Positive signs

Fayetteville tries to deliver help for panhandlers

Here’s your sign. In Fayetteville, that’s become more than just a punchline for a comedy routine. Much more.

Inundated with down-on-their-good-fortune people who have taken up the practice of panhandling, the city’s residents have become accustomed to seeing men and women on street corners plead- ing their cases for money. Some show their generosity by handing a few dollars out their windows.

Others find the entire experience uncomfortable and roll up their windows, wait for the traffic signal to change and move past as quickly as they can.

Part of the city’s response was a new ordinance as police and residents adjusted to heavy panhandling alongside city streets, mostly at intersections. A 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that treated begging for money as free speech opened up street corners everywhere for begging by right. Fayetteville’s new ordinance sought to prohibit anyone — not just the socalled panhandlers — from stepping into the streets for any reason. People can still hold signs, but the new ordinance makes it illegal for them to enter the street, such as what they might do if a passerby holds out a $5 bill for them.

Prohibition wasn’t a full answer for city leaders, though. And that’s where the signs come in. In October, the City Council agreed to allocate $5,000 in taxpayer money to develop a text-to-donate program operated through the Center For Collaborative Care in Springdale and its program known as HARK.

HARK is referred to as a “help desk for human services.” It attempts to connect people in need with social services that have the resources to help.

Now, sprinkled around Fayetteville at places where panhandlers might also be tempted to exercise their free speech rights, are city-installed signs that notify drivers of the Fayetteville’s “Help a neighbor” fund. Through mobile phones, drivers can make a donation in lieu of a direct donation to an individual. The donation will become a resource for HARK.

The signs also communicate to people in need a phone number they can call for help. But it’s designed to be much more than a temporary infusion of cash. Community liaisons will learn about the people calling, evaluate their circumstances and help with long-term as well as immediate needs. The idea — a good one, if it works well — is to attack the foundational issues responsible for each person being in such dire straits.

Such a donor-driven fund, perhaps, might have the side-benefit of discouraging direct panhandling. If motorists stop giving money directly to people, there wouldn’t be any reason for them to stand street side. It’s no secret many residents would love nothing more than to see the panhandlers disappear from the street corners. In Fayetteville’s case, it seems at least some people hope they might disappear out of a lack of financial need to be there.

We’ll see. It only takes a few folks giving directly to someone on the street to make it worth their while to have direct access to cash. Then there’s the other question: If the panhandlers disappear, will people still feel there’s a need to be met through their donations to HARK?

The really attractive part of Fayetteville’s approach is the redirection of money to where it will do more good overall, even if it might not do a specific panhandler more good in that moment. The HARK approach isn’t just about putting a few dollars into the pockets of someone in need; it’s about finding longer-term solutions.

No program can save everyone, but Fayetteville as a community is responding in a way that can provide hope beyond just the next meal. Yes, it’s a form of social welfare through city government, and it will need to be monitored closely to make sure it’s having an intended impact. But it’s also a valuable response to a community challenge.