As we researched this issue, Madison mayor Sue Bauman and other city officials were making plans to create a city subcommittee evaluating State Street’s panhandling situation. According to police, complaints about “aggressive panhandling” have risen in the last few months. The subcommittee will aim to determine whether Madison’s downtown panhandling ordinance should be more restrictive or if police need to better enforce the laws.
City officials say the committee will also discuss programs to educate citizens and patrons about the problem and efforts to help Madison’s homeless and indigent population take advantage of social services rather than begging.
We urge the prospective committee to focus on the latter two goals rather than initiating a police crackdown or trying to restrict freedoms of those who are already limited economically. Many of the recent panhandling complaints apply to behavior already covered by city ordinance 24.12, which prohibits “menacing” behavior and physical or intrusive contact while limiting beggars to sidewalk areas between curbs and light poles.
Further constraints would come dangerously close to undermining the First Amendment, which, last we checked, applies to poor people too.
Being solicited for change may be unpleasant, but street people play a vital role in State Street’s rich color and character and efforts to merely sweep them elsewhere would deprive the area of that depth without doing anything to improve their lot.
Homeless people find their way to Madison for specific reasons. Dane County has a dearth of services for the poor, including more than $26 million spent toward fighting homelessness by federal, state and local groups. There are numerous programs to help affordably fight drug and alcohol dependencies. And, for some, the city’s murder-free streets are safer than sleeping curbside in Chicago or Milwaukee.
Instead of establishing strictures in the form of tighter ordinances or police raids that might chase panhandlers from their best chance at finding institutions to get them working or free from addiction, the city ought to be searching for ways to connect its homeless residents with those programs. It should reinstate campaigns to educate people about the panhandling situation, such as brochures at SOAR and signs in shop windows that give tips for interacting with beggars and advise donating to institutions rather than out of pocket.
And, as always, we encourage Mayor Bauman and those selecting the committee members to keep students in mind. As a bulk of downtown residents and frequenters of State Street, students on the panel would provide needed insight into this shared social problem.
