Shaffer: Begging rules intensify humiliation

RALEIGH -- I've never begged before, never stood on a street corner and asked for spare change.

I'm lucky enough to have a job, and I hope that luck continues.

But I can beg legally now, at least in the unincorporated portions of Wake County.

Three days before Christmas, I became the county's 12th registered panhandler.

Having a permit like mine is a requirement, a move approved by every Wake County commissioner except James West, who believes that such a rule makes poverty a crime.

So I wanted to know how it felt to get Wake County's approval to ask for money in public, and now I know.

It's humiliating. It's degrading. It's invasive. And standing there in the government office, filling out the paperwork, you get the feeling that it's meant to be.

Let me say that everyone I met in the county office building was friendly, helpful and polite. Nobody treated me like a homeless beggar, maybe because I didn't look like one, but more likely because they're good people doing their jobs.

But it just doesn't feel right handing over your driver's license, knowing it's going to be photocopied and stored away in a government file because you want to ask for charity.

It feels even less right filling out the application. Before you panhandle, Wake County wants to know what race you are. It also wants to know your height, weight, hair color and eye color. There's no mistaking what you're doing when you write down this information. You're completing a police profile.

Once you've finished, your application gets notarized. There's no charge for this, or for the permit, but you do have to stand there at the counter in a room full of people and watch someone place an official stamp on your request to seek alms.

On your way out, you are informed that your permit is good for one week. Seven days. After that, you've got to come back and get a new one.

Raleigh, by comparison, issues permits that are good for one year.

I've talked to at least a dozen beggars in the last few months and some say they can make $50 or $60 a day standing on a highway exit ramp. One of the guys who told me this lived under the overpass where he begged.

When Wake County passed this ordinance, the argument arose that panhandling on county roads is a safety hazard both for the beggar and the people driving past.

I agree. And on the back of my permit, it's clearly spelled out that begging on shoulders or median strips is prohibited, as is panhandling within 100 feet of a bank or ATM.

But couldn't these rules be enforced on their own, without mandating that people who probably don't have cars get downtown once a week, and with requiring identification that homeless people usually don't have?

"A lot of times we mean well," West told me. "But we get out of touch. If we don't get out there and experience what people in the public are experiencing, we won't provide good leadership."

I'm not going to beg anywhere, even though my permit lasts until Thursday. And neither will William Winn, a retiree in Raleigh who gave me the idea for this column.

Like me, he obtained a begging permit out of curiosity.

For kicks, Winn said he got a permit from Raleigh, too, and he enjoyed himself over this exchange.

City: Where do you plan on begging?

Winn: Oh, I'll probably be at Carolina Country Club or North Hills.

City: They won't want you to beg there.

Winn: Well, then, I won't pay my dues!

At least humor is still legal, no permit required.