Businesses have seen fewer panhandlers, and arrests have fallen in the last couple of years. Chapel Hill mayoral candidates will have to give their ideas for continuing the trend this election season.
Several measures, like the Orange County 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness and the Real Change from Spare Change program have reduced the number of panhandlers, said Jim Norton, executive director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership.
“We’ve made a lot of progress,” he said. “The education process consists of making people understand that they should provide money to service providers instead.”
Some mayoral candidates have suggested stricter ordinances to keep panhandlers away from businesses, while others want to focus on the causes of panhandling.
Augustus Cho
Candidate Augustus Cho said he wants stricter panhandling ordinances to promote the business environment. He said he plans to:
- Provide services for the truly homeless, while targeting “professional” panhandlers.
- Require panhandlers to purchase a business license and pay taxes on their income.
- Increase the distance between panhandlers and businesses through new laws.
“We lost sight of balance by focusing on panhandlers at the expense of the business community, and we need to restore that balance,” Cho said. “We cannot help the poor by tearing down the rich.”
Matt Czajkowski
As a Town Council member, mayoral candidate Matt Czajkowski supported an ordinance to limit panhandlers on Franklin Street. He said he plans to:
- Introduce an ordinance to make panhandling illegal within 15 feet of business entrances.
- Simplify the process for reporting aggressive panhandlers.
- Set a deadline to move the homeless shelter at 100 W. Rosemary St. further from downtown.
“The sooner we can move the homeless shelter, the sooner we will mitigate the panhandling problem that we have downtown,” Czajkowski said. “We can mitigate the feeling that citizens have of being unsafe.”
Mark Kleinschmidt
Candidate Mark Kleinschmidt is on the Town Council. He said he plans to:
- Continue to support the 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness.
- Foster partnerships between the town, business owners and the University.
- Focus on eliminating the economic problems that lead to panhandling, instead of just eliminating the panhandlers themselves.
“The need for money is just symptomatic of underlying problems: their inability to find jobs, to find a place to live, to develop skills beyond just being able to ask for money,” Kleinschmidt said.
Kevin Wolff
Candidate Kevin Wolff said he first brought up homelessness and panhandling when he ran for mayor in 2005. He said he plans to:
- Accelerate the 10 Year Plan to end Chapel Hill panhandling in five years.
- Create yearly homeless reduction goals to increase accountability.
- Be personally involved with homeless service groups.
“It would be nice to sit in an ivory tower and solve all problems by pushing a policy button, but it’s not that easy,” Wolff said.
“People need to understand that the people at the top are concerned enough to come down and work with the issue.”
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
