Urban Exile: Panhandling Can’t Be Legislated Out of Existence
by Erika McNamara
Once again panhandling has grabbed the attention of the Ann Arbor public and media. Recently, the Ann Arbor City Council decided to amend the city Panhandling Ordinance. This decision was based on the recommendation of the Ann Arbor Street Task Force. The amendments prohibit panhandling within 12 feet of an alley, and prohibit panhandling within 12 feet of the entrance of the Downtown Library.
I find the 12 feet area “cone of silence” rule for asking for money laughable for a few reasons:
1) because the library entrance alone is 12 feet;
2) the individual has to stay out of the 12 foot zone, but does that mean I cannot see or hear him; and
3) because Olympia, Washington City Council amended that city’s panhandling ordinance on the same day Ann Arbor did and Olympia went with a 25 feet “cone of silence.” The distance in most panhandling ordinances seems very arbitrary—or maybe they just have really big sidewalks in Olympia?
The City Council also authorized the Have a Heart Give Smart Program for Ann Arbor to deter the giving of money directly to panhandlers. Interestingly enough, Salt Lake City also authorized a similar program (also on the same day), and installed meters in the downtown area for people to put change into instead of giving to panhandlers.
There is a lot public commentary applauding the amendment to the city’s panhandling ordinance, and a lot of “let’s-throw-the-lazy-bums-out-of-town” murmurs. Listening and reading some of the comments people make about the indigent gives me a migraine, and also leads me to wonder if there are individuals in Ann Arbor that are wiling to really go the distance when this latest panhandling amendment does not work. This is what San Francisco’s elected officials did. Last year they voted to prohibit individuals from sitting or lying on the sidewalk. Police are now enforcing the law. issuing fines and arresting individuals for sitting and lying on city streets. This kind of ordinance would be great for Ann Arbor. Not only would panhandlers be banned from city sidewalks but also those pesky high schoolers who like to come downtown get a pop and sit on the sidewalk and hang out after school—banned. All those Art Fair people who just sit around anywhere they like impeding the progress of true art lovers—banned.
Governments are acting against panhandling all over the country. But, where will all of this end? Is the solution to the panhandling issue the continual amending of city ordinances? Can the local governments just use the power of enacting laws to squirm their way out of a national crisis? That is what Daytona Beach elected officials think is a good plan.
Officials in Daytona Beach complain the homeless and panhandlers are the cause of the inability to redevelop the city (apparently the homeless in Daytona Beach are very powerful group, indeed). So the City Council in Daytona has decided to write an ordinance that states if there is a service provider, such a food bank or shelter, in a redevelopment area, the service provider must close down.
The current Ann Arbor panhandling ordinance makes no mention of what may happen if a panhandler is reported to the police. Do the police issue a ticket that involves the payment of a fine? To fine individuals for begging will, perhaps, only encourage individuals to double the amount of panhandling in order to pay fines and pocket money. Or do the police arrest panhandlers and escort them to the Washtenaw County Jail for an overnight stay? If all of the panhandlers are in jail, they certainly will not be out on the street begging for money. However, the taxpayers of Washtenaw County may be out begging for money soon, because a 2009 statistic reported the estimated cost of housing an inmate at the jail is $95 per day. But at least all those bad panhandlers will be off the street and away from us.
But before any individual is arrested though, Ann Arbor may want to take heed of what has happened in Royal Oak over the past two years. The Royal Oak City Commission also enacted a panhandling law, similar to the Ann Arbor ordinance, and the police arrested and incarcerated 15 individuals. This lead to the ACLU to become involved and now the Royal City Commission is rethinking and relaxing the ban.
Individuals that panhandle are not in fear of being ticketed or arrested, or an ordinance that threatens to fine or arrest. This is why panhandling is not an issue that may just be legislated or voted away. It really is unfortunate that some in our community (and around the country for that matter) believe the way to clean the sidewalks of panhandlers and panhandling is to sweep them away through ordinances such as the one the Ann Arbor Street Task Force recently suggested amending.
The answer is more nuanced, complicated and requires more than putting together a Task Force populated by politically-connected individuals and a Council member hungry for an issue to run on.
Erika McNamara was born in Ann Arbor and grew up in nearby Whitmore Lake. She attended and graduated from Whitmore Lake High School. Erika earned her BA in International Studies of East Asia from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, as well as a certificate of course completion from Tian Jin Foreign Studies University, in Tian Jin, China. After graduation Erika worked for an American/Chinese Joint Venture business in Chongqing, China. Upon return to the United States she attended Eastern Michigan University and earned a Masters of Business Administration. Erika continued her education at The Thomas M. Cooley and earned a Juris Doctor degree. She now practices law in Whitmore Lake. Erika is a member of the Michigan Itinerant Shelter System Out of Necessity (MISSION), and advocates for the rights of homeless individuals.
