Deseret News | S.L. is battling aggressive panhandling

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S.L. is battling aggressive panhandling

John Charity Spring | 3:28 p.m. Oct. 6, 2009

Salt Lake City is definitely on the right track in its efforts to eradicate panhandling. The public should help the poor, but that help should come from donating directly to shelters and other organizations that provide aid. Giving directly to the beggars will only enable them to use the money for immoral purposes and substance abuse. Historically, the communities of this Country outlawed begging in order to preserve the safety of the community. It is encouraging to see Salt Lake City returning to this practice.

Robert | 3:51 p.m. Oct. 6, 2009

I've offered food and employment to beggars many times, only to be turned down.

That speaks volumes.

zig | 3:55 p.m. Oct. 6, 2009

Very long overdue and I support you one hundred percent! Another idea would be to arm citizens with cards that they could give out (instead of money) that had addresses and directions to facilities that would help the truly honest down and out people. These measures being proposed would weed out the dishonest persons fleecing the general public. It would be so very nice to be able to go downtown and enjoy peace and tranquility. People, donate to churches and agencies. Don't give your money to panhandlers!!! Don't support the dishonest among us. There is plenty of help out there.

Comments continue below

ALL FOR IT!! | 6:08 p.m. Oct. 6, 2009

Hey Glenn Bailey, Don't twist the issue to make it sound better for your cause. There is NOT ONE WORD that says "outlaw poverty" It is in total, an effort to make it less appealing for people to panhandle. As stated in the artical, panhandlers drive potential customers away from retail establishments and restaurants. We all have TRUE stories about how you stop to offer help to someone and they trun it down if it is not cash. I even saw a guy in a wheel chair that went around the corner and dumped his cup of money into a big paper sack and then went back out to beg for more. Panhandling needs tobe discouraged.

Dave | 8:54 p.m. Oct. 6, 2009

The woman who has been begging at the North-east corner of Temple Square has been there so long, at least ten years, that she would have owned that spot by "averse possession" long ago if she had only been paying the property taxes.

Anonymous | 2:51 a.m. Oct. 7, 2009

RE:Robert

"I've offered food and employment to beggars many times, only to be turned down.

That speaks volumes."

How do they know that you aren't a Jeffrey Dahmer and that you aren't going to rape or kill and eat them? You make it sound like refusing to go with a person that they don't know to eat or work for them is a good idea. Homeless people also know that work is often a code word for sexual services.

Your lack of education on this speaks volumes.

Reminds me of Hobo's. | 4:46 a.m. Oct. 7, 2009

During the depression and droughts of the 1930's and 40's where it was a way of life. These Hobo's and panhandlers would go to farms and homes looking for work or food doing chores. They were nomadic then but they had the trains to get around and many hobo camps were along the Jordan river and the rail lines. They even had their own culture and laws among them.

Now days, the frequent trains are gone so being nomadic is less frequent and the cities are where they congregate and live now. Most are not bad people but down and out individuals. However there are some that have found a way to make a living with panhandling.

Illegals get first choice on jobs available because they are a tax free employee for business and a lucrative amount of money going in the employers pockets. And the illegals can get state aid for rent, food, utilities and medical care because they are the preferred employee of unscrupulous business dealings by our state legislators and the SLPD.

Dave | 7:40 a.m. Oct. 7, 2009

A panhandler can make $300 a day. They aren't going to give that up easily.

Re: Anonymous @ 2:51 | 10:15 a.m. Oct. 7, 2009

That's your reason for them not accepting food or employment? Give me a break. Reference the comment @ 7:40 am.

Just wondering.... | 10:42 a.m. Oct. 7, 2009

Would this new law also affect the Firefighters collecting for the MDA Boot Drive in August? This is a very worthy cause and I hope the new panhandlers law will not keep them from their fundraiser for the MDA.

RC Flores | 10:49 a.m. Oct. 7, 2009

I have been approached at night, in Sugar House while getting into my vehicle. After turning him away,one man, stumbling said "Ahhhh come'on be nice." I was offended and told him, "It's not an obligation for me!!!" I serve at St. Vincents kitchen,donate to the Utah Food Bank, and Urban Crossroads.

I've witnessed a shoving match between 2 pan handlers at a Home Depot parking lot, because one another was infringing on his "territory." It's part lucrative, beyond their hunger & shelter needs. Maybe we need to educate them where to get assistance. They're are those in need of such assistance.

lost in DC | 12:10 p.m. Oct. 7, 2009

do what I do, just avoid SLC and you don't have to put up with panhandlers. BTW, my family sends a check every month to the SLC mission to help those who really want help, but I don't want to support those who sponge off society and have no more ambition than to sit on a street corner looking pathetic.

Enough with your damn lies | 2:42 p.m. Oct. 7, 2009

Re: Anonymous @ 2:51

"That's your reason for them not accepting food or employment? Give me a break. Reference the comment @ 7:40 am."

