Let us start, as usual, by saying that we ask the reader to take a deep breath and think about the subject with an open mind and common sense.
Some people’s natural reaction to groups like “End Panhandling” is to attack the group as heartless. They respond “let them panhandle.”
But this is the height of stupidity – the existence of homelessness and panhandling are not good for anybody – downtown residents or the homeless.
If we can end panhandling by helping people in a sensible way (with shelter, food and medical treatment) then everbody is better off.
We say this with sympathy – we have donated to 15 place and assisted homeless indiviuals directly – something the morons saying “let them panhandle” have probably never done – but we need to help both the homeless and downtown using some common-sense. They are not all Jack Kerouacs believe it or not.
As we have pointed out before (Oct. 2009 – before the recent round of publicity) – along with Lyn Maz-Walters of 15 place – not all homeless and panhandlers and vice-versa. Some panhandlers have homes and families but still come downtown to harass people.
That being said – quoting a 2% incidence of panhandling in the homeless is misleading in this context. That is the overall incidence – including those staying in shelters and with family. The incidence of panhandling among the homeless loitering on Dauphin Street is going to be higher - albeit still not 100%.
So panhandling and homelessness are distinct but related problems - but both should be improved for everybody’s benefit.
So with that extended introduction: Is the Downtown Mobile homeless situation really better since a few arrests were made recently?
Last Saturday around noon Bienville Square was literally full of homeless AND panhandlers (we were hit upon several times)- see the video below.
We wondered why until a van from Emanuel AME Church drove up and started passing out food.
IN a quarter block there were 30-40 people, and only 2 of us weren’t there for the food. (For those that have never lived elsewhere – it is not normal to have 96% of the people on a beautiful Saturday in the middle of your tourist district be vagrants believe it or not.)
Making a few arrests now and then won’t fix the situation while the root causes of the pervasiveness and density of Downtown panhandling (a few of which we can address) remain intact:
1) Unorganized groups passing out food without any other assistance.
Not just Emanuel AME and other church groups but also One Meal and famously the LoDa Project of the messianic Aaron Hunt (”The Bearded Wonder”).
a) Wouldn’t rides to Waterfront Rescue Mission or Salvation Army where they are presented with lodging and other assistance be a better way to help?
b) Why do this when 15 place is 2 blocks away and does it in a much more organized fashion? Why not volunteer at 15 Place, Salvation Army, or Waterfront Rescue Mission instead AME et al?
c) Why do some of these groups get a pass to distribute food to the public without a license? For anyone else it would be illegal. Their hearts may be in the right place but diverting the homeless from more organized resources is harmful.
2) Why do our homeless food distribution points and shelters have to be right on Dauphin St.? It just doesn’t make any sense.
We appreciate 15 place and Ms. Manz-Walters greatly, but whose idea was it to put 15 place 1/2 a block off our main tourist area?
Why not move it north, northwest or northeast? The city has a huge building on water st just north of 351 – why not use that?
You can say: “Well – you are just trying to move them out-of-sight and out-of mind.”
Well – OK – why don’t we put all our of our societal ills right on Dauphin St. – jails, whorehouses, crackhouses, etc. Right out in the open so we and all the tourists can be reminded of them. We’ll not only still have homelessness, but we will also kill our nascent downtown and venues for arts and music. Great g’damn idea.
Or better yet – why don’t you call Emanuel AME and ask them to distribute food right outside your apartment, house, or business? That’d help everybody out.
There is just no rational reason for a city to have its homeless shelters in the middle of its tourist area – period.
3) Denial, acceptance, or apathy of both homelessness and panhandling by the DMA, the city, and the police:
When we called the police station on Dauphin about panhandling, the officer said “We have an understanding with our residents.” Since when do we consider homeless people “residents” of the streets? Isn’t that supposed to be a temporary situation that should be corrected – not a permanent residence?
If the police have been ordered to stand down on the homeless, as it appears, after the national news accounts of the elderly lady being arrested for urinating in Bienville Square, this needs to be rescinded.
We then asked The Downtown Mobile Alliance (DMA) ambassador (after he was done grilling us about Priest) what to do and he said – “Oh you have to talk to LT Menton - he’s the only one that will do anything about it” What?
Elizabeth Sanders, director of the Downtown Mobile Alliance, has spearheaded a campaign to fight panhandling, but at the same time she recently said in Lagniappe:
I think it is interesting that the articles by and large focus, or by implication focus, on panhandling in Downtown Mobile. In fact, there is a citywide problem, as everyone who goes anywhere in town knows. Panhandlers work the front entrance and parking lots at drug stores, grocery stores, and fast food restaurants all over town.
