“I’m addicted; I drink alcohol, [but] that’s the way I live,” said Roy Douglas Townsend, a panhandler as well as an alcoholic.

After being released from a six-year sentence at Waupun State Penitentiary in 2001, Townsend, 50, ended up on the side of State Street, panhandling for money to buy alcohol.

“I bum people for money [to feed my addiction]. There are a lot of alcoholic panhandlers around here,” Townsend said.

Panhandlers on State Street are becoming increasingly aggressive, say city officials.

On September 6, city officials including Police Chief Richard Williams, Mayor Susan Bauman, Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, Susan Schmitz, president of Downtown Madison Inc., and Enis Ragland, Mayor Bauman’s chief of staff, met to discuss the ongoing issue of panhandling in the downtown area.

The consensus at the meeting was to form a committee with the task of finding a way to put a stop to the “aggressive panhandling” incidents occurring on State Street.

“Our goal is to try to reduce the amount of panhandling overall,” said Verveer, who believes putting a stop to the panhandling situation would be a positive step for Madison.

“The reality is that most of them are chronic alcoholics. They are only interested in buying their gin and McCormick’s (vodka),” Verveer said.

In many cases, Verveer is right, according to Townsend, a local panhandler and Vietnam veteran.

Willow Warner, also a panhandler in the State Street area adamantly disagrees. Warner believes panhandling should not be seen as a problem.

“I think people are afraid because there are a few [panhandlers] on the streets that go up to people and grab their clothes and want money, but it’s just a few bad ones,” Warner said.

Whether it is a select few or a large group of panhandlers who are to be blamed for the panhandling situation on State Street, the problem needs to cease, according to Verveer.

He feels one way everyone can crack down on this situation is by not contributing to any panhandlers on State Street.

“Personally, I would urge students not to give money to panhandlers,” Verveer commented.

He said he feels that the majority of panhandlers’ money comes from students on campus in Madison.

Believing the majority of this money is used to only further drug and/or alcohol addictions, he offers this advice: don?t help the panhandlers by giving them money. Instead, help them find affordable housing, a job or donate your time by volunteering in a local soup kitchen or homeless shelter.

Although members of both Madison’s city hall and the Madison Police Department hopes to avoid a severe ordinance punishing panhandling, Verveer believes the city of Madison has been far too lenient with regard to this issue.

He hopes more pressure might be successful in helping resolve the issue.

“[The city of Madison] tolerates panhandling. Many cities do not.”

Katie Tansy, another member of State Street’s panhandling population, said things could be far worse. “[In New Orleans], I have seen beggars threaten to spit on people walking by if they didn’t give them money.”

The city’s committee has yet to be put into action. Townsend, Warner and Tansy hope this doesn’t happen.

“If I couldn’t panhandle, I would go hungry,” Tansy said.