Comments about ‘Retooled panhandling ordinance headed to Salt Lake City Council’

Rather than dealing with all the 1st Amendment issues and lawsuits, the city should start an ad-campaign downtown telling people to not give anything to panhandlers. If everyone responded to this campaign and stopped giving (even if most people did), the panhandlers would go elsewhere.

I've already confessed to giving to those who hold signs asking for money. Maybe it's wrong but I do discriminate in who I give to. If they are younger and able-bodied, I usually don't do it. If they are old, or like a man I saw in Sugarhouse a few days ago missing most of his left leg, I will give them whatever I can. I don't have "extra" money in any way, but I have heard stories from relatives who "rode the rails" looking for work and who stayed in "hobo jungles." Sometimes a person really is just down on their luck and they don't want constant care or a home, just enough money to get by til tomorrow.

We can spend billions of dollars a year in Utah aiding and abetting criminal illegal foreign nationals yet to help a homeless and jobless street citizens is criminal.

Panhandlers are not there by choice and hate this lifestyle as much as we don't want to look at them and think of them as a nuisance. They are just as much humans as illegal aliens but the government makes little effort to help them re-assimilate in to society after losing there jobs and crippling medical treatments.

With all the states sympathy being focused on illegal aliens, these citizens only get scorned and mistreated. The one homeless shelter downtown does little to help the homeless who's lives have been disrupted with job loss and hard times.

The state could at least offer some help in transportation so they can find jobs and a means to get there. UTA passes for homeless would help their lives to seek a better way of life, get medical treatment, and become productive. The biggest thing holding these people back from getting jobs and education is transportation. A public restroom facility to help their hygiene and showers are also necessary.

Help our own.

There are a lot of unspoken issues at hand here. I don't mind helping out at all, but the issue is who can you trust. It only takes one scammer to ruin it for those in real need. Do you continue to give to those who you've seen panhandling for more than 2 or 3 months? There are programs designed to help, but they too are underfunded and overburdened. I often think of St. Francis of Assisi and how he begged in the streets. Would we have given to him? How is it different than the many souls on the street today? Many times I have given to those panhandling and later found out that I was scammed. Initially I was angry, then I thought about what we are taught in Matthew 5 about giving to those who begs from us. A lesson we all fail at, at certain times.

The issue I have with someone that wants just enough to get by until the next day, is that if they can sit on a curb all day and talk to people for change. Why not get a job as a checker at a store. You sit there all day, talk to people and would have a steady pay check.

It's not that they have just lost a job. Many panhandlers see it as a way of life. If we really want to help people, they should be encouraged to take on work and learn some skills.

Just because you have had a trouble or an awful childhood and made several errors on the way. It dosen't mean you can't move yourself upward.

I really don't appreciate aggressive people, whether it's panhandlers, missionaries, liberals etc. They have a right to free speech. But I also have a right to walk peacefully down a sidewalk and not be harrassed and followed and screamed at.

Where are my rights discussed in these articles?

My son thinks that we should put up areas with boxes for free will giving to those who are homeless and then have the city or some org. dole out the money given rather than allow panhandling. There is the shelter in the city as well. If these folks are too proud to go to these facilities then they should not be allowed to bother people downtown who are sometimes not well off themselves. I agree that an ordinance to not allow panhandling in the city should be done and deposit boxes should be placed downtown stating that the monies given are to help the homeless. Why not do something of that nature.

Rather than give cash to panhandlers, which is very likely to be misused, please donate to homeless shelters and food coalitions. Encourage every panhandler to call 211 from any phone. Better yet, call 211 for them. They can find food and a place to stay for free. Usually when I offer to buy food for panhandlers, it is declined, which makes me suspicious of their motives.

In Seattle the homeless advocates never defended the homeless based upon needs, but upon a 'way of life' that needed defending and something that everyone needed to be exposed to. Squatting was considered, by them, to be a valid way of choosing to live your life--and some were openly hostile to homeless shelters and state run housing. They actually encouraged a sort of professional homeless, like permenant campers, and attempted to enforce this by forcing all the communities in the area to open homeless camps that were spread throughout the communities (usually in parks or church parking lots). The trash these groups left behind once the moved to a different location was telling. Donated clothes, unopened left in great bundles, a lot of donated materials left in heaps. Many communities have become jaded to the very notion of helping the homeless as a result.

There are better ways to help people get their basic needs besides allowing them to beg on the streets, but some groups simply aren't interested in it. An organized legally maintained distribution service and shelter is a great solution. Make contributions to organizations that support these efforts...

The first post here by amalwambiwamba suggests we don't give to the homeless, then they will go someplace else. I have a better idea.

Let there be a program whereby any homeless person can join a cleaning crew which will pick up trash around the city and scrub the sidewalks. Then people don't have to tell a pan handler no, (which many of us don't want to do) instead they can direct them to the location of the cleaning crew office. Also any policeman can be instructed to give any homeless person a ride to the cleaning crew head quarters if asked.

