City urges tough love for Atlanta beggars

A sign at Woodruff Park downtown, long an “urban camping” haven, warns passers-by not to feed the pigeons — doing so will simply draw more. A new campaign by Atlanta city officials and downtown business groups is employing that strategy in dealing with pushy panhandlers.

The effort, to be unveiled this week, is a public education campaign called, “Stop Panhandling. Give Change That Makes Sense.”

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Elissa Eubanks/eeubanks@ajc.com

From left, an Atlanta police officer stands with a handcuffed Dajuan Gladney, 20, after he is arrested for and outstanding warrant after his friend, Lenoris Seay, 22, was arrested for disorderly conduct at Woodruff Park on Thursday. As recently as two months ago, the City of Atlanta has started to crack down on aggressive panhandling and as a result, they have started to patrol Woodruff park.

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Elissa Eubanks/eeubanks@ajc.com

Officer J. Churchill patrols Woodruff Park on Thursday.

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The idea is the same as keeping the birds at bay: don’t give panhandlers money and they will drift away. The effort encourages people to give to charities instead.

“You want to stop enabling them,” said Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall, whose district includes downtown. “When people are losing their lives over pocket change, we have to do something.”

Hall was referring to a killing last week at a Midtown gas station where police said a man was shot to death after arguing with a panhandler. A suspect was arrested and charged with murder.

The newest campaign follows last month’s police operation to arrest aggressive beggars. The roundup was the largest since the city passed an anti-panhandling ordinance in 2005. The arrests coincided with attempts to stem loitering at Woodruff Park and Barbara Asher Square near the Five Points MARTA station.

In August, undercover Atlanta police posing as tourists made 48 arrests on charges of “aggressive” panhandling — asking again for money after being refused or following or blocking the path of a pedestrian — said Officer James Polite. However, he added, “more than half of them were released the next day by a city judge for time served.

“They get a free meal and a shower, and then they’re out,” Polite said. “It gets frustrating.”

Anita Beaty, director of the Task Force for the Homeless, said police are “selectively enforcing the law, but this is not new for Atlanta. It further demonizes people who don’t need demonizing.”

Still, tourists, workers, students and residents downtown have complained for years about being accosted by panhandlers. A study released this year by the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau said out-of-town visitors are increasingly complaining of “more aggressive interactions with panhandlers.”

“Our visitors had a sense of unease downtown, more so than last year,” said ACVB senior vice president Kathleen Bertrand. “Panhandlers are approaching visitors, those dragging a suitcase and with [convention] tags. They are disproportionately targeted.”

‘This must stop’

Those living, working and studying here agree.

“It’s gotten worse since 2005, not only the panhandling but the homeless issue,” said Richard Hooker, who has lived in a loft downtown for nine years and manages properties there. “It’s not the aggressiveness so much, it’s the numbers. You can’t walk a block without someone asking you for money.”

Nathan Tsimbler, a sophomore at Georgia State University, said panhandlers seem to inherently know who the freshmen are and target them.

“But I still get bothered, especially when you’re alone,” he said, pausing between classes. “They try to intimidate you.”

So once again, city officials are saying, “This must stop.”

“We’re trying to set a tone this kind of behavior is not acceptable,” said Debi Starnes, a former Atlanta councilwoman who is Mayor Shirley Franklin’s adviser on homeless issues.

Starnes said the upcoming public education blitz is a big difference from other campaigns and will hopefully resonate.

“Most people vacillate in their minds” when approached by a beggar, she said. “They wonder, ‘Is this money helping or not helping?’ “

Most surely, it is not, she said. The campaign will include stepped-up policing and urge property owners downtown to discourage panhandling and loitering.

Starnes said the public education effort — which will be rolled out at downtown hotels, businesses, residences and convention centers and in radio spots — will suggest the names of organizations where people can contribute and help the homeless. Also, the city will try to bring the homeless into programs for counseling and treatment.

She said the homeless presence downtown has worsened because of a shaky economy and because social workers have been targeting those who were marginally homeless. This leaves the most hardened cases for last, she said.

Something new

A.J. Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress, which represents downtown businesses, said a new effort is needed.

“We always assumed we could arrest our way out of the problem. Now we’ll try something new,” Robinson said. “We have to go after the supply, not only the demand.”

Golden Gaye, a homeless man pausing near a throng of others loitering midday in Woodruff Park, feels the efforts to change the image of downtown. The grass area at the park on Peachtree Street is now off-limits to all (an officer asked a college couple lounging there to move along) and the benches have been removed.

“It’s always, ‘Move on. Move on,’ like we’re a herd of cattle,” he complained. “They’ll lock you up for anything, any little old thing.”

He has been arrested for offenses such as violating the open container law and “impeding traffic,” which, he said, occurred when he was standing around on a sidewalk with friends.

“There’s so many homeless here,” he said, sitting on the concrete base of a light pole. “They’re trying to clean it up. They want us gone.”