Tweets I sent while doing StreetWatch homeless outreach this past week:

23 Mar 2012: Talked to homeless vets dishonorably discharged for mental illness/addiction related issues. Not eligible for VA treatment.

23 Mar 2012: Hanging out in the shade behind a store talking with 4 homeless guys about jobs, family, military & cops.

22 Mar 2012: Ever wonder about the permits the homeless people on the corner are wearing? Panhandling 101, Greensboro Style http://bit.ly/GNaBY9
Background: Several people we saw this week had panhandling charges. There are lots of rules and it can get complicated.

22 Mar 2012: Homeless lady went to jail for panhandling without permit. Got out. Went back to her corner. Same cop saw her. Back in jail within hours.
Update: Second arrest was for Failure To Appear on an earlier charge.

22 Mar 2012: Humbled by compassion of property management staffer for homeless men whose camp has to go. Doing his job as mercifully as possible.

22 Mar 2012: Grateful for Greensboro Police officer who took homeless man to rehab in January; visits him, stays in touch with family.

21 Mar 2012: Talked to a homeless guy today who sold his bicycle for $2.50 to buy a 40 oz beer. And it seemed normal to him.

Panhandling licenses can be obtained through the City of Greensboro Collections Division, located in Room 11 on the Upper Ground (UG) Level of the Melvin Municipal Office Building, 300 W. Washington St. (map) Their phone number is 336-373-2501.

Who can apply for a panhandling privilege license (also called a panhandling permit) in Greensboro?

Anyone can apply. All panhandling license applications are sent to the Greensboro Police Department for a background check. This can take up to seven (7) days to complete. (For more information, see section 20-72. (c)(3) of the local ordinance, below.)

How much does a panhandling license cost?

Panhandling licenses are free.

What do I need to bring with me to obtain a panhandling license in Greensboro?

• North Carolina picture ID (driver license or ID card)
• Social Security card

Who enforces panhandling laws?

The Greensboro Police Department. Their phone number (non-emergency) is 336-373-2222.

What are the laws about panhandling?

Panhandling laws are listed below (current as of March 22, 2012) from Chapter 20 – PEDDLERS, SOLICITORS, ETC. >> ARTICLE IV. – PERSONS BEGGING OR SOLICITING ALMS FOR PERSONAL GAIN >> in the Greensboro, North Carolina, Code of Ordinances:

Sec. 20-65. – Intent.

The purpose of this article is to require the registration and permitting of street peddlers, beggars and charitable solicitors who attempt to solicit sales or contributions for their own personal gain from occupants of vehicles and pedestrians on certain streets and sidewalks within the City of Greensboro, and to thereby regulate and ensure the safety of vehicular and pedestrian traffic flow and to promote roadway safety and sidewalk