This degree of denial is unrealistic and unhelpful. Watch the video below and tell me that you have ever seen anything like this in another Mobile neighborhood. The DMA could be a very effective organization in this problem – if it realized that acting as though the problem doesn’t exist doesn’t solve it.
Panhandling is the number one thing keeping people we talk to (from all over) out of downtown (crime is #2). Not all homeless panhandle, but enough do so that homelessness itself is enough to keep 95% of Mobilians away from downtown. So what? Imagine what our local arts & music scene would be like if we could get even 50% of people to come downtown regularly. Until these situations improve by considering the some of the causes that we can address (not just arresting people – albeit a necessary evil at times), downtown and its arts scene are going continue to struggle.
August 12th, 2010 at 4:29 am
Everytime i read an article “About Panhandling” that starts talking “About Homeless People” halfway through it, or vice versa, i have to roll my eyes. Studies show that only a small percentage of homeless people panhandle, and only a small percentage of panhandlers are homeless. These are 2 separate issues that deserve to be discussed independently of one another.
Homeless Population
We all agree that there shouldn’t be homeless people all over the damn place, but simply moving homeless people out of tourists’ eye-line would just make it even easier to continue to mishandle the relevant issue. How well are we as a community providing *meaningful* assistance, beyond a free bed or meal? Do we want homeless people to Not Be Homeless – or just Go Be Homeless Over There? Dear Reader, if you’ve taken a stance on this issue at all, please consider which of these two angles you’re coming from.
Panhandlers
We all agree that we don’t want to deal with panhandlers. My friends smoke most of my cigarettes already, I don’t need any additional help with that. I’ve still yet to hear anyone state clearly (and have as yet been unable to discover for myself) what the actual laws about panhandling are in Mobile, AL. Whether simple lack of enforcement is to blame or that the law is in need of reform is unclear. Is it not obvious that the problem lies in one if not both of those? Our taxes pay people to regulate and enforce this. Anyone home?
Shall I make a poster that clearly delineates the difference between panhandlers and homeless people, for every local media outlet to hang in their break-room or front-window? I know, I know. What’s the difference whether you Get It Right or Go Get It Wrong Over There, out of my eye-line?
August 14th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
The assumption that helping the homeless is the cause of homeless people is completely absurd. Feel free to serve free meals to the homeless right outside of my home because no homeless people will be there. (They’ll all be downtown)
Panhandlers are typically looking for money, not food. If groups were walking around handing twenties, then we’d have issues. In fact, I wouldn’t be surpised if giving food to people who actually need it cuts down on the amount of legitimate homeless people who would otherwise have to resort to panhandling. The homeless will exist downtown regardless because it’s one of the few urbanized areas in Mobile.
Honestly, anyone who thinks that Mobile is having huge issues with the homeless needs to go visit some other cities.
August 14th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
There were 40 homeless folks concentrated in Bienville Square (agreedly the video doesn’t do it justice) between 10am and 2pm because that’s where the food was handed out. It’s easier to get food out of a van where you can trade it for cigarettes etc. then having to sit down inside 15 place and register, be referred for health care, etc. If they did distribute food in front of your house every day then there would eventually be a bunch of people loitering out in front of your house – which is fine – whatever.
Panhandlers are looking for money, of course. But they do have to eat sometimes – so they do look for food occasionally. And when they are given food out of a van they can spend that money on alcohol and drugs instead. (Where does “the assumption that helping the homeless causes homelessness” come from? Are we reading the same article?)
This attitude of “the homeless will always exist” and “go look at other cities” never ceases to amaze. So we shouldn’t try correct the situation at all, even a little? How does that attitude do anybody any good? Our proposals for improving the situation seem pretty reasonable but get no comment.
From now on we will probably stick with satire and arts stuff.
August 14th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Some years ago my husband took the kids out to lunch on Father’s Day afternoon. They decided to get Burger King and go visit the squirrels in Bienville Square. When they pulled up, the homeless-appearing men lined up on the park benches all swiveled their heads to stare, and kept staring. They found it so unnerving that they left without getting out of the car. Of course as citizens these men have every right to sit on the public park benches all day long if they choose, and it’s my family’s problem if they did not care to consume their Burger King under their unblinking gaze. But it may not create the kind of atmosphere that draws tourist dollars, or suburban resident dollars, to downtown.
