You are right to be proud of your dedication to caring for yourself, not being a burden on others.  But that pride shouldn't preclude your ability to put yourself in another's shoes.  Virtually everybody panhandling in Anchorage is old, mentally ill, addicted to something, or a combination thereof. Many of them are people whose problems got too much for their family and neighbors in the villages to handle, so they were more or less forced to come to Anchorage.  Marooned here, the only way they can survive is through community services.

And do they need to panhandle?  Strictly speaking, no--no one in Anchorage who lacks food, shelter or clothing need do without if he seeks help in the right places.  The panhandling is more a kind of self-expression: a way of saying, "I'm not dead, not an unperson, not a statistic.  I'm an individual who has to have some feeling of control--however small--over my life.  If you give me a dollar, that gives me that little fragment of control that I need."