I don't need to give you a break since I was homeless as a child and know from personal experience that you are wrong. Homeless people don't trust others and it isn't about the money. The claim that panhandlers can make $300 a day is a blatant lie and the only time my father and mother got any money is when they used us kids to do so since pathetic losers like you think that a child is more worthy of your help them an adult who leaves their children inside of a McDonald's.

There is no way in hell my parents made almost a $1 every minute which is what it takes to make $300 in a day before you can get to the homeless shelter and hope that you won't be turned away to sleep on the streets because there isn't enough room in the shelter when me and my brother standing with them got about $5 to $10 in a two hour period.

Forget the Panhandlers... | 2:45 p.m. Oct. 7, 2009

I avoid salt lake city because of the police chief who refuses to arrest the panhandlers and illegal aliens.

JAYEG | 2:59 p.m. Oct. 7, 2009

According to the words of the Savior...we will all stand to be judged according to our works, and according to our words, by that which we have done or said during our earthly sojourn.

And with whatever measure we used to mete judgment against our brothers and sisters we encountered upon the earth...by that same measure we will also be judged.

When the Savior stands in judgment to separate the sheep from the goats, as His parable described...who will be counted among the sheep...and who will be counted among the goats?

For inasmuch as we do, or do NOT do these things for the least of these, His children...we have done them, or not done them for HIM.

Reading these remarks...I can only say...wow.

RE: Enough with your lies! | 3:38 p.m. Oct. 7, 2009

Your full of it!

I used to work right in front of one of the most popular pan handling spots in Sugar House and from what I witnessed $300.00 a day is a conservative estimate. The "Stranded out of work down on his luck homeless guy" would leave his spot every day at 5:30 and drive home in a brand new Jeep. He also made many a drug deals in plain site right in front of our establishment.

Have you ever seen the undercover reports done by Channel 5 on the panhandlers who stand on the off ramp at 13th east in Sugar House? Yea, they make 100's of dollars every day and live within walking distance of the ramp.

By the way, when I was 15 my family lost their house and we were homeless for 6 weeks. Seems to me that between shelters, Church Organizations and Family we were very well cared for. They did not need to panhandle to survive. Of course they weren’t addicted to drugs of alcohol either.

Like the previous poster said, give me a break!

panhandlers | 4:04 p.m. Oct. 7, 2009

what I know is that panhandlers do not want to work.
I have never had one agree to work, when offered a job.
The truly needy do not want a handout, they want a handup, and will work if given the chance.
There are programs which actually help the homeless which are very successful.

"Panhandling" Definition? | 5:50 p.m. Oct. 7, 2009

Greetings:

Several years ago, I was standing on the town square in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, strumming my guitar and singing ballads I'd composed, when a detective flashed his badge and threatened to arrest me for "panhandling".

At the time, I was receiving a monthly pension for disability retirement, owned a car, and was living comfortably in an apartment in Saint Anthony, Idaho.

I ain't no beggar, and I wasn't begging for money!

I was just hoping folks would enjoy my songs, and maybe I might accidentally get "discovered" and become a genuine star.

So, what is "panhandling" if an amateur singer/songwriter can't publicly perform his own work without worrying about police harassment?

When I inquired about publicly performing my songs in West Yellowstone, Montana and here in Washington, D.C., I've been told the same thing, i.e., "panhandling is illegal".

Anyway, times have changed, and now I have my blog, "OUR ETERNAL STRUGGLE", and the YOU TUBE web site as resources.

Thank you.

John Robert Mallernee
Armed Forces Retirement Home
Washington, D.C. 20011-8400

Jordan T. | 5:56 p.m. Oct. 7, 2009

When I was in San Francisco a couple years, a black man asked if he could borrow $5.00 from me, and of course I had offered to buy him dinner at KFC.

Needless to say, he turned down my offer for a free meal because he said he was a vegetarian. Imagine that, lol!

Don't give money to these losers, they aren't worth it.

Was He Faking? | 6:04 p.m. Oct. 7, 2009

Greetings:

Years ago, before coming to the Old Soldiers' Home in Washington, D.C., I lived on South Temple Street in Salt Lake City, right next to LDS Business College.

One Sunday, I was walking back from the Tabernacle, where I'd gone to watch the Choir perform, when I passed some kids selling candy bars in front of the Cathedral of the Madeline.

I bought a couple of candy bars, and then noticed a man with a sign advertising that he was a disabled homeless war veteran.

Since I am a disabled war veteran, I went over to speak with him, saying I didn't have any money, but offering him the candy bars I'd just purchased, and inviting him to my apartment to share my food.

But, he declined.

Some of the things he told me just didn't add up, and didn't feel quite right.

I wanted to help, but was he for real, or was he faking?

I reckon guys like him make it much harder for genuine disabled war veterans in need of assistance.

Thank you.

John Robert Mallernee
Armed Forces Retirement Home
Washington, D.C. 20011-8400

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