MailerDaemon: Mobile does pretty well providing services for the homeless, I’d say. There are several choices for three meals a day at area churches and shelters, free clinics, and the Homeless Coalition, to name a few. Many of these services are located downtown, as are pleasant public spaces. So yes, that’s where the homeless are, not huddled in the median on Airport Blvd. I agree with Valso that if these services were to be transferred somewhere else, their client base would move also. If by “meaningful” assistance you mean help finding a job, becoming a productive member of society, etc., that is also happening. Organizations like Family Promise as well as 15 Place, etc. are doing all they can.
August 14th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
“Housing First” is a counter-intuitive initiative that may actually save money by just paying for housing, instead of “enabling” the homeless to pay for their own.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_First#Evidence_and_outcomes
August 14th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
“Panhandling is the number one thing keeping people we talk to (from all over) out of downtown (crime is #2). Not all homeless panhandle, but enough do so that homelessness itself is enough to keep 95% of Mobilians away from downtown. So what? Imagine what our local arts & music scene would be like if we could get even 50% of people to come downtown regularly. Until these situations improve by considering the some of the causes that we can address (not just arresting people – albeit a necessary evil at times), downtown and its arts scene are going continue to struggle.”
Valso- With all due respect, what you are tackling in the sentence above is as much about perception as anything else and that issue is far, far more complex than just the panhandling or homeless. It would take far more room than I should take up in this response to cover it.
For instance, we know the crime crutch is a myth because the stats back it up. There is close to a half-century of concerted propaganda and cultural hearsay behind that mistaken belief and it’s hard to overcome that in a short time.
I’ll tell you this much, too. Nothing battles the presence of panhandlers around here like crowds. When you have sizable gatherings of average Mobilians in Bienville Square, the panhandlers and homeless dissipate. Last night was a busier than average LoDa Artwalk with a wonderful abundance of attendees strung the length of Dauphin Street. In the five hours we were downtown, I never once saw a beggar.
I think downtown’s arts scene is healthier now than it’s ever been and it will continue to grow if we can get more people that want to buy art down there. People can browse all they want but purchases keep the doors open. The gallery owners will say the same.
I’ve been working in and frequenting downtown for decades now and a lot of the “common knowledge” about the area is just plain wrong.
Also, the homeless were downtown before 15 Place was located there. They opened where they did because of available spaces and the belief that if you want to help people in Kosovo, you don’t open up a relief center in Canada.
August 14th, 2010 at 7:28 pm
Klee:
You and Mailer Daemon are a couple of bleeding-heart overindulgent lefties.
Perception part of the problem – that’s true.
It is perception that keeps people away – so call it what you want – the result is the same.
The perception is there because it is based in reality – if you walk around during the day the ubiquitousness of panhandlers and vagrants is undeniable. One downtown business owner videoed a vagrant sleeping on a doorstep on Dauphin St. for 12 hours or so without being confronted by police. Could you get away with that?
True though, during Artwalk and other events they dissipate because of their “understanding” with the police. Is that really healthy? Or is it just managing perception.
But the biggest problem is … the attitude that it is “just a perception.” And so what? Don’t do anything about it? Cleaning up for Artwalk and then ignoring it the other 29.5 days a month?
It’s not the perception of you or myself or anyone with that is comfortable going downtown “as is” that matters – it is the perception of the other 90% of Mobile that could make a difference.
Do what? Nothing? Any specific comments on the suggestions for improving things above?
Water St. (or Broad St. Or St. Anthony St.) is not to Dauphin St. as Canada is to Kosovo.
August 14th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
Valso-
Agreed that police treatment should be more consistent. As far as “understanding” for events: I think the panhandlers understand that if they make themselves a nuisance when there are crowds, they will draw the ire of the cops. The cops understand that if they let it go unchecked at those times, their jobs will become harder due to pressure from above. Consequently, having more crowds more often would seem to be go a ways toward alleviating the problem then.
I think one way to deter harassment is with a proactive public. If citizens are threatened by beggars, use these ubiquitous smart phones to photograph the offending person then call the cops and file a complaint. Do something if it gets under your skin.
Why I’ve never had a problem with them, why I don’t even think about their presence is beyond me. Maybe I’m lucky. Maybe I’m calloused. I have no answer for that. I do know that I’ve felt more threatened and experienced as much harassment from the hordes of young drunk rednecks who descend on downtown every weekend night.
