Missoula Program, Patrols Aim to Curb Panhandling

By Kaylee Porter, 6-09-08

Summer weather means panhandling in Missoula. At best, it is a polite request for spare change.  At worst, it is a belligerent demand accompanied by insults and the occasional projectile.

Though many Missoulians are happy to contribute a quarter for coffee or a buck toward a burger, downtown business owners say the latter, more aggressive type of panhandling has become a problem.

Alice Marquardt, co-owner of two adjoined, high-end women’s boutiques in downtown Missoula, says she deals with panhandlers loitering in front of her store, harassing and swearing at customers and damaging property on an almost daily basis during the summer.

“Our customers feel threatened,” Marquardt said. “Customers from out of town say they have never seen it this bad anywhere else.”

Marquardt and several other downtown business owners, including Yellowstone Photo owners Barrie Smith and Rhonda Davis, pleaded with the Missoula City Council to do something about the aggressive panhandling back in September.

City officials listened, and though they are not considering a ban on panhandling, as the business owners suggested, they have a plan for handling downtown panhandling this summer.

The two-part plan, which the city will unveil Tuesday in a press conference at the Missoula Food Bank, focuses on expanding the program Real Change, Not Spare Change, as well as increasing the police force downtown.

Real Change, a program that was reestablished last spring, encourages people to donate their spare change to charities that help the homeless rather than give it to panhandlers. Various stores around town have donation jars and the money collected goes to the Missoula Food Bank, The Poverello Center, the Salvation Army and Partnership Health Care.

(Partnership Health Care, the most recent addition to Real Change program, was added this spring.  The non-profit community health clinic does not receive money from the Real Change program, but they will provide basic health care services to homeless people free of charge. It is located in downtown Missoula on the corner of Orange and Alder Streets)

Agencies like the Poverello are able to use the money they receive from Real Change to address the causes of homelessness, including addiction and mental illness—something money given directly to panhandlers cannot do.

Furthermore, a dollar given to a charity like the Food Bank goes much further than one given to a panhandler. Nick Roberts, development director of the Missoula Food Bank, says the Food Bank is able to provide a full meal for $2.17.

“We’re very appreciative of the monetary contribution we receive,” Roberts says of the $500 plus dollars the Food Bank got from the program last year.  “But the best thing that Real Change does is recognize that there are service alternatives out there for folks in need.”

It is that recognition that Ginny Merriam, communications director for the mayor’s office and the co-chair of the city’s panhandling work group, says the city hopes to expand with the Real Change program this summer.

“We’re going to have a stronger public education component this year that says, ‘you’re really not helping people out when you give them money,’” Merriam says.

One of the biggest ways the Real Change program will educate the public is through radio ads featuring well-known Missoula figures.

Griz football coach Bobby Hauck, city council members Dave Strohmaier and Renee Mitchell, Police Chief Mark Muir and Mayor John Engen are among the Missoulians urging people to put their spare change in Real Change jars instead of in the hands of transients. Missoula radio stations will begin airing the ads this week.

Merriam says Real Change has also reprinted the cards that say where homeless people can go for food, shelter, clothing and health care.  Citizens can pick the cards up wherever Real Change jars are found and give them to panhandlers instead of money.

“By making Real Change more high profile, by having the radio spots, by having the cards, we’re hoping that all of those things together will make a difference,” she said.

The other component of the city’s plan to control panhandling is an increased police force downtown.  One bike patroller has been assigned to the area since April and an additional four will join her once the public schools get out in June.  A sixth officer will patrol the area on foot. 

Because jailing panhandlers cost the taxpayers money and writing them tickets that they are unable to pay is inefficient, these officers will use writing tickets and putting people in jail as a last resort, Merriam says.

“Just [the police] presence, they hope, will deter people from aggressive behavior and behaviors that are not acceptable,” Merriam says.

Compared to panhandling laws enacted in other cities around the country, Missoula’s new plan is far less punitive.

Panhandling on public transportation in Medford, Ore., for instance, will earn you a year in jail and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Springfield, Ill., and Minneapolis, have banned panhandling downtown altogether.

These cities are part of a nationwide trend of prohibiting panhandling in downtown areas.  According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, 43 percent of U.S. cities now prohibit begging in specific public places, usually including downtown areas.

In 2005, Atlanta passed an ordinance that bans panhandling within part of downtown and anywhere in the city after sunset.  The ordinance also bans panhandling within 15 feet of an ATM, bus stop, taxi stand, pay phone, public toilet, or train station in all parts of the city.  Violators can be fined up to $1000 or imprisoned for up to 30 days.

Cleveland and Pittsburgh have similar panhandling laws.  In Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, panhandlers must have a permit from the chief of police.  Those who do not are arrested.

According to the NCH, panhandling restrictions fail to address poverty or mental illness, the underlying causes of homelessness.  Instead, they criminalize the homeless, which contributes to the problem. 

The NHC’s web site says having a criminal record makes it harder for the homeless to find employment and housing.  Jailing panhandlers is an “inefficient allocation of resources,” in that it, “costs more to incarcerate someone than it does to provide supportive housing.”

A panhandling ban in Missoula is unlikely, however, Merriam says.

“The city attorney in Missoula and the city of Missoula in general is very committed to not infringing on people’s civil rights,” Merriam said. “We wouldn’t pass a Draconian ordinance.”

While the city’s plan for minimizing aggressive panhandling will help, Merriam says doesn’t expect it to solve the problem altogether. “This is an ongoing process.  It would be like expecting the police department to end all crime.  There is a social problem here and we have to address it.”

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