Urban mystery

April 20, 2018 1:39 PM

Every workday on my way home, I go through a busy intersection in Torrance, California. There is always a panhandler standing on the concrete island next to the left turn lane with a cardboard sign. It is never the same panhandler twice. Why is that?

It seems to me that a panhandler would pick a corner to panhandle that was some trade-off between (a) easy for them to get to, and (b) profitable, and keep coming back to the same spot. But maybe that particular corner is not so profitable? If so, why is there always someone there? Wouldn't word spread among the nearby panhandlers?

Someone once told me that some residential drug rehabs that serve the homeless will drive a group of clients to distant, more prosperous locales in a van and drop them off to panhandle, then pick them up at night, and take a portion of their takings for room and board. This seems pretty exploitative if true -- but I don't know if it is just an urban legend or what.

I suppose I could ask one of the panhandlers, but I think it would sound judgey and weird. You can't really ask a complete stranger to explain their behavior.

Do you have any insight?

posted by pH Indicating Socks to Human Relations (8 answers total)

Disclaimer: IANHIT. My guess would be that, yes, it's a good corner for panhandling and word has spread. And they either take turns on that corner, or politely give the first-comer the exclusive right to work there for the afternoon.
posted by JimN2TAW at 2:03 PM on April 20, 2018

I wouldn't expect legit rehab centers to drive people to "good panhandling" spots, especially in exchange for a cut (or to help them make the minimum payments), unless panhandling had legal protections. If the area has vagrancy laws, even if they're usually not enforced, helping someone find a spot to panhandle would likely be aiding-and-abetting.

It's most likely that it's a relatively good corner, but not very close to anyone's sleeping spot, and whoever gets there first on a given day just stays there. Latecomers aren't going to get into a fight over the spot - risks of damage or worse, legal repercussions, are too high for that, and the income is not likely substantially better than other locations.

It's also worth noting that, while you have a fixed schedule and may see the spot at nearly the same time every day, the homeless mostly don't; one person leaves to get lunch or meet someone, and someone else takes over the spot. It's possible that a few people who live near each other let each other know when the spot is open, but that kind of coordination is rare for long-term activities.

(IANH but I have friends who've lived in parks and under overpasses.)
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 2:16 PM on April 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

in europe there are gangs that smuggle people in then enslave them to beg, so they'll often be rotated as the corner's not the beggar's but the gang's - beggars assort themselves places etc so you'd see the same one regular, same if their family put them out there to beg (eg cos disabled)
yes how i've writ it is harsh, but that's what i've seen in life, street life is harsh round the world
posted by maiamaia at 3:05 PM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

ErisLordFreedom has it right based on things in my city.

I work with quite a few people who panhandle (around here, it's called "flagging" or "flying [a sign]") at off-ramps and other locations. It's a really hard job, depending on weather and traffic and the abuse from drivers and being on your feet all day (breathing exhaust fumes). As a result, the average 'shift' seems to last about 3 or 4 hours before people are exhausted and too weather-exposed to keep working.

I asked one of my clients how it was determined who would work a particular intersection - did they have a schedule? - and he laughed and said that it just depended on who got there first. Often they are friends, partners, or roomates (or live in the same campsite) who take turns working there.
posted by VioletU at 3:11 PM on April 20, 2018 [10 favorites]

It's quite possible that it's a coordinated effort. In Arkansas, we have groups of panhandlers that work together. Generally they live together and will take turns at various corners. I've actually witness "shift change" several times where a new person comes to the intersection and takes over one corner while the person they are replacing moves to the opposite corner/interstate off ramp. It seems to be an organized operation, although there's probably other intersections that are first come first serve. I've been told that they share the profits of the day (by either putting it all together and dividing evenly, or using it to buy shared food, etc) but I'm not positive on that. I do know of one interstate on/off ramp area that had a homeless camp in the woods nearby...that was "their" area and they worked it consistently until the city clear cut the trees and evicted them from the area several years ago.
posted by MultiFaceted at 5:10 PM on April 20, 2018

A lot of times people who pan on road islands in my area are just passing through. Actual street corners, with foot traffic, are more frequently someone's "spot", though that's not universally true and there can be fluidity in "territory" (And I haven't been homeless in a long time, things change). However homelessness is an inherently transient and unpredictable lifestyle so, there's also that.

I've never heard of rehab centers doing what you've written here and it sounds pretty absurd. Not impossible, I've seen some pretty egregious abuses of the system from those who administer it, but highly, highly unlikely, first because inpatient treatment facilities don't typically let people in treatment leave without pretty careful monitoring and second because the earnings from panning don't come anywhere near the cost of rehab.
posted by windykites at 7:11 PM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Around here while panhandling itself is legal doing so on a traffic island isn't. It must be relatively lucrative or perceived safe or low stress because people still do it but the cops come around pretty regularly and hassle the people away from those spots.
posted by Mitheral at 9:47 PM on April 20, 2018

Could be a group of people taking turns at different spots and pooling money. Also your urban myth thing might be too specific to be true but there are many exploitative practices at unregulated or unlicensed recovery houses, such as requiring tenants to sign up for and then forfeit social assistance as "rent", i.e. hand over your food stamps card to the owner.
posted by WeekendJen at 10:35 AM on April 24, 2018