The location of 15 Place? From what I understand, it is where it is primarily because that locale (the former church) was who was willing to give them the space for it. I don’t know what would be involved in implementing the facility on Water Street or if the city would even be willing to do so. And I wasn’t referring to Water Street in that statement as the “far out of the way” solution I know others are fond of imagining.
As far as perception, my feeling is that if you could wave a magic wand and make every panhandler and homeless person downtown disappear tomorrow (not poisoning/killing them as some of the most vocal downtown critics and merchants have suggested), you’d find those same folks expressing the same fears regardless of what the reality was or what they experienced. And it wouldn’t matter what they saw when they went back or what they heard about. Why do I believe that? Because that was the case in the past. I’ve encountered it for many years and could fill a binder with anecdotal evidence about it.
I’m not saying nothing should be done, what I’m saying is that the essence of drawing people downtown isn’t solely about getting rid of the homeless and panhandlers. If you’re expecting that alone to change things, you’re going to be disappointed. It’s something deeper and more problematic.
August 14th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
You might want to read this:
http://www.lagniappemobile.com/articles/3649-panhandling-ordinance-on-the-way
My bet is that this dilemma gets priority soon.
August 15th, 2010 at 7:30 am
Agreed Klee.
I am just going to boil the post down to one main point:
People should not be feeding other people out of the trunks of their vehicles at all – but particularly in the smack middle of Dauphin St.
August 18th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
I participated in a poetry workshop for the homeless at Fifteen Place.(with some very talented and well-spoken homeless people, I might add) I never saw any homeless person there panhandling anywhere else.I worked one block from Bienville Square and never had a problem. I have been to Bienville Square with kids and yes,I was disconcerted by the number of poor guys with bags and also with the overflowing trash cans and littered lawn. However, not one approached us for money. I was vaguely annoyed, but never felt a sense of superiority that entitled me to justify a campaign to rid myself of the “annoyances”. Those who tout eradicating the problem by literally eradicating the people (i.e. as one would with a stray cat: call the authorities to pick it up, put it to sleep, or stop feeding it so it will go elsewhere)exhibit a scary attitude reminiscent of the elitist Fairhope-a town that loads up their ramblers and beggars and carts them to Mobile. -also reminiscent of postures ranging in severity, from the Ant Bully to Hitler.What are we teaching our kids about social justice? To all of you whose ONLY suggestion is moving Fifteen Place and/or the homeless population and its supporters: What are your realistic solutions to funding a new facility? They would love one! A benefit artwalk perhaps? A donation of precious downtown business proceeds? Soliciting donations? (Wouldn’t that one be a sticky wicket?) What are your alternate solutions to feeding starving people besides “don’t”? Has anyone researched creative solutions implemented in other cities? countries? As Mobilians we are not relegated by our nature to Lagniappe-styled vainglory and fruitlessness. When in doubt, the spiritual-minded ponder the question: WWJD ? I simply ask, “What would I do?” Absolutely NOT sit on my high horse in this fragile economy where survival is tenuous and the line between “us” and “them” has narrowed considerably.
September 9th, 2010 at 11:07 am
You want realistic solutions to the problem, CAnthony? The majority of those persons panhandling downtown are physically able men and women (mostly men) who sit around in the parks like Bienville Square smoking and joking with their friends all day long instead of going out and looking for work. It is as if they believe that everything should be handed to them, and that they shouldn’t have to work for a living as long as they can get a free meal (15 Place), bum some change throughout the day (bleeding hearts), buy their beer and wine (liquor store) and make it through to tomorrow. SOLUTION: Get rid of the places that give these people a free ride through life, educate the working people of the community as to how these bums are really spending the money that they give to them so as to cut off another free supply of funding, and literally force these people to get up off their backsides and seek gainful employment. Then, if they want to sit around drinking they can afford to pay for their own habits while simultaneously contributing towards the growth and betterment of society instead of being a detriment to it.
October 14th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Most of these people are alcoholics or mentally ill or both. Part of the problem is that we no longer “put away” these undesirables in the local sanitarium or institution. Nor do we really try to “treat” thee people and get them off the streets. It is cheaper and easier to let them be vagrants. So we have decided to let them be free and sometimes irritate the hell out of us. But you have to admit, they are amusing sometimes, as well. The bums have always been with us and will always be with us. Just keep some loose change to throw at them when they approach.