“The answer is more nuanced, complicated and requires more than putting together a Task Force populated by politically-connected individuals and a Council member hungry for an issue to run on.” Amen. A2Politico is providing a great service in posting these essays by Erika McNamara. Where else can we read about these issues from a perspective that is so honest and right on the money? This Task Force was political b.s. and anyone who thinks there is a commitment on the part of Ann Arbor’s leaders to really go deep into this issue is fooling themselves.
@Lou, why the Task Force? I suppose, on the surface, to do something about the increase (or a perceived increase) in panhandling. A better question is why it took a Task Force six months to change a single sentence in the ordinance and decide to use the Give A Hungry Person A Piece of Paper Program. I think Erika is absolutely right that panhandling can’t be legislated away. The problem has deeper roots. As for aggressive panhandling, only Stephen Rapundalo is allowed to do that when he hits Council up for additional funding for the LDFA to give to SPARK.
@A2Politico: Laws against assault, robbery etc already exist. Exactly what crime is someone committing when they get insistent? If anyone–beggar or drunken UM student or belligerent out-of-towner gets physical, that’s already a crime.
Having said that, the Buddhist monks and nuns demonstrate a form of politesse when begging–they don’t ask, but sit/stand silently. But that’s for the clergy. Beggars will be loud and if you think they offend you tell them.
I guess what is bothering me is the idea lurking that begging should not be allowed. I can see why hard working people feel put upon, but I think we’re tempting fate if we impose laws on beggars we wouldn’t want on ourselves.
What of the yearly Galen brigades and others from “good causes” that beg on the street? Yes, I know these are the nice beggars, the ones who have met the standards for societal approval. But one can become annoyed that anyone at all would ask anything at all of us in a public space.
Also, I have wondered about the motivation for the task force in the first place. Are merchants safeguarding a disneyesque environment for the tourists from “no-town” land–those places where no town exists, where there are no beggars to be seen because there is no place to gather? Is this a city or a Neo-liberal wet-dream of a city? City’s bring all sorts of people together who would not seek each other out: the beggars and the working class, the unwashed and the just-washed, the rude and the polite, the rowdy and the timid. We can outlaw every g’dmd annoyance but at the risk of destroying the vitality created by an anarchic mixing of humanity.
From FACEBOOK: “I think an ordinance is a good idea. It allows panhandling (if that is the politically correct word) but limits it and gives the police a tool if someone can’t take rejection or know boundaries. And the threat of arrest actually is a deterrent. If somone is locked up, there are a lot of addictions that can’t be fed (booze, drugs, tobacco) and withdrawal looms.”—Bob Roether
How long will it take the city to bill the “Have A Heart, Give Smart” program for IT services and other administrative fees? The panhandlers need to band together and start paying the politicians some kick-backs; hell, they might even get some tax abatement if they threaten to take their “jobs” to Canada! Given the standards of Wall Street executives and Spark’s track record of creating jobs and adding value to the US economy, panhandling looks like a fairly noble enterprise.
I wonder how we will be able to earn merit by the giving of alms if this duty is criminalized. The poor we “will always have with us” and the duty to give is not based on the worthiness of the receiver. It is impossible to judge the merit of another soul.
Also, it is difficult to understand how people who admire and emulate saints like Francis of Assisi and the Buddha –who were both beggars and donors–have such a hard time with panhandlers. Carry some money in your pocket to give away. When you’re out, you’re out and just say sorry. I will be damned if I’ll give a cent to another go-between or middle man agency. This is wasteful.
We all suffer if we impose draconian laws on our city–like no sitting on sidewalks–just because we don’t like the site of paupers, mendicants and kids sitting there. My daughter got a misdemeanor ticket in Santa (not) Monica for sitting on a paved area in a park. This was a situation where there was a crowd watching a street performer and she sat down so that short people behind her could see. She was just a hapless tourist and the ticket required her to show up in court to take care of it. These laws are an assault on hospitality.
Over half the homeless are veterans. Our young men and women are repeatedly sent into combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many of them are injured and they see their buddies blown up. How many of us could go through that and not have problems? But they get no help when they return. Ann Arbor government is more interested in lobbying the federal government for train money than money to take care of our returning soldiers who show up at the local VA hospital and are turned away. Instead of an ordinance to ban panhandlers who don’t wear the right clothes, we need an ordinance to ban the developer panhandlers who come to town begging for tax subsidies.