Panhandler 
ordinance 
gets a redo

By Bill Torpy

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It’s back to the drawing board for Atlanta’s panhandling ordinance.

In 2005, the City Council, to great fanfare, passed a “commercial solicitation” law as a way to address a festering problem that has long held downtown back.

But the law, which made it illegal to verbally ask for money within the “tourist triangle” downtown or anywhere in the city after dark, is not being enforced and has not been for some time, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.

No one has been prosecuted under the law in at least six months, according to the city solicitor’s office, which has instructed police to use other ordinances to combat “aggressive panhandling.”

“The panhandling ordinance never really got off the ground,” Atlanta Solicitor Raines Carter said last week. “What we found is it’s almost impossible to enforce. ... We want an ordinance that’s enforceable, that’s fair and that deals with repeat offenders.”

Carter plans to meet with Mayor Kasim Reed on Monday to discuss a more streamlined way to deter panhandling, a persistent problem that has vexed Atlanta mayors and tourism officials for decades.

Reed, who after his November election promised to “deal with this issue in a very muscular way,” said last week he knows the law has some problems and wants to create a “fully integrated” plan for police and the solicitor.

“This issue is complex, but we will not allow the difficulty of the issue to prevent us from significantly reducing panhandling,” he said.

‘Not thought through’

The problem with the current ordinance, Carter said, is that the city never put into place the social services network, the police presence and violation-accounting system written into the law.

Those writing the ordinance hoped to get at the roots of homelessness, not just its symptoms. The law called for “outreach team evaluators” to direct those detained to drug or alcohol counseling, mental health services or other social programs. The ordinance didn’t criminalize panhandling violations until a third offense, which carried a jail term of up to 30 days.

The “tourism triangle” defined by the ordinance included Underground Atlanta, the hotel and convention areas and the Georgia Aquarium.

The 2005 law was enacted after billionaire Bernie Marcus’ gift of the $200 million aquarium gave downtown a burst of energy and promised tourism. Marcus may have been the law’s biggest proponent. Civil rights and homeless advocates, though, loudly protested it as an effort to sweep street people from the landscape.

At the time, Marcus conceded City Council members faced a tough decision. But, he said, “If they don’t make it, they’re going to do actual financial and physical damage to this city.”

“It was a good intention but not thought through completely,” said David Wardell, vice president for operations and public safety of Central Atlanta Progress and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District. “There was no bite. It just wasn’t good legislation.”

In 2005, the city also opened the 24/7 Gateway Center, a facility in the old city jail that provides shelter and structured services to those on the street.

“The ’05 legislation was well-intentioned but watered down,” Councilman H. Lamar Willis said. “I held my breath and supported it.”

For several months after the law was enacted, downtown panhandling appeared to drop off, but soon resumed. A year later, backers were calling the ordinance “toothless” and a top police official termed it “cumbersome.”

The city started a five-officer HOPE team — Homeless Outreach and Panhandling Enforcement — but it has been overwhelmed by the social dysfunction on Atlanta’s streets, Wardell said. Also, officers couldn’t quickly determine whether an arrest was a person’s second, third or 23rd panhandling violation.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis in 2006 found that police made only half as many panhandling arrests in the nine months after its passage compared to the same period the previous year. Arrests for “quality of life” offenses such as accosting, blocking traffic or public urination, however, increased.

Finding other means

In writing a new ordinance, Wardell suggests, the city should “take out the social stuff and the warnings and let the police police it.”

But Gerry Weber, a former American Civil Liberties Union attorney who fought the ordinance, said the city should move cautiously. He said the provision prohibiting a verbal request for money in the “tourism triangle” restricts freedom of speech.

Carter, the solicitor, has told police to use the “accosting” section of the city’s disorderly conduct ordinance to arrest aggressive panhandlers.

Wardell said the solicitor’s office provided figures showing more than 2,600 arrests last year for panhandling-related activity, offenses such as accosting a pedestrian or soliciting in the roadway. During the same time, he said, the downtown Ambassador Force did 4,500 “interventions,” where they asked suspected panhandlers to move on.

‘It’s worse ... now’

A visit to Courtroom 1A at Atlanta Municipal Court last week showed there are many ways to get in trouble on Atlanta’s streets: public drinking, soliciting in the roadway, disorderly while intoxicated, urinating in public, refusing to leave a MARTA station, trespassing in a parking lot, fighting.

Daryl Williams, arrested on a charge of harassing a motorist, was released when a judge determined the charge was poorly written. Leaving the courtroom, the weathered 49-year-old said he’s not a panhandler. “I wash cars and play the harmonica [outside sporting events],” he said. “I don’t ask for money straight out.”

Police, though, are relentless, he said. “That’s all they do, harass people,” he complained.

In court earlier, longtime Judge Andrew Mickle moved defendants in and out, averaging less than three minutes for each case. Defendants often pleaded guilty, took a five- or 15-day sentence with a couple of days served, then shuffled from the courtroom.

Mickle said he tries to differentiate between the homeless and the aggressive panhandlers. “I’ve been seeing a lot of the same faces for 30 years,” he said. “I do a fair amount of walking. I think it’s worse downtown now.”

Richard Bowers, who owns two buildings in the 200 block of Peachtree Street, sounds frustrated by the ongoing saga.

“It’s hurt retail and restaurant business and even office rentals [downtown],” he said in a telephone interview. “I don’t think we get the [police] coverage we deserve.”

Steady enforcement is what he wants from whatever law is passed next. “You can’t do it for a month and then do something else. You need a long-term commitment.”

How we got the story

Reporter Bill Torpy was at a community meeting when an Atlanta police major casually told the crowd the city currently had no panhandling ordinance. Torpy checked into the claim and found out that the existing law, passed in 2005, has not been enforced for some time. He interviewed city officials, downtown business owners, advocates and opponents of the current law and visited a city courtroom to report this story.