SOCIAL researchers have become adept at counting the homeless, but say they cannot truly tabulate the population of beggars, who seem to appear with increasing frequency on the streets.

There is some agreement, however, that the culture of begging is becoming more ingrained – some of which social scientists link to worsening employment opportunities, especially for the unskilled – and that the panhandlers are increasingly finding creative ways of soliciting sympathy and cash.

To better understand the dynamics, the Sunday Observer, over a period of three weeks, visited several spots in Kingston known to be frequented by beggars and hustlers, only to find that the face of those who were begging changed frequently at the locations, but that the panhandling was persistent.

In a new survey, psychiatrist Wendel Abel says, contrary to stereotype, the homeless are less inclined to beg, and that of the 600 to 800 indigent he recently counted across Jamaica, only a fraction sought to survive through begging.

“The beggars among the homeless population is really small. The majority of them (homeless persons) really earn their living by hustling and not begging,” Abel told the Sunday Observer on Friday.

But Abel said it was impossible to draw the conclusion that the number of beggars were small, saying that those who beg were itinerant in nature, and many appear to have specific addresses.

No actual research into begging has been done, however, so the scientists themselves are left to guess.

Some beggars invest time in crafting clever ploys, but the stories told by many are often transparent lies. Some work alone, others in pairs.

Take the able bodied young man who pushes around a young boy in a wheelchair, begging at stoplights – they were last seen Friday afternoon at West King’s House Road. The young man mumbles some words to motorists, often inaudible, and when his entreaties are refused, he becomes verbally abusive.

In Manor Park, a man who paints on dirty sheets of paper, walks up to cars holding up his work and asks for money. He perhaps would be classified as a hustler, though he does not appear to even try to sell his ‘art’, and often he begs outright at the nearby gas station.

He has no name but is representative of the numerous other people across the island who, for one reason or another, have resorted to begging as a means to an end – money, food, clothes.

Always the face of begging changes.

There are those who clean car windows and who, even when they fail to perform the task, request “a twenty”. At the same time, you have those who roll around in wheel chairs, or limp along on crutches, soliciting funds to help with medical care. Still there are those who, with infants in hand, are the picture of need, which provides their reason for begging.

Social science researcher Horace Levy, a senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies, suggests that the population of beggars largely comprises hopeless youths faced with limited, if any, employment options.

“It is largely the accumulation of the long term pressure of years of unemployment. Some people have gone mental over it. Being without employment is enough to take anybody around the bend,” said Levy, who lectures in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies.

But, there are others, he added, who are unwilling to work and have made begging their profession.

In Mona, a man, Asthma puff in hand, approaches the first female he sees to tell the heart-rending story of his inability to afford the cost of refilling his child’s asthma prescription before asking for money.

A man with a deformed foot emerges almost every morning at the intersection of Half Way Tree Road and Oxford Road. He too becomes verbally abusive when refused, as does the little old man at Shortwood Road and Waterloo Road, who seems to be an alcoholic.

Inside the SuperPlus Supermarket at Liguanea some weeks ago, for example, one young man, bread in hand, approached a shopper and asked for a contribution to purchase the item.

Minutes later he was observed in another isle, a bun and drink in hand, asking for yet another contribution of a second shopper. The bread was no where in sight.

Sociologist Dr Orville Taylor said the method used by the youth and other “professional” beggars should come as a little surprise amidst what he considers a culture of begging in the island, born of the politics of the 1970s when people were given numerous hand outs in exchange for votes.

“Culture doesn’t exist in a vacuum. People learn to do things. It is human nature to get things the best way possible so if you are from a home that accepts begging or hand-outs as the norm then it’s a short step from deceit,” he said.

The situation, he added, is made worse by the absence of legitimate employment opportunities, particularly for young males.

“What scares me is that begging is a young male phenomenon. The street boys are doing it. Primary school boys are doing it… We have failed to create opportunities for our boys,” he said. “We have failed to socialise them into responsibility. They don’t have life and family skills. They don’t know how to budget.”

All this, the sociologist noted, is underpinned by a feeling of hopelessness among many in the society.

“You may find people employed and employment taking place but you still have a large portion of individuals who have a perception that there is not much hope,” he said.

Levy agreed with Taylor, adding that more social welfare initiatives needed to be undertaken, especially within the poor communities from which many who have resorted to begging have come.

“A lot more money has to be put into small business. A lot of inner city people can’t get loans to start businesses because of where they come from,” said Levy.

In addition, he said that social workers needed to be dispatched to such communities where they could engage people, even financial resources were directed into areas of interest to the people.

“There needs to be training of inner city people in all kinds of areas that they have interest in like computers and getting their artistic creations, like music and art, out,” Levy said. “That whole area (music and art) is an area that has a lot of potential. Bob Marley Yard (for example) is crying out for development.”

The island’s urban centres are peppered with beggars, young and old. In Kingston they converge in areas like Half Way Tree, Constant Spring and New Kingston. In Montego Bay, it is along areas like St James Street.

At Falmouth in Trelawny, it is at the town square.

At the same time, they have been known to frequent street lights and fast food businesses, where according to Dr Maureen Irons-Morgan with the Bellevue Hospital, they feel they can get help.

“Naturally you would find more beggars in areas where you have more traffic. So I would expect that you would see a lot of them in the Half Way Tree area, Constant Spring, downtown and at the streetlights,” said Morgan, chair of the subcommittee for homelessness under the Board of Supervision.

“They would congregate in any area where you see a lot of people like New Kingston and at food places where they know they can get help.”

Theories on the motivations for begging, beyond a lack of employment, include mental illness, drug abuse, and the lack of a social support network, like a family or a home.

The island’s Poor Relief Department, meanwhile, targets street people though not specifically beggars, for certain social welfare provisions.

“We deal with destitution, indoor and outdoor, but we have particular cases. We have clients that come in to us and they go on poor relief, When they get to a stage where they can’t take care of themselves we get them in indoor care,” said a representative at the poor relief department in Kinston.

“We also have the Marie Atkins night shelter. It is open to any and all. We don’t really keep them. But those who come get a bath and a meal and then they leave,” she said.

The shelter has a capacity of 60, “but you have more than 60 people on the compound because our compound is safer,” said the poor relief official.

In addition, the representative said they also did intervention.

There are a number of former street children, for example, who have been returned to their families and schools.

The challenge with such children, however, is that their parents are the ones who send them on the streets.

“Some of these parents are neglectful too. You would be surprised to know that it is some of these parents who send the children out to beg,” the representative said.

williamsp@jamaicaobserver.com