Around here since the pandemic the folks standing near intersections with signs have become employees. I friend of mine who works in a building near a major intersection timed them for grins using a wildlife camera and discovered they were working timed uniform shifts with a meal break; there was a van dropping them off and picking them up. It's always kind of funny to hear people yell "get a job!" at these folks -- they have a job, and you're watching them do it. They normally won't accept anything but cash because their employer demands that they bring back cash, but sometimes will take a free lunch, because then they don't have to buy their own.
You can always tell when it's a business because the signs all have the same story, up to and including any spelling errors or odd spacing. The signs are provided by the company, and the "beggars" shifts require them to stand in a profitable spot, hold the sign, collect money, and at the end of the day bring the money back to an employer, who then pays them an hourly rate for their shift. In some cases these rings are a family business (often there will be children present when it is), and in others, organizers hire unemployed singles and move them around the country, providing transport and a basic sleeping situation for a price as part of the work crew setup.
