When I lived in NJ we never had panhandlers outside the big cities and foremost we never had traffic panhandling in middleclass, upscale, or even rural areas. Yet when I moved to Florida, it was the opposite. People in suburban (non ghetto or sketchy areas), upscale, and rural areas would be holding up that traditional sign "HUNGRY GOD BLESS." Even areas, also, where it is miles for a place for a homeless person to flop would be out there, especially in commercial retail and tourist areas for obvious reasons.
Do you have these beggers in non urban areas where you reside? Places on freeway ramps in lightly populated areas perhaps, or in rural areas where you see that occasionally with those signs or even using a lost limb like a prosthetic leg where he wears shorts purposely so you see he has no flesh?
Oklahoma has perhaps the best panhandlers in its rural areas, having successfully populated an entirely undesirable and almost uninhabitable strip of land. Though I'm partial to Nebraska panhandlers - they're really nice people.
They've really moved out into the suburbs. Never used to see them in my town, but now, you always see some person at the entrance to a shopping plaza holding up a sign describing their plight. There's a real persistent one in South Windsor, CT that works the median of US 5 as you get off I-291. It's not quite as bad as it was when I lived in Philly, where you essentially had to "pay the street tax" to get in and out of Wawa. They worked in shifts. Eventually, I got to know one of them on a first name basis, and my friends and I would chat with him every time we went.
Lots in the suburbia north of Boston into southern NH. There is a woman, who is (to be polite) quite obese, who re-located from Tyngsboro MA at the Pheasant Lane Mall to the Middlesex Tpke in Burlington MA at the Burlington Mall. Another guy hangs out at the Walmart entrance in my town, with a sign bitching about how Walmart treats veterans, which is ironic given they're letting him stay and panhandle/protest on their property.
Rural in New England? Can't say I've seen any in rural areas.
I have seen no panhandlers in my town...too small with not very much in the way of "people traffic". However in Ruston, Wal-Mart seems to be where they can be found easily. They can be found around the exit ramps as well, but it's not long before the police are called and they disappear.
I see them at Wal-Mart, also at some expressway exits. There was a lady standing in the middle of an intersection yesterday with a sign ANYTHING. Darn near got hit a couple times.