Part 1: The Problem: Panhandling or poverty?
The Asheville City Council will vote on a proposal to extend restrictions on panhandling at their upcoming meeting on August 26. This has prompted much community conversation around issues of poverty and homelessness. In today’s newsletter, and each weekly newsletter in August, our Director, Ben, has included commentary around the proposal.
Part 1: The Problem: Panhandling or poverty?
In America, we often punish and criminalize those in poverty. Asheville is no exception.
Last week, the City’s Public Safety Committee voted unanimously to recommend extending Asheville’s high traffic zones to other areas of the city, including Haywood Road, despite each public comment given and letter submitted to the committee expressing opposition to the proposal. Panhandling, the targeted behavior of this extension, is prohibited in high-traffic zones. The full City Council will vote on the proposal to extend the zones at their next meeting on August 26. Anyone cited for panhandling faces a $500 fine, a court date, potential jail time of up to 20 days, and a class 3 misdemeanor charge on their record.
Asheville, like many cities, faces persistent problems of homelessness and poverty. According to 2023 statistics from Data USA, over 14% of city residents, or over 13,000 Asheville residents, are below the poverty line. 2023 Feeding America data states over 16% of Buncombe County children, or nearly 8,000 kids, are food-insecure, while, according to NC Child, a staggering 46% of the county’s children live in “poor to low-income” households.
We know panhandling and homelessness are symptoms and byproducts of the much larger problem of poverty. So often, the answer, as in this case, is to punish those with the least. We cite panhandlers. They enter, or re-enter, the justice system. When they are eventually released, they return to poverty and continue to do what they can to survive.
We understand the Council’s motivation and predicament. Many businesses are struggling. Tourism has been slow to rebound from Helene’s devastation. Many elected leaders pledged to show voters, residents, and business owners that they are taking action to address concerns. I can only speak anecdotally, but I’m sure adding restrictions on panhandling will decrease the presence of panhandlers, eventually, in these high-traffic areas. I see fewer panhandlers downtown than I used to before the city applied restrictions there.
Of course, those who resort to panhandling to get money, when faced with restrictions, simply move to other unrestricted parts of the city. Extension of the high traffic zones will follow a pattern of the City simply pushing this visible effect of poverty and homelessness to different parts of the city.
Restrictions on panhandling show action, but they do nothing to eliminate the root causes of those who resort to panhandling to survive. In fact, these actions do the opposite of reducing poverty. Criminalization adds to the struggle of our neighbors in poverty, fills our already-crowded court calendars, and asks people accepting sporadic $1 and $5 donations to suddenly cover a $500 fine. The costs of any resulting jail time then fall on taxpayers. When panhandlers return to the street, they will be just in front of a different business, on a different corner, trying to address the same basic need for survival.
Unless we shift our approach, we can expect to revisit these same issues, time after time, year after year. We can’t expect to repeat the same punitive actions, to recreate the same unjust systems, and expect different results. We can, and must, do better.
We believe this current issue must serve as a catalyst for a critical and necessary community conversation, not just about symptoms like panhandling, substance use disorder, untreated mental illness, and homelessness, but about the root cause of poverty. As our city and county leaders prepare to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars in Helene funds to rebuild our communities, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to attack local poverty, or what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called “a moral failing of society.”
We have the resources, now more than ever, to change our city and county fundamentally; to build a future that includes those who have been historically left behind. What we have lacked in the past, however, is the will to prioritize this effort. We can reduce panhandling and other symptoms of poverty while strengthening and healing our city, by bolstering our systems and resources to build an Asheville that works for everyone.
This is the work we’re honored to support and engage in every day at Asheville Poverty Initiative through our Realities of Poverty education and 12 Baskets Cafe programs, inclusive work that centers the lived experiences of our friends in poverty. We know our city is stronger not when people are locked up or swept aside, but when everyone is invited to the table. We have so much to learn from each other, and all perspectives and ideas will be necessary for our communities to be more sustainable, healthier, better suited for economic growth, and yes, safer.
Overcoming poverty is hard work. It is work that will take all of us, and it will take patience, collaboration, and time. But we live in a great city full of creative, incredible people. The work is worth it, because our city and its people are worth it. We’re honored to be a small part of that effort, supported by your help, ideas, energy, and participation.
We hope you’ll engage in this conversation with us at this critical moment in time, around poverty, homelessness, panhandling, and community safety. If you’d like to share your thoughts on this issue, please email Ben at ben@ashevillepovertyinitiative.org or reach out at 828-276-2512. If you’d like to speak at City Council about the proposed panhandling ordinance, meeting details are HERE.
Aug 12 newsletter: Lessons: From Helene and our friends on the street
Aug 19 newsletter: Solutions: Alternative approaches to address root causes
Aug 26 newsletter: Dr. King’s Vision: Making the Beloved Community a reality
