Knoxify

16 Responses to “Would you support panhandling meters?”

1. Erik Luchauer 
   August 8th, 2008 at 9:00 am

   

   I would totally con­tribute to it if it were going to a good cause. How­ever, I think I would miss the inter­ac­tions with the home­less and under­priv­i­leged if they were asked to stop “pan­han­dling” in exchange for a few meters to be installed.

   Do they have a dou­ble pur­pose for park­ing your car, or are they just ran­dom meters in the city with a sole pur­pose of col­lect­ing change for a cause?

2. CP 
   August 8th, 2008 at 9:10 am

   

   @Erik Luchauer: The meters have a sole pur­pose of col­lect­ing change for a cause.

3. Patrick Beeson 
   August 8th, 2008 at 9:14 am

   

   Being that I hardly ever have change or cash of any kind on my per­son, I’m not sure I could con­tribute even if I wanted to.

   But if the con­tri­bu­tion fit my cause, sure I’d contribute.

   I should also note that I’ve only been asked for money less than five times since mov­ing to Knoxville more than a year and a half ago. And I’ve spent a lot of time down­town in that time.

4. Erik Luchauer 
   August 8th, 2008 at 9:27 am

   

   My mis­take, I was under the impres­sion that the money col­lected from the meters would still go to the home­less and that the home­less would be dis­cour­aged from ask­ing for change.

   I would have to agree with @PatrickBeeson in that the cause the money was going to would have to align with my theologies.

   Don’t get me wrong, I do think that the home­less ministries/shelters/etc. in knoxville could stand to take an objec­tive look at what they are truly doing and make some changes as to not com­pletely enable peo­ple to be home­less, but to try to empower them and teach them some nec­es­sary skills to enrich their own lives. We do our­selves an injus­tice when we judge these peo­ple based on deci­sions they have made in the past and it would do us some good to talk to them, truly lis­ten to them, and learn about how they ended up where they are. They are peo­ple, just like you and I. They have just made some poor choices in their past and it’s hard to get out of that lifestyle when every­body is look­ing at you like you’re a drug addict with a crim­i­nal his­tory. Usu­ally, that’s not the case.

   Wow…I guess I had a lot to say there. Get­ting off my soap box, now.

5. Matt Heisig 
   August 8th, 2008 at 9:37 am

   

   I can’t see it hurt­ing, so I guess I’d say “Sure, why not?”

   The one caveat being that I would hope the gen­eral pub­lic real­izes that while these meters might be a good idea, it’s hardly a solu­tion to the home­less problem.

   I spent a lit­tle under two years as an offi­cer with the Knoxville Police Depart­ment and inter­acted with the home­less on a daily basis. I am of the opin­ion that the home­less prob­lem runs far deeper and will require far more to resolve than a park­ing / change meter can provide.

   If it pro­vides some­where for peo­ple to drop change other than the home­less individual’s pocket I can hardly argue with it, but it’s lit­tle more than a band-aid on a much larger problem.

6. bcknoxify 
   August 8th, 2008 at 10:01 am

   

   I think it would go even fur­ther if we had true LAWS stat­ing no pan­han­dling in this area…if caught you could have jail time, etc. And then to push home the point even fur­ther, estab­lish this sys­tem of col­lect­ing coin for a cause.

7. Jody Collins 
   August 8th, 2008 at 10:10 am

   

   …but then I would miss out on the won­der­ful, out­landish sto­ries they con­coct. Not to be a Neg­a­tive Nancy [even though I phys­i­cally can­not because I’m a dude], but I no longer give money to the homeless.

   I’d guess that in a year I aver­age about 20 – 30 peo­ple hit­ting me up for change/cash. Mostly this hap­pens at the Wal­greens and Pilot on Broad­way across from Ful­ton [For the record, my entire fam­ily and I have attended and grad­u­ated from Ful­ton], and in the Old City. I don’t really care. I’m a rather large fella, and am not in any kind of danger.

   I’ve given up. I’m not a huge sup­porter of the pan­han­dling meters cause I’m sure I’ll still be both­ered. Its tough enough try­ing to han­dle all my bills with­out hav­ing to worry with sup­port­ing the home­less, all of which can go to either KARM or VMC.

   Again, not try­ing to be an a$$.

8. bcknoxify 
   August 8th, 2008 at 11:03 am

   

   @jody or neg­a­tive Nancy. Don’t think your an a$$, I agree that KARM, VMC, or any of the home­less INDUSTRY may not be the right place to put the money. Maybe it should go to Knox County Schools, or lob­ster dinners.…

9. Suzy 
   August 8th, 2008 at 12:14 pm

   

   While I don’t think it’s a hor­ri­ble idea, I agree that I don’t see how it’s really going to dis­cour­age pan­han­dling with­out anti-panhandling laws to back it up. And call me cyn­i­cal, but I can’t help but won­der­ing if the money would really go where it’s sup­posed to go.

