NEEDCOM: FOCUS GROUP: Steve


	NAME:		Steve Baker
	Age:		27
	Place:		ATM machine, Broadway and Houston, New York City
	Time:		5PM Weekday

NEEDCOM:

How long have you been panhandling?

STEVE:

I've been a doorman for this bank for six months.

NEEDCOM:

In total, including other banks?

STEVE:

About a year.

NEEDCOM:

How many days per week and how many hours per day?

STEVE:

I work like four hours a day. I work 5 to 9.

NEEDCOM:

Anything else for income besides panhandling?

STEVE:

Yeah, I worked construction, I'm a valet. Yeah, I worked for a Jewish company—this was in the summertime, not in the wintertime, cause a lot of people go to Florida in the wintertime.

NEEDCOM:

Is this your usual place?

STEVE:

Yeah, it's my usual place. I made this place! I use the money for survival. Pay my rent, have somewhere to live, eat, look for jobs. The change I make, I look for jobs with it.

NEEDCOM:

On a pretty good day, how much do you make?

STEVE:

Me? I work four hours a day. On an average good day, I make forty dollars. That's all I make.

NEEDCOM:

It's pretty consistent? Some days do you make less?

STEVE:

Like Friday, Saturday, you might make sixty. You might make seventy on the weekends.