My husband has, in the past, done something similar…he’s approached panhandlers with the “Will work for food” signs, offering work for an hourly wage and a hot meal, and been refused. He’s even offered to give the meal first, but it seems that the sign isn’t really accurate, the panhandlers only want handouts. These days, if he needs some extra help, he goes through a temp agency.
Ah, homeless chic. It’s all the rage in the fashion world these days.
I live 1.5 miles from the “freeway” and near the carpool lot there is a group of homeless people that have encamped there, sometimes with a very old motor home. They take turns at the off ramps and left turn lights onto the on ramps, sometimes as many as three working at one time.
We also have a lot of people under 30 who will approach at a gas station and say their car (at the pump) has run out of gas and ask for money. Say no and they put gas in and drive off anyway. So at least some of them just figure an old guy will give them some free money for gas. I’ve seen this a number of times.
As long as they don’t rob me, I figure I won’t turn into a conservative.
I’ve seen the beggar pimps in San Francisco. One day, I came across a cluster of scruffy guys and one person was giving directions about who will be on which corner and when.
Where’s SmashtheState when you need him?
I saw this in Mexico also, with the “chicle” sellers. The boss was handling money and writing it all down on a clipboard.
It left me with the impression that at the end of the day they all check in with the regional office and enter their daily sales into the database for roll-up reporting to headquarters.
After our business failed in 2006, I started taking on part-time jobs to help pay off business debt. Rather that filing bankruptcy, I figured as long as my body is functioning and there are hours in the day where I’m not working, then I’m not bankrupt. One of my jobs was driving a taxi for 10-12 hours a day on the weekends. One day I was dispatched to a hair salon at an intersection where a Wal-Mart sits about 2 blocks back off the main road. This place is ALWAYS home to a panhandler–usually the same 4 or 5, in rotating shifts, holding the same sign as the OP mentions.
So I got to the hair salon and one of the panhandlers comes out and jumps in the cab. I had been driving for about 8 hours already that day and was probably making $10/hour to that point. He starts telling me that he didn’t want to get too greedy. He had been there 6 hours and was already at $260. Besides that, his back was getting a little sore from sitting for that long.
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In Dublin city centre about ten years ago I saw from my office window a woman on the street corner huddled in a blanket, begging. Then I saw a van come and pick her up. The next morning I saw the same van drop five or six women on the street, then someone in the van hand them all blankets, and they dispersed to their various positions for the day.
It is when you’re scamming someone. It wasn’t old torn clothes, it was clean clothes layered to look old with half a shirt tail sticking out and complete with smudged face.
Also remember a homeless guy panhandling isn’t interested in getting a lot of money or opening a savings account. He wants to get enough money for food or alcohol or whatever then move on.
Suppose he makes $100, now he can buy booze and risk having the money taken off of him. He can’t buy $100 worth of booze because that definately will be taken off him or he’ll have to find somewhere to hide it or…Well you get the idea.
So once a person makes what he needs he moves on.
I saw them all the time in New Haven. There was one old woman called the 30 cent lady. She always asked for 30 cents and worked the Yale campus. If you didn’t give it to her she would damn you to hell. A bus driver told me she panhandled all summer and spent her winters in Florida. Sadly she died after being hit by a bus.
One time I took my kids to Boston. We took the T and got off at the green. A panhandler kept asking us for a dollar. He was drunk and very persistant. I told him I would buy him a meal but no money. He went up and ordered with us and sat at a different table. He gave us dirty looks the whole time but wolfed the food down. My son said, Mom he never said thank you and I told him we gave him what he needed, not what he wanted. Just after I said that he put his head between his legs and got sick… My son still kids me about that.
It’s his turn with the sign. 
Would you rather these people stole? Seriously, unless the panhandler is being disruptive or threatening, begging is a considerably better way for these people to acquire their daily survival needs than crime. Nobody has to give anything to a panhandler.
When I was young, my girlfriend and I were comming out of a store in the same area of Boston. A guy with an obvious drug habbit approached with “how you doing?” “Fine and you,” I replied as we walked past. He told me he was doing great now because he "just shot a bag about an hour ago, but to be perfectly honest, in about 3 hours he’s going to be climbing the walls! I gave him 5 bucks for his honesty and because I’d rather he’d beg for money than knock down old ladies!
I know what you mean. It’s a tough call sometimes. Do you support their habit or get pestered to death.