Once there, a person could be given what they desire, in return for labor. If they need gas money to get home, this can be arranged. If they need food and a place to spend the night, likewise.

People when approached can say if they wish, "I don't give to people asking me for money, but I have donated to the cleaning crew and they are set up to provide you with all your needs. Let me use my cell phone to call a cop who will give you a ride there".

Where are the shelters and charities that should be helping out? I give money every year to United Way and other charities. In my opinion, those organizations should be "rounding up" the panhandlers and taking them back to the shelters for a nice meal.
I have a hard time giving to panhandlers because I know there are various organizations that would love to help these people out. I don't want my money going towards cigarettes, alcohol or drugs.

Actually mal - there was a campaign at one point. Several stores at Crossroads had boxes urging you to give to charities that help the homeless instead of panhandlers.

I'd love to know what the ACLU's position is on a solitary female downtown. Does she not have a right to feel safe and not be harassed by panhandlers?

And I do mean harrassed. Once I was asked for my credit card when I told them I don't have cash.

It is absolute nonsense to claim that the 1st Amendment provides protection to begging and panhandling. The Founding Fathers established this Country on the principle that men would be rewarded for working hard, and not for being lazy or slothful. They would be appalled by the notion that the Constitution allows hard-working citizens to be harassed on a daily basis by those too lazy to work.

If I took this guy to Deseret Industries and bought him a handsome and presentable outfit (shirt, tie, slacks, shoes, belt, socks etc.) do you think he would go and try and find a job? What if I covered his food costs for a week while he job hunted? Would he go and try and find a job? How do you balance trying to be Christian and helping these people without feeding their problem?

A friend in Seattle is harrassed constantly by panholders. She both lives and works in the downtown area. She has said many times, "If they can stand for hours and ask for money, they have enough strength to get a job."

PBS had a documentary many years ago about panhandlers in New York City. One man using a wheelchair was followed for a long time. Eventually the filming crew saw him get up and walk. When questioned, he said he got more money when claiming to be handicapped and saw nothing wrong with it.

I give to an agency which deals with the homeless. I don't give money directly to anyone - I think that's the wrong way to go about it. Someone said there are so many feeding programs in Wash., D.C. there is no reason for anyone to be begging on the streets for food money. I am harrassed plenty of times.

It offends me anytime the communist roots, anti-American ACLU is quoted in any article. I have no interest in their view, and they have no stake in this issue; businesses do, city government does, and the panhandlers do, but the ACLU has none. If you track their actions, they all stem back to the revolutionary aims of communism. Please quote someone who has a stake in the issue. Or why not go get a quote from the Queen of England? She has at much at stake in this as the ACLU does.

I avoid areas of SLC that have these scam artists, SLC missed the boat on their ordinance. If you want visitors to your fair city then lose the blight - LDS Church has done that for you with the billion dollar investment, now lose the panhandlers and a vibrant downtown center will rise from what was there before. Keep/allow the panhandlers = loss of visitors and $$$!

I believe that those who drafted the proposal for the updated ordinance have done their due dilligence and worked hard to provide balance to this issue. It is not a cut and dry issue. They did put forward an honest effort to balance the needs of all involved.

I don't want pan handling banned, but this ordinance makes an effort to balance the need of those in need, business owners, and patrons downtown.

I do not give money to every request I receive, but I do regularly give and sometimes look for that opportunity to give. I admit that I lean to giving to those with disabilities (especially disabled veterans). I have noticed that there are a few professional pan handlers downtown - who have occupied the same corner for more than 5 years. These are the individuals I am least likely to give to. There are sometimes I wish I could give, but don't, simply because I don't usually carry cash on me.

My opinion. NO MONEY SHOULD EVER BE EXCHANGED with pan handlers! "Tokens" worth no more than one dollar can be coined and purchase by those who want to help the truely needy (while preserving First Ammendment Rights). Later the tokens can be exchanged for the purchase of basic needs at designated charities, businesses, or service centers. Some organizations may require additional labor from the panhandlers to satisfy everyone's needs.

One time a panhandler had a sign that read: "Need money for food. Any will help." I had just come out of McDonalds with my son, and we had an extra cheeseburger. I offered it to him, and he turned it down.

Another time I had bought a ticket to ride the train, and a homeless person saw that I got change. He followed me for a block, and I turned around and gave him a small bit of change. He continued to follow me and pester me, to which I screamed in his face, "Leave me alone! I'll call the police on you." He finally left.

That has turned me away from giving to strangers, especially the ones that you see planted on certain corners day in and day out. They can become very territorial, and very abusive to those that walk by.

No one wants to live, work, shop, and recreate in a city where they are constantly harassed by panhandlers. The recent ridiculous notion that panhandling is a protected civil right has done wonders to drive the non panhandling public out of the cities and out to the growing auto dependent stip mall and big box sprawl.
There are effective ways to meet the true needs of the homeless, mentally ill, and addicted. Permitting panhandling is absolutely not one of them.