HOMELESSNESS DEBATE
Spare change
pleas test city’s patience
[
Jamie, who didn’t give his last name, panhandles
outside the downtown
Meyer & Frank store last
week.
The Portland Business Alliance has started
a
“Real change, not spare change” campaign that
advises giving to social
service agencies rather
than directly to individuals on the street. Pic;
Jim Clark
Having taken a hard line on several
controversial issues so far this year, the City
Council now is igniting a new debate over
panhandling. Commissioner Erik Sten, who is
leading the city’s 10-year plan to end chronic
homelessness, has suggested that the city
coordinate an “aggressive effort” with police to
crack down on panhandlers. “I think (people)
will find they’re not necessarily homeless,” he
said. “There’s a lot of cynicism around our
efforts to end homelessness because of these
issues. It’s very timely for council to have an
initiative on these issues.” Sten added: “I
think people shouldn’t give money to
panhandlers. There’s so many other places to
give.” Commissioner Dan Saltzman has suggested
that the city post signs at freeway onramps and
other rights of way that panhandlers typically
occupy. “It could say, ‘The city and social
service agencies recommend you don’t give money
to panhandlers because it goes for alcohol and
drugs,’ something like that,” Saltzman said.
“Universally, every social service provider I’ve
spoken to says, ‘Don’t give money to panhandlers
because it goes for alcohol and drugs.’ I think
if we’re serious about efforts to deal with the
panhandling problem, that this could be a way of
doing it.”
Any council initiative regarding panhandling
likely will spark a broad community debate just
as the city’s sidewalk ordinance did, because it
touches on the balance between freedom of
expression and the overburdened justice and
social service systems. Ed Johnson, an attorney
at the Oregon Law Center, said city leaders
don’t need to be any more aggressive. “Portland
does not need any additional criminalization of
panhandling,” said Johnson, who has represented
panhandlers in civil cases in the past.
“The things that are illegal now are blocking
somebody’s way on the sidewalk, physically
assaulting anyone, blocking the entranceway to a
business, and this catchall of disorderly
conduct. So if someone’s shouting at you and
following you down the street, those things are
already illegal.” At the other end of the
spectrum are downtown retailers, who have long
complained that the groups of people — often
youths — who sit on sidewalks downtown and ask
for money are a deterrent to business.
“While I have a great deal of empathy for people
on the street, I also am trying to run a
successful business,” said Vickie Jubinville,
owner of Ben Bridge Jeweler on Southwest Fifth
Avenue and co-chairwoman of the Downtown Retail
Council. “We just want an environment that is
the most attractive and enjoyable for our
customers to do their business.” Panhandlers,
meanwhile, are appalled that the city is trying
to crack down on them. “Sometimes you get so far
behind that you can’t get caught up,” said a man
named A.J., asking passers-by for money outside
the old Pioneer Courthouse one rainy morning.
“It’s like someone puts you in a round room and
then they tell you to go stand in the corner.”
Many agencies stay on fence
Social service providers seem
to fall somewhere in the middle of the debate.
“Nobody likes aggressive panhandlers. I agree
with that,” said Kathy Oliver, executive
director of Outside In, which provides services
to homeless youths. “On the other hand, we have
freedom of speech in this country, and people
have the right to ask for money.” Oliver said
the city should be looking at different
approaches to resolve the panhandling issue,
since “it does seem to have gotten a little out
of control.” One approach has been the Portland
Business Alliance’s “Real change, not spare
change” campaign, which encourages people to
support social service agencies directly rather
than hand out cash on the street. The program
began in the early 1990s with books of 25-cent
vouchers that could be redeemed for food,
showers, transit and clothing from Sisters of
the Road Cafe, Transition Projects, New Avenues
for Youth and Outside In.
In December, the alliance expanded the program
by placing 18 old city street meters in stores
and other spots around town, through which
people could deposit money that is matched by
the alliance and sent directly to local social
service agencies. “We’re trying to remind people
there are very good agencies that are serving
these youths and to encourage people to support
those agencies,” said Sandra McDonough,
executive director of the Portland Business
Alliance. But Oliver said that neither her
agency nor New Avenues for Youth “has ever seen
someone come in with the coupons,” she said.
“I’m all for finding alternatives here, but so
far no one’s come up with a good one.”
Portland chosen over
Seattle
Oliver said Saltzman’s sign
idea might be a good one if it doesn’t
characterize all panhandlers as using the money
they collect for drugs and alcohol.
Twenty-four-year-old T.J. Edwards is appalled by
the idea of signs discouraging giving. “I think
that would be totally cruel,” he said, gladly
accepting the $1 bill a passer-by hands him
outside Pioneer Place one recent morning. “That
would be like putting up signs that say ‘Blacks
only’ and ‘Whites only.’ There’s a class
difference of people.” Edwards, who ran away
from foster care at age 13 and has lived with
friends ever since, regularly panhandles
downtown with his two dogs, one of which he’s
taught to pose as a statue wearing a sweatshirt
and sunglasses and sporting a cigarette that
dangles from her mouth.
The act and “Will work for kibble” sign nets $40
to $60 per day, which Edwards is saving to head
south to Mexico with friends, he said. Compared
to his native Seattle, “there’s a bigger
response here” to street performers and
panhandlers due to the city’s slower pace, he
said. “People here can stop and smell the
flowers if they want.”
Jennifer Anderson
19 April 2005
http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=29399
