During our interview with City Council member Richard Conlin and challenger David Ginsberg, Conlin mentioned a "study" by the Downtown Seattle Association showing that only about 30 individuals are responsible for most of the panhandling in downtown. Conlin said the study showed that panhandling is "not necessarily connected to homelessness," and that those who spend 40 hours a week doing it "make pretty good money."

DSA spokesman Jon Scholes provided PubliCola with a copy of the group's findings, which he emphasized don't constitute an official "study," but rather a survey by Metropolitan Improvement District ambassadors over the course of a week of people panhandling downtown. "They came back with 25 to 30 folks who are at the same place at the same day and time every week," Scholes says.

A look at the findings shows that most chronic downtown panhandlers (all but seven out of 27 surveyed) are older than 40; that most (all but eight) are male; that about a third have drug, alcohol, or mental-health issues; and that only a handful could be confirmed as having homes. (The rest were either listed as homeless or "unsure.") Most have been familiar to the DSA for five years or more.

It's the details that are heartbreaking. One Native American man who carries a "Smile" sign told DSA he will lose the disability benefits he gets for his seizures if he gets a job. Another man who uses a cane carries a sign that says "Help Me." A third panhandler, a woman, has "dirty black hair, sunken cheeks, unusual walk, [and] possible back problems."

Only four are listed as "aggressive" panhandlers—the type Tim Burgess' anti-panhandling legislation is intended to address.