In some of those cases you even wonder if it was a true homeless person or a paid actor. Quite a few pranks out their they just toss someone $20-$50 from an advert on craigslist or other sites and they play from a script. With the way some of those videos are made they feel more like a prank.

Quite a number of long term homeless people have mental illness issues. They don’t interact well with other people and often prefer to be left alone and even hide or avoid human contact. There is a big difference between a panhandler doing it because he makes more money than min. wage or some guy down an alleyway eating leftover food in a dumpster.