Homelessness and panhandling (2 different things)

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has released the results of a study on the homeless population in the USA.

The following is from a HUD news release:

Based on a geographically representative sampling of 80 communities, HUD found 704,000 persons used emergency shelters or transitional housing between February and April of 2005. The daily average of sheltered homeless persons during this period is 334,744. HUD's three-month sample of HMIS data found the following characteristics of the sheltered homeless population:

Gender - 65 percent of the adult population are men

Age - The largest segment, 41 percent, are 31-to-50 years old

Household Type - 66 percent are individuals - 34 percent are persons in families with children

Race - 59 percent are minority

Geographic - 75 percent are in central cities - 25 percent are in suburban and rural areas (see page 44)

Veteran Status - 19 percent of the adult homeless population are veterans

I have no particular comment on the study. I will let others dissect the methodology, and I will let others say whether the national demographics fit the profile of the homeless person in Huntington.

But I will comment on one thing: Some people may think of homeless people as doing most of the panhandling in Huntington, but I'm not so sure about that. Yes, some homeless people probably do hit folks up for money, but I have heard too many panhandlers tell the same tale of woe or distress. And too many panhandlers are just too neat. And I have heard of the cars that drop panhandlers off to make their routes.

I may be toying with fate, but it's been a while since a panhandler here in the downtown asked me for money.