I kept wondering that as I skimmed this article in Discover Magazine about the invisible “things” that give a city its flavor. Philadelphia has cheesesteaks, Seattle has clouds, Los Angeles has botox and Houston has air conditioning (?).
Atlanta has… panhandling?
As we’d reported in early August and the AJC repeated Sunday, City Hall has launched something of a crackdown on downtown panhandling. Last month, the city fired the first shot across the bow when police arrested almost 50 aggressive beggars, the first serious enforcement of the downtown “no panhandling zone” in three years.
And this Wednesday, Mayor Shirley Franklin will officially unveil the city’s new anti-panhandling strategy, of which increased police enforcement is only one aspect. Basically, the city – with support from Central Atlanta Progress, the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau and the downtown business community – will launch a marketing campaign aimed at persuading people not to give money to beggars, but rather to social-service agencies that work with the homeless.
The ultimate goal, says Debi Starnes, a former Councilwoman and Franklin’s adviser on homeless issues, is to nudge those who are actually homeless into seeking treatment and help, while discouraging professional panhandlers.
If you’re interested, the mayor’s announcement will be in the City Hall atrium from 10:30-11:30 a.m. Let’s hope this marketing campaign works better than Brand Atlanta.
Tiny to the point of appearing shriveled, Jessica looks much older than her 48 years. Which shouldn’t be a surprise, considering she has HIV, suffers from mental illness and has been homeless perhaps half her life.
For the past several years, she lived in the bushes outside City Hall, which is where former Atlanta Councilwoman Debi Starnes first met her. Starnes estimates that she had suggested to Jessica on at least 50 occasions that she go to a shelter or ask help from a social-service agency – only to be cussed out.
Last week, however, Jessica said she had changed her mind; she was ready to check in to the city’s Gateway Center, where she could be assigned temporary housing and evaluated for treatment as part of a comprehensive program aimed at stabilizing lives gripped by addiction and psychosis. The last they spoke, Jessica told Starnes she must’ve been sent by God to help her.
Such are the incremental victories in the battle against homelessness.
Read the rest of this article here.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
