City campaign discourages panhandling
Mayor’s effort urges not giving to panhandlers
In a city known for its philanthropy, the mayor kicks off a campaign to discourage what might be the most common form of charity: giving to panhandlers.
In a city known for its philanthropy, the mayor on Monday kicked off a campaign to discourage what might be the most common form of charity: giving to panhandlers.
“Houstonians are compassionate and love helping people in need, but sometimes we can end up doing more harm than good,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said, surrounded by dozens of the region’s faith leaders at Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston. “By contributing our ‘spare change’ directly to organizations that are working to get our homeless neighbors off the streets and into housing, we can make ‘meaningful change’ in the lives of our homeless.”
Turner unveiled a billboard design that will appear on 55 signs as the city launches the “Meaningful Change — Not Spare Change” campaign, which will also include social media promotions and 1,500 radio ads. The mayor’s office said the effort is funded by iHeart Radio, Clear Channel Outdoor, management districts and other businesses.
Instead of giving money to panhandlers, residents are encouraged to visit www.MeaningfulChange.org to donate to the Coalition for the Homeless’ Welcome Home Fund, which helps furnish apartments and cover one-time fees.
“The money goes directly to help a homeless person settle in permanent
housing,” said coalition CEO Marilyn Brown.
Giving to panhandlers is not outlawed or punishable, just discouraged. However, the city previously announced plans to step up enforcement of existing and new ordinances against aggressive panhandling or impeding traffic. Proponents of the crackdown say panhandling keeps truly needy people from seeking long-term solutions like employment or treatment for mental health and substance abuse issues.
Increase in complaints
Tyler Hamilton, a 25-year-old who served in the Army from 2013 until 2015, turned to panhandling last year after he became addicted to heroin and lost his job. He said he spent about three weeks asking for money on street corners in the city’s southeast, sometimes missing VA appointments in hopes of making more money.
Hamilton struggled to bring in $25 a day. He eventually left the sidewalk when a woman offered him a landscaping job that paid $75 a day, far more than he would make passively asking for money.
“I wasn’t good at it at all,” Hamilton remembered recently. “I just walked up and down (to see) if somebody wanted to give something.”
The successful panhandlers are more assertive, he said. He knew one man who pulled in $100 “on a bad day” by walking up to car windows, holding up a quarter and begging.
Complaints about panhandling helped spur City Council to expand the prohibition on impeding a roadway to include raised areas like medians, said Mike Knox, an at-large council member and former Houston police officer. HPD received 1,548 complaints about panhandlers in 2016, his office said — nearly twice as many as the 783 received in 2016. Some panhandlers are homeless while others are not, city officials say, and some may be part of organized panhandling rings.
“The panhandling thing is actually a separate issue (from homelessness),” Knox said Monday. “It’s creating an environment of fear, and it’s also not safe for the people doing it.”
Knox and District H Council Member Karla Cisneros joined Turner on Monday as the mayor launched the “Meaningful Change” campaign, one prong of his plan to further reduce homelessness in the Houston area, which has dropped nearly 60 percent in the past five years.
“This is not a campaign that we’re waging against the homeless,” Turner said emphatically. “This is a campaign to assist people to leave homelessness.”
Faith leaders seemed to rally behind the effort.
Amy Kelley, director of family ministries with St. Luke’s United Methodist Church’s campus in the Sharpstown area, said the campaign seemed appropriate.
“We’ve always wanted to do more,” she said. “This addresses the deepest need.”
Kelley added that her church would continue passing out Manna Kits with toiletries and snacks.
‘Give the right way’
Leaders with the local Hare Krishna temple said they are excited about the effort but concerned whether they would still be able to distribute food to needy people on the streets. Sarvabhauma Das Medley and Saranga Thakur Das said they hoped for a balanced approach to enforcement.
“It is important to give, and equally important to give the right way,” the Rev. Anil Thomas of Holy Name Catholic Church said in a statement. “There is not a better way to give dignity to the homeless, than helping them to not be homeless in the first place.”
Faith leaders shepherded into a photo op joined Turner’s chant: “Meaningful change, not spare change.”
The mayor’s pitch might sound familiar to longtime Houstonians. In 2006, thenMayor Bill White appeared in radio ads to discourage giving to panhandlers. “Help them with real change, not spare change,” White said on the ads, part of a campaign that brought in around $800,000, the Chronicle reported at the time.
The push is not limited to the Bayou City. In February, the City Council of Madison, Wisc., effectively banned all roadside panhandling, the Capital Times reported. The same month, the city of Cranston, R.I., passed a narrowed panhandling ban that focused on specific streets, the Associated Press reported. The city had previously settled an ACLU lawsuit that challenged a similar law’s constitutionality.
A University of Houston psychologist said that panhandling may be effective because it provides donors with an immediate emotional reward, especially when the panhandler expresses gratitude.
“There could be many motivations, some more altruistic and some more selfish, said John Vincent, director of UH’s Center for Forensic Psychology. “It certainly could be a way for absolving guilt.”
People who make the snap decision to give once may find they feel good about it, leading them to do it more in the future, Vincent said. “The positive reinforcement here is the good feeling you get out of doing it.”