Big win in TO with panhandler plan

Toronto City Council's powerful Executive Committee has unanimously adopted a detailed panhandling strategy that bucks the terrible trend throughout North America to criminalize activities associated with homelessness, housing insecurity and poverty. The plan recognizes that there are socio-economic and health issues that drive people to beg for change on the city's streets and, therefore, the best response is not to arrest and ticket panhandlers, but to ensure that they have access to housing, supports and income.

It was particularly heartening to see representatives from Toronto's business, tourism and entertainment all stand in support of this plan - along with the Wellesley Institute. Even Toronto Police Services spoke against criminalizing panhandling and in favour of the approach that tackles the fundamental concerns. Just one year ago, many business groups and others were clamouring for a police-led crackdown on panhandling.

The TO plan, which still needs the approval of City Council later this month, calls for a "housing first" approach to dealing with panhandling. It recognizes that growing poverty and housing insecurity are driving most people to beg on the streets, and that a significant number also suffer from physical and mental health concerns, including substance use. But instead of condemning the poor for being poor, the Toronto plan commits about $5 million to help panhandlers find affordable homes, an adequate income and the supports that they need.

The Wellesley Institute, in our submission to the committee, noted that the Statistics Canada data released last Thursday confirms the dire trend in growing income inequality in Toronto. We also pointed out that many cities - including New York City - have tried to criminalize activities associated with homelessness (including panhandling), only to find that this costs more and doesn't actually reduce the number of homeless people. And we called on the city to re-double its efforts to ensure that there is adequate housing and services for those who need it.

We've noted in our municipal budget submission that Toronto needs to ramp up its spending on housing and services, needs to re-double its efforts to convince senior levels of government to renew critical investments in housing and other social infrastructure and, until a comprehensive housing and anti-poverty strategy is adopted and funded by senior levels of government, needs to ensure that the city's emergency relief system - including homeless shelters - are properly funded.

One key factor that swayed many councillors was a simple message: The cost of doing nothing far outweights the cost of an effective and practical solution. That's the core message from the Wellesley Institute's Blueprint to End Homelessness, which was released in 2006, and city councillors and city officials quoted our Blueprint in support of sensible and humane plan to address the real needs of panhandlers.

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Michael Shapcott
Director of Community Engagement
The Wellesley Institute

Kelowna Can You Spare a Dime?

Big drop in begging preceded Kelowna's homeless crackdown
CATHRYN ATKINSON
Special to The Globe and Mail
September 17, 2007

A supporter of Kelowna's bylaw amendments that would allow the jailing of aggressive beggars and impose huge fines for vagrants, says carrot-and-stick initiatives have already reduced the number of trouble-making homeless.

John Perrott, the executive director of the Downtown Kelowna Association, said patrols by a Downtown Enforcement Unit, a six-member security team funded by local businesses, had assisted the RCMP in identifying the worst offenders in recent years. This approach was backed up by support offered by social services, he said.

"On the one hand, you've got the tremendous work done by our social services that try to get [the homeless] into the right services and programs, and prevent them from falling into the cycle of panhandling, and, on the other hand, there are the efforts from an enforcement perspective to make people aware of the types of behaviour we'd like to see in our community," he said.

The result, said Mr. Perrott, was that the problem has virtually disappeared.

"I know the number of calls to our downtown security patrol has gone down dramatically in the last year or two," he said. "And even out on the streets, where we used to have six or seven people on a regular basis, we're down to just one or two regulars who understand the rules of accepted behaviour."

The amendment to Kelowna's panhandling bylaw would see repeat offenders jailed for up to 90 days. The change to the parks and public spaces bylaw means that once evicted from a location, those who try to return within 48 hours can be fined up to $10,000.

Both amendments are expected to become law within weeks.

Mr. Perrott said the bylaw changes took three years of co-operation between the police, the local business community and the city council, and provided officers with "the right tools to do the job."

"I don't see the changes as being mean-spirited. I see them as being an additional tool that is there if needed. People realize that if you end up in Kelowna, if you come there thinking it will be easy to be an aggressive panhandler, it doesn't really work that way," he said.

Ian Graham of the Central Okanagan Poverty and Homeless Action Team said he was disappointed with the bylaw changes.

"I don't walk around looking for panhandlers, but I feel that there are many fewer today than there were," he said.

"I understand the frustrations of business and of the council members, but we have to find housing for these people.

"It's moving too slowly. We want to see the criminally inclined off the street, but we are concerned these kinds of laws trap other people who don't deserve to be thrown into the categories they're looking for."

He agreed that many of the worst offenders of previous years were no longer on Kelowna's streets, and said the bylaw changes were directed at a very small minority.

"When a councillor told me last week that the amendments would take care of the worst offenders, I found myself saying, 'What, both of them?' " he said, laughing.

Mr. Graham said the support for the amendments had been unanimous in council.

"We're trying to kill flies with a baseball bat. I think the community has to realize that homelessness attracts the kinds of issues that some other people don't find appealing.

"Until we can get the homeless into housing and give them some hope and training for the future, we are going to constantly face these kinds of problems."

Link to article.

Focus on Panhandling

A panhandler's life of fear and loathing
DAVID ANDREATTA
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
August 18, 2007 at 12:00 AM EDT

TORONTO — The barefoot woman sits so still and silently against the lamppost with an outstretched hand that she seems an extension of it, a statue dedicated to panhandling in the heart of Yorkville.

Lorraine “Grace” Beavis never pesters any of the thousands of suits and skirts that pass by her, and after an hour all she has to show for it is an empty coffee cup.

“Sometimes I sit for four or five hours without getting a dime,” said Ms. Beavis, 46, who has been a fixture on the southwest corner of Bay and Bloor streets since staking her claim to the location in October. “Sometimes you're out of sight, out of mind.”

Her assessment reflects a growing consensus among the legions of Toronto beggars: that any public sympathy they may have once elicited has given way to apathy and anger, exacerbated by a seemingly increasing presence of panhandlers and recent acts of violence allegedly perpetrated by them.

Read the rest here.


Photo Essay - Panhandlers: In Their Own Words


Seeking handouts or getting out of hand?
KATHERINE HARDING , ARMINA LIGAYA and INGRID PERITZ
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
August 17, 2007 at 7:21 PM EDT

EDMONTON, VANCOUVER and MONTREAL — Laws across Canada controlling and policing panhandling vary widely depending on the city, but the unwritten rules on the street amongst beggars are pretty much the same wherever you go.

From Montreal to Edmonton to Vancouver, “panners” often respect a kind of beggars' code: rules that govern how and where they can raise money. They may in most cases be only collecting coins, but it's clearly a profitable business.

For Louie, who makes roughly $7 an hour, adding up to $200 a week, his “office” seven days a week, four hours a day is the entrance to Granville SkyTrain station in Vancouver's downtown.

Read the rest here.


Panhandler panic: over the top?
HAYLEY MICK
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
August 14, 2007 at 8:43 AM EDT

The stabbing death of an Ontario man after an alleged scuffle with four Toronto panhandlers has unleashed a torrent of anger from politicians who say stricter laws are needed to control aggressive panhandlers.

But experts who work closely with homeless people say the death of Ross Hammond has fuelled unnecessary fear and stereotypes about panhandlers and homeless people.

Read the rest here.