NEEDCOM: FOCUS GROUP: Gary


	NAME:		Gary
	Age:		34
	Place:		Streetcorner, 20th St. and Fifth Avenue Area, New York City
	Time:		5PM Weekday

NEEDCOM:

Tell me about yourself and how you came to be panhandling today.

GARY:

Well, the simple fact of the matter is I am a veteran, I'm getting a non-service connected VA check. With this money, I'm paying my rent.

And since I'm non-service connected, I'm [getting less] than someone who is service connected. I'm getting something like six hundred a month. Someone that is service connected is somebody that has a problem occur with them while they were in the service.

Someone that's non-service connected, the problem may be caused BY the service. And since I'm non-service connected, after I pay my rent I don't have enough money to live off for the month.

NEEDCOM:

How long have you been panhandling?

GARY:

On and off since I've been getting my VA check, that's been about maybe ten, fifteen years.

NEEDCOM:

How much money do you make on a good day of panhandling?

GARY:

It used to be, ten, fifteen years ago I could make seventy dollars on a good day in New York. Nowadays if I have a good day, I make twenty.