The city's panhandlers tell their own stories

A panhandler shakes a cup to get pedestrians' attention. A business group project surveyed people who beg on the street. A panhandler shakes a cup to get pedestrians' attention. A business group project surveyed people who beg on the street. Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close The city's panhandlers tell their own stories 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

His head bowed and his shaking hands clutching a cardboard sign reading "Homeless and Hungry, Will Accept Donation," Kirk Johnson was easy to ignore.

And that's what just about everybody waiting for a walk signal at the corner of O'Farrell and Powell streets in San Francisco's Union Square did on a recent sunny morning - just inches from where Johnson, in foul-smelling, dirty clothes, stood swaying.

The 56-year-old - whose deep wrinkles and missing teeth suggest that he is 20 years older - said he suffers from full-blown AIDS and can no longer work as a truck driver, the job he held for 17 years before getting sick.

So he stands on the corner - sitting on the sidewalk is no longer allowed under city law - for up to six hours a day. He usually nets $50.

People like Johnson don't often get to tell their story - it's not one people like to hear.

He was one of 146 people quizzed about their lives as part of a concerted effort to better understand the panhandlers of Union Square, how they came to be on their designated street corners, why they panhandle, what they do with the money, and what it would take to get them off the streets.

The Union Square Business Improvement District conducted the survey in the 27-square-block shopping mecca this year and released the sometimes surprising findings exclusively to The Chronicle.

Fifty-eight percent of the panhandlers said they've been begging for at least five years despite the wealth of social services available in San Francisco and the city's Homeless Outreach Teams, which patrol the streets daily offering help.

Many are homeless

Contradicting the common refrain from city officials who say the majority of panhandlers are housed, 82 percent of those surveyed in Union Square said they're homeless. They said their biggest obstacles to getting a place to live are that they have no job and no income and can't afford rent. Permanent housing, food and job training would help them to stop panhandling, they said.

Just 3 percent said they don't want housing - also contradicting conventional wisdom that says many people flat-out refuse offers of housing.

"Something's not working someplace along the line," said Tim Falvey, a member of the business improvement district's board. "Either they're not getting connected with services or the services aren't working for them. People do need shelter, and they're not getting it. ... It's an eye-opener for us."

The city's role

The mayor's office is poring over the data to better understand what the city can do to curtail the panhandling.

"This is the first rigorous analysis of panhandlers in San Francisco," said Amanda Fried, director of policy for the mayor's homeless office. "People have scary experiences on the streets. I don't want to minimize that at all, but behind a lot of that are people who are very sick and need our help."

The idea for the survey came after an uptick in complaints from business owners and tourists about increasingly aggressive panhandlers following people and shouting at them.

"Quite honestly, we're hearing the problem hasn't gotten any better," Falvey said. "It really offends the sensibilities of all of us. As human beings, we don't like to see people in need. It seemed obvious to us we needed to address the problem beyond just yelling about it."

Paying extra

The business improvement district comprises 500 property owners who pay an assessment based on their buildings' square footage and width of the facade. The assessments top out at $100,000 a year for large buildings like Macy's. The money pays for extra neighborhood cleaning and public safety measures on top of those provided by the city and for marketing and advocacy.

In March, the group hired GLS Research to conduct a survey over two days, giving panhandlers $5 apiece for participating.

The survey found that panhandling in Union Square is a lifestyle, not a once-in-a-while kind of thing. Fifty-three percent of panhandlers said they beg seven days a week. Sixty percent said they earn $25 or less each day, while 27 percent said they earn up to $50.

Asked to list everything they spend their money on, 94 percent said food. The second most common answer was drugs or alcohol, cited by 44 percent. A quarter of panhandlers said they're alcoholics, and 32 percent said they have a drug problem. Seventy percent of those who fell into either category said they've participated in treatment programs.

Cash flow

Bambie Rowe sat in a wheelchair outside the Starbucks at Powell and O'Farrell, petting her dog, Cash. She said a rare genetic disease led to the amputation of both her legs. Perhaps the combination of the wheelchair and the dog helps - she said she makes $80 to $150 a day.

She said she wasn't surprised at all by another survey finding - that those who give to panhandlers aren't tourists but low-income local residents. A cook in a local Thai restaurant gives her $1 every day and $2 on Christmas, she said. Another homeless man dropped $1 into her can as she was interviewed.

Who's giving

GLS Research also conducted the survey of those who give to panhandlers, interviewing 400 people in Union Square who said they'd donated to people on the street in the past year.

Givers are predominantly working-class Bay Area residents younger than age 45. They said they give because they fear it could be themselves or a family member on the streets one day.

Tourists are far less likely to give to panhandlers, though some of them are plenty curious - like the 8-year-old boy from San Diego who stopped to talk to Rowe, looking very worried and confused.

"Are you homeless? Did you lose your job?" he asked her. His parents, who declined to give their names, stood nearby and discussed which shops to hit up next.

At a row of tables set up in the plaza itself, a clearly deranged person asked tourists for money, but they all said no. The person, whose gender was unclear, swatted a leftover cup of coffee over in anger. Trish and Ken Mah, visiting from Vancouver, British Columbia, weren't fazed, saying panhandling is a common problem in big cities, including their own.

"We kind of ignore it," Ken Mah said. "We can't solve the homeless problem by giving to any individual."

Beds available

The business improvement district had considered mounting a public awareness campaign aimed at telling tourists not to give to panhandlers, but after realizing it's the locals who are giving, it isn't convinced the campaign would be effective.

Instead, the district plans to hire a social worker to approach panhandlers, assess their needs and direct them to services. The city has committed five stabilization beds in single-room occupancy hotels each night to those approached by the social worker, which would represent a small fraction of the 290 beds available citywide.

Street life

Delfino Alvarado, 24, won't be taking one of those beds anytime soon. Picking up a discarded cigarette butt to smoke, the Washington state native explained that he's traveled around the country begging and that San Francisco is among the easiest cities for a panhandler.

Soup kitchens offer free food, passersby constantly offer him leftover pizza or burgers, and he can make $25 a day just leaning against the base of a streetlamp at Powell and Ellis streets.

Compared with places like New York City, the police mostly leave him alone, he said. The owner of the storefront he sleeps in at night doesn't mind. And the weather's hard to beat.

'It's awesome'

"It's awesome. It's grimy and it smells bad, but it's awesome," he said. "It's really easy to live here. ... That's why people end up staying 30 years, you know? If it was harder, hell no."

It's plenty hard for Kirk Johnson, the man with AIDS who stands for six hours a day at the corner of Powell and O'Farrell.

Johnson, who said his late mother named him after screen idol Kirk Douglas, said he collects supplemental security income benefits for being disabled and can usually scrape together enough for an SRO hotel room in the Tenderloin - but it takes a surprisingly long time in one of the city's richest neighborhoods.

"People who have money won't give you money," sighed Johnson, who said he's been panhandling in Union Square for five years. "If most people who came by gave me $1, I'd be out of here in an hour with enough money to buy food and get a hotel room for the night. But they ignore me."

Without panhandling, he couldn't afford food, he said.

"Beg, borrow or steal," he said. "I'd rather beg or borrow."

Who gives The Union Square Business Improvement District hired GLS Research to interview 400 people in the neighborhood who said they'd given to panhandlers in the past year. The survey was conducted between Nov. 13 and Dec. 3, 2012. 80% are Bay Area residents 70% are younger than 45 years old 48% have a household income under $50,000 a year 60% give because they or a family member may be in need someday 61% are concerned about how panhandlers use their money