The newspaper in the city where I grew up did a whole series on that ~15 years ago. It definitely got people talking about what a scam panhandling is and how none of "those people" are really poor. They actually investigated some panhandlers and found their homes, and since they weren't literally living in cardboard boxes that naturally meant that they were fine actually and didn't need help from anybody. Of course, if you knew that part of town (I do, I'm from the wrong side of the tracks), you know that houses in that area are shit and there were likely multiple families crammed into one small house. I specifically remember 2 of the neighborhoods they were talking about, and I knew people who lived there when I was a kid. Believe me, those folks weren't living high on the hog from the largess of strangers.
The newspaper in the city where I grew up did a whole series on that ~15 years ago. It definitely got people talking about what a scam panhandling is and how none of "those people" are really poor. They actually investigated some panhandlers and found their homes, and since they weren't literally living in cardboard boxes that naturally meant that they were fine actually and didn't need help from anybody. Of course, if you knew that part of town (I do, I'm from the wrong side of the tracks), you know that houses in that area are shit and there were likely multiple families crammed into one small house. I specifically remember 2 of the neighborhoods they were talking about, and I knew people who lived there when I was a kid. Believe me, those folks weren't living high on the hog from the largess of strangers.