Cities try 'homeless meters' to prevent panhandling
Homeless services meters?
Some cities have employed retrofitted parking meters to discourage pedestrians from giving to panhandlers by providing a ready way to give spare change to agencies that support the homeless instead.
In Baltimore, 10 meters installed in that city's harbor area since late 2006 have collected a total of about $100 a month, said Tom Yeager, executive vice president of clean and safe programs at Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc.
The money is turned over to Baltimore Homeless Services Inc., a unit within the city's health department.
The program was the brainchild of the Downtown Partnership, which is getting ready to install 25 more meters.
"People love it, particularly advocates for homeless, because it is not degrading to the homeless and it's anti-panhandling," Yeager said of the program. "It also educates the public to put their money where it can make change. So, it's not only about money -- it's a message."
Homelessness has been on the front burner in Madison in recent months in the wake of two unsolved murders committed downtown. Police have made no arrests or even named suspects, but transients have been targeted in the investigations, particularly the April killing of Brittany Sue Zimmermann. Advocates say the homeless are being unfairly scapegoated.
Spokesman George Twigg said Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is open to considering something like Baltimore's meters.
"He's really much more interested in a comprehensive public information campaign that encourages individuals to give money to homeless services agencies, as opposed to directly to panhandlers," Twigg said by e-mail.
Participation by UW-Madison is vital, he said, since UW students often are targeted by panhandlers.
A comprehensive program is just what Downtown Madison Inc. has in mind, said DMI President Susan Schmitz. The group has already been talking with the mayor about resurrecting its Reach Out program, which helped link homeless people with services and educated the public about homeless services and how to donate to them.
That effort -- which DMI ran in 2003-04 -- used pamphlets with pre-addressed envelopes to make giving to local service agencies a snap, Schmitz said, adding that a little "tweaking" could get the program off and running again in no time.
DMI's research on the "meter" strategy found it collected little money but may help deliver the message against panhandling, she said. "If the city wants to do that, it has to be part of a whole campaign."
DMI, meanwhile, is conducting a downtown "Hospitality Zone Assessment" to identify safety issues, and look at best practices elsewhere to cope with such things as bar-time crowd and violence control, Schmitz said.
Image courtesy of Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc.
Parking meters in Baltimore (shown in a rendering) encourage people to insert money to go to homeless services rather than panhandlers.
