City of Austin pays $50,000 to learn that panhandlers have issues

Austin's Health and Human Services and Police departments paid UT $48,000 to survey Austin's omnipresent panhandlers. I'm sure they were shocked to learn that these people have problems:

Panhandlers in Austin want regular jobs but confront multiple barriers, including mental health problems and lack of identification materials, that make it hard for them to secure them, according to a study conducted by University of Texas researchers for the City of Austin.

I'm more than a little skeptical of the "want regular jobs" part.

This comes after caving to homeless advocates on stricter panhandling. If you haven't been to Austin lately, imagine a busy intersection - just about any intersection in any part of town - and then imagine at least two panhandlers, sometimes three. There are multiple well-established homeless camps under several bridges just in Northwest Austin alone. Even more downtown. Apparently, the police can't do anything to remove them.

Welcome to the hobo capital of the southwest.

Update: much more on this at Quid Nimis