Wow I can see I certainly ruffled a few feathers. I only stated what I felt when I saw this young woman who appeared to be in good health and was well dressed, not someone who appeared to be homeless or in need of money, (yes, I know you can’t judge a book by its cover). There are plenty of homeless people wandering the streets in the area, you can definitely determine who they are by their appearance, and I never see those people begging on street corners. The other ironic thing is that while this young woman was standing there begging for money there was a “help wanted” sign very close by for the Wawa which was located on the corner where she was begging.
I'm guessing you've never been homeless trying to get a job, or assisted someone homeless with trying to get a job. What address would you suggest she list on the job application? What phone number should she give them to contact her? I'm pretty sure Wawa has basic hygiene standards for their employees, can she come to your house and use your shower every day? I think Wawa gives employees uniform shirts (or does payroll deductions for them maybe?), but how should she go about paying for the required pants and shoes? Of course, you saw her panhandling and jumped to a million conclusions--how do you know she hadn't applied at the Wawa already, and maybe gotten the job, and was trying to raise the money to go buy pants and shoes and rent a hotel room for the first week so she would able to shower each day before work? Or maybe she's done the song and dance before, and KNOWS that Wawa is more likely to throw her out than give her a job, and she's trying to raise enough money to rent said hotel room for a few days BEFORE she applies so that she can show up clean and healthy-looking, and list an address and phone number on the application.
Maybe try watching Maid or The Florida Project. It is so insanely hard for people with nothing to get out of that situation, no matter how hard they try.
ETA: Just a minor example of how people perceived to be homeless are treated by the average business. A few years back I was living above a coffee shop with my dad and my boyfriend at the time. Dad took the trash out one evening, wearing flip flops and no shirt. He propped the gate open as he had every other time he took out the trash (it just goes on the curb, a few inches from the gate). But you guessed it, this time the gate swung closed behind him. No shirt, no cell phone, no money, no ID. And the one glaring omission in that apartment building? Doorbells. Dad asked to use the phone in the coffee shop, they threw him out. He explained that he lived upstairs and had locked himself out, and that I was home and needed to come down and let him in. He had breakfast in that coffee shop several times a week, but the guy working that night didn't know him. Dude told him to get off the property or he'd call the police. I'm pretty sure that he saw long hair and a beard, flip flops, jeans, and no shirt, and assumed Dad was a crazy homeless guy. So Dad stood on the corner, away from the coffee shop, until I realized he'd been gone a long time and went down to check on him. If that's how businesses treat people they assume are homeless, I don't think they're real inclined to hire actual homeless people.
ETA Again: You can definitely tell who they are by their appearance???? That is the most judgmental and fundamentally WRONG thing I've heard in this entire thread. Google Mad Mike the Hippie Bum. One of our local characters, who USED to be homeless (by choice). When his mom passed, he inherited millions plus her huge estate Uptown. He's definitely not homeless these days, but his entire successful music career is built on a homeless persona. Likewise, some of the street kids I ran around with in Orlando years ago had a wonderful sense of style and were experts at putting together VERY polished looks from the thrift stores. Don't judge a book by its cover.
