Bad timing for ban on panhandling

No one likes being panhandled. I can't imagine the panhandler enjoys it, either.

The giver (or rejecter) wades through a sea of emotions -- intimidation, guilt, mistrust, anger. Compassion mingles with the nagging fear that you're subsidizing an unhealthy habit. I can't speak for the beggar, but the act looks depressing and demeaning. If it's a hustle, it lacks glamour.

Most of us would rather not have beggars in our midst. But a Richmond City Council proposal to bar the panhandling of motorists from a sidewalk or curb would be the wrong law at the wrong time.

Perhaps sensing that, the council's Public Safety Committee tabled the proposal yesterday for 30 days, to allow time to meet with area nonprofits to consider other options.

I buy the Virginia ACLU's argument that the law is an unconstitutional infringement upon speech. But that's not the only problem.

"On a deeper level, we're in a swiftly deepening economic crisis," said Phil Wilayto, a community organizer with the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality. "And if this is the response of city government, it's exactly the wrong thing to do."

This isn't about public safety as much as it's about aesthetics -- a desire to make the dirty and destitute invisible.

As writer Anatole France said, "It is only the poor who are forbidden to beg."

Even people inclined to support the measure have doubts.

"Although I think a ban would be helpful, I believe it would be very difficult if not impossible to enforce," said Peter J. Prizzio, executive director of the Daily Planet, which provides services for the homeless.

A more effective approach, he said, would be a media campaign to educate the public that panhandlers usually are not homeless, and that money given to beggars often supports their vices. Money would be better spent to support the service providers that work with this population, he said.

"As long as the public reinforces panhandling by supporting it, individuals will continue to panhandle," Prizzio said.

Or as Maureen Neal, the Daily Planet's director of development and external affairs said: "Give to the people who address the complex issues of homelessness, and not to people with their hand out."

Richmond can do something to curb the conflating of panhandling and homelessness.

Asheville, N.C., employs donation boxes as an option to people handing change to panhandlers. The money goes toward programs and providers for the homeless, mentally ill or substance abusers.

Richmond might consider this option. City government cannot afford to look callous when the federal government is handing out billions of dollars of bailout money to corporations.

"The real problem is the working poor in this city are getting increasingly desperate," Wilayto said. "To pick this time, the time of deepening economic crisis to propose this resolution is going in exactly the wrong direction."

To give or not to give should be an individual choice. Now is not the time to enact laws that punish panhandlers.

Contact Michael Paul Williams at