   I also stopped giv­ing money to peo­ple a long time ago — I think after the same guy approached me twice (weeks apart) with the same story about need­ing a bus ticket to get to his wife who was in labor somewhere.

   I do offer to buy food when peo­ple ask me for money, and I gladly would, but sadly those offers are always turned down.

10. Erik Luchauer 
    August 8th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    

    If I put in my own Root­clip meter down­town, would you guys con­tribute to it? I’m think­ing this would be a great sec­ondary source of income for the website!

    http://rootclip.com

11. bcknoxify 
    August 8th, 2008 at 1:13 pm

    

    @Erik Luchauer: I would, as long as you cre­ated a meter that looked like a cam­era and it con­tributed to the down­town “atmosphere”

12. CP 
    August 8th, 2008 at 2:18 pm

    

    I agree with most of you that this would not cure pan­han­dling or home­less­ness. What it would do is bring aware­ness to the prob­lem, espe­cially if these were placed out­side of the Down­town area. I know too many peo­ple that live in a West Knoxville bub­ble and have hardly an idea that this prob­lem exists.

    As for the dona­tions: I’d like to see the monthly pro­ceeds from the meters go to a dif­fer­ent orga­ni­za­tion (could be non-profit or profit) each month or quar­ter. In turn, you’d high­light more orga­ni­za­tions that are try­ing to make a dif­fer­ence in Knoxville.

    Just my .02 cents.

13. JHaskell 
    August 9th, 2008 at 9:53 pm

    

    @Erik Luchauer: Erik, and any­one else who is inter­ested, I would like to invite you to come see first­hand what we are doing to empower and teach peo­ple. Two of my for­mer co-workers, for­mer res­i­dents of our shel­ter, just moved to Florida, found employ­ment and have rented an apart­ment for them­selves using money that they earned and saved while stay­ing at our facil­ity. Con­tact me directly to set some­thing up.

    For the record…I’ve heard of the meter idea before. It has appar­ently raised sig­nif­i­cant amounts of money, but alone will not solve the issue of pan­han­dling. It may soothe the con­science, but there are a num­ber of exist­ing ways to do that.

    jonathan_haskell@uss.salvationarmy.org

14. Robert 
    August 11th, 2008 at 11:37 am

    

    I like this idea, and think it could be a help­ful way to allo­cate resources to address homelessness.

    I work down­town, and I don’t get approached all that often by pan­han­dlers. I never, ever give them money. Like Patrick Bee­son, I don’t carry cash around, for one thing. I also believe pan­han­dling is an espe­cially detri­men­tal kind of enable­ment. Pan­han­dling is an indus­try, and a lot of the peo­ple who work in it are not homeless.

    I think money col­lected through a sys­tem like this should be used to fund the case man­age­ment ser­vices for peo­ple who are leav­ing chronic home­less­ness. Case man­age­ment is the tough­est fund­ing chal­lenge to end­ing homelessness.

15. Bob 
    September 5th, 2008 at 4:10 pm

    

    Suzy I have used the same tac­tic as you — offer to buy food instead of give money. I think that’s a test of their inten­tions. If they say they’re hun­gry, but turn down food, they don’t intend to use the money for food.

    Like you, I’ve mostly been turned down. Once I was blessed to be able to pro­vide break­fast for a guy and was glad to do it.

    As for the meters, I’m not sure. I’d cer­tainly have to be con­fi­dent the money went to the home­less in some way.

16. Brad 
    September 20th, 2008 at 4:03 am

    

    Thanks for a very healthy debate of just one chal­lenge fac­ing our down­town, pedestrian-friendly area. There are no sil­ver bul­lets for pan­han­dling, but geo­graphic bans, really sim­pli­fied enforce­ment, and com­ple­men­tary options like meters cer­tainly would be an effec­tive mix to do what’s best for those who are in real need and those who just want to help some­one. In this instance, the great­est act of ran­dom kind­ness would be to hand out busi­ness cards of those vol­un­teers and staff who are skilled in the min­istry of help­ing oth­ers find thier way back home or on an even bet­ter path some­where to start anew. Since car­ry­ing refer­ral cards around all day is less than prac­ti­cal, why don’t we add sig­nage for pedes­tri­ans and those who beg, alike, that informs, instructs, and directs every­one to the best places for help, shel­ter, kind­ness, and options for bet­ter heath and well-being. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion, sen­si­ble bans in pedes­trian places, sim­ple enforce­ment, and help for those who really need it while show­ing those who beg for a liv­ing that they are not wel­come down­town. Lastly, if you have any doubt about where we are or where we should take this chal­lenge, call Ginny Weath­er­stone @ Vol­un­teer Min­istry Cen­ter. She’s the most qual­i­fied, local expert who deals with the wide and var­ied indi­vid­ual and sys­tem chal­lenges everyday.

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