the plea “Anything will help.” For the thousands of shoppers driving by as they… > [@TwinCities.com](#): > > But the problem, according to Eau Claire police, is that panhandlers increasingly frequenting busy commercial districts around town often aren’t the homeless, jobless, sympathetic figures they are portraying. > > “For many of these people, panhandling has become their occupation, and it’s a very profitable, tax-free occupation,” said police spokesman Officer Jason Kaveney. > > ## It can be so profitable in Eau Claire, in fact, that Officer David Kleinhans reported that several local panhandlers have admitted to him traveling there just to tap the generosity of local residents. > > “The reality is he may have a better house than you do; he may have a better vehicle than you do,” said Kaveney, who classified a majority of the operators as scammers “taking advantage of the generosity of others.” And not just limited to the U.S. > **[Panhandlers banned in central Paris - UPI.com](https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/12/06/Panhandlers-banned-in-central-Paris/UPI-36331323209063/?spt=hs&or=tn)** > > Paris police say they have banned panhandlers from loitering in some of the city's busiest areas over the holiday season. > [@UPI.com](#): > > Most of the beggars are Romanian and belong to organized crime networks, police said. I realize that the homeless problem in our country is vast, but a lot of the panhandling and begging that occurs at major intersections and highway offramps, with people holding a “will work for food” sign are scammers playing upon the sympathies and generosity of people. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/58 "2011-12-16T00:13:40Z")
Apparently it’s not not as lucrative or organized as some believe, [according to a Straight Dope Staff Report.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2255/how-much-money-do-beggars-make) ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2011, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/59 "2011-12-16T00:35:01Z")
My main job when working at our local Loaves and Fishes was in the women’s dispensary and shower room. Many homeless women held down jobs. They would show up bright and early each morning and sign up for shower time. They got free soap, shampoo, conditioner, etc., though many brought their own. We had blow dryers and stuff they could use as well. Most of them walked out afterward looking like your everyday “normal” non-homeless person. You would be amazed that even in this climate what people give away for clothes, shoes, purses, etc. Much of it is new with tags, but most is very gently used. Just like our own clothes are after we’ve had them for 6 mos or a year. I remember one time we got a brand new-looking Coach purse as a donation. It had to be worth a couple hundred bucks. We also got stuff from corporations like when Converse (I think it was) donated a ton of dufflebags. Dufflebags you would pay $30 for at Sportsmart. Just because people have expensive looking stuff (which might also be fake) doesn’t mean the aren’t legitimately poor or homeless. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134/60 "2011-12-16T01:23:23Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > You’re homeless if you’re crashing on a friend’s couchif you’re staying at a shelter- both places that would have facilities to bathe in. Been there, done that. Rather than clutter up this one, [here’s a thread if anyone would like to discuss my experience](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=14570627#post14570627). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-well-groomed-homeless-people/606134.md?page=4)