NEEDCOM: FOCUS GROUP: Papers

NEEDCOM:

There are some people who told me that they literally don't believe that most people asking for money who appear to be disabled actually are. They think a lot of people are faking.

ROBERT S:

Well the main thing is ... I got papers! I'm legally blind. I got papers stating that I'm legally blind. [Robert is missing an eye.]

NEEDCOM:

I don't think a lot of people are going to ask you for proof.

ROBERT S:

But I have those papers, 'cause they don't come any kind of way ... Now, if I had the papers right now, I'd get them out and show them to you. I'm legally blind. I can only see shadows of you. I AM legally blind.

..........

NEEDCOM:

How do panhandlers that have—or say they have—a serious illness do?

EASY:

You've seen that, too?

NEEDCOM:

I even met a woman who had papers to prove she had heart trouble.

EASY:

Yeah, I've seen papers. Do they give papers out like that? When you have AIDS? No, it's ... No, they don't. They don't give papers like that, 'cause it's confidential, a name and a number. Somebody sat there and wrote that shit up.