Panhandlers persist on Ninth

For years local business owners Some merchants as well as the city have struggled want to see more police with how to deal with the vagrants in the business district and panhandlers on one of DurBy Lewis Kendall
lkendall@newsobserver.com

If you frequent Ninth Street, odds are youve seen the men and women who wander the sidewalks in search of a spare buck. You might even know their names, like Concrete or Keith. If youve lived in the area, you also probably know that this story is not a new one.

hams most iconic streets. And now, with the area in transition, the problem has reared its head once again. On any given day its normal to find several people in the alley next to St. Josephs Episcopal Church and behind Brueggers. On this particular morning there are two men lounging in the shade of the building. One of them, an older man with

more teeth missing than not, paces around a trash bag half full of collected cans and bottles. Another sips on a drink from a soda cup. We dont bother nobody, says the one with the drink, Norman, who did not give his last name. We dont disrespect nobody. Norman, who says he is homeless, says he has lived in the area for going on eight years, but that recently things have started to go HARRY LYNCH - hlynch@newsobserver.com downhill. It used to be all about love, but Some business owners on Ninth Street in Durham say panhandling its gotten worse, he says.
SEE PANHANDLING, PAGE 6A

is driving away their customers.

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Sunday, August 12, 2012

PANHANDLING
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City ordinance prohibits aggressive begging

m No accosting, continued requests, or physically blocking a persons path m No begging within 20 feet of a bank or ATM m No begging within six feet of a bus stop or on any city-owned public transportation m No begging after dark

Talk to several of the streets merchants, and youll feel the tension between the two groups. Michael Bell, owner of the vinyl and smoke shop Hunky Dory, says the areas panhandlers bother customers and can negatively affect business. They can just be extremely rude and aggressive, he says. If someone comes in or leaves the store and gets harassed, the likelihood of them coming back is much less. Karen Barfield, a vicar for St. Josephs, defends the churchs policy of allowing transients to reside outside on its property, a point of contention for some business owners. Were trying to provide them with hospitality, she says. If they werent sitting on our property they would be sitting somewhere else.

More harm than good

The city has an ordinance to try and prevent aggressive begging. It prohibits repeated requests, physically blocking someones path and soliciting after dark. Business owners have been encouraged to call the police in order to enforce these laws, and many have, asking for a greater law enforcement presence to discourage panhandlers. Data obtained from the Durham Police Department shows that in the past two years District 5, which includes Ninth Street, had 223 calls about panhandling, an average of about nine per month. Central District Capt. Ed Sarvis says that while the police can help

curb the number of illegal panhandlers, the public also has a role to play. A persons heart could be in the right place, but they might be doing more harm than good by giving [panhandlers] money, he says. If the homeless know that they are going to keep getting money, they are going to keep going there. The result has led the area to become what Larry Wood, co-owner of Ninth Street Flowers, calls a good fishing hole. These guys are somewhat intimidating, Wood says, and if youre remotely intimidated by them, youre not going to say no. Several of the panhandlers down here are part of the fabric of Ninth Street; my suspicion is they will be here regardless of other efforts that go on. Wood adds that he believes the panhandling to be symptomatic of a larger transition taking place on the street. Several longstanding businesses have already left the area, including Specs and Francescas, whose building is for sale. Add to this the current development going on behind the street, a $47 million apartment project, hotel and grocery store construction,

and the area is experiencing some growing pains, says Wood. For their part, the men living behind the church insist that there isnt a problem. A lot of the time, we dont ask people for nothing, says Mac, the older of the two. We dont bother them; why should they bother us? Barfield, who says the church has worked with the police on the issue, admits that there is no perfect solution to the problems of panhandling and homelessness. Its challenging for a community because not everyone agrees on boundaries or how to relate, she says.

Searching for a solution

Many of the streets merchants are meeting regularly to discuss how to deal with the issue. Some want to create a program s i m i l a r t o C h a p el H i l l s Re a l Change from Spare Change, which accepts public donations that it then puts towards funding social outreach programs. Others argue for more enforcement of the city ordinance and an increased policing of the area. However, Wood thinks the answer will come from a combination of approaches. Somewhere along that spectrum from compassion to enforcement to education there is a strategy that we need to develop that would coordinate all of us, he says. The Ninth Street community has to be blamed because weve done a poor job of organizing and coordinating to address these things.
Kendall: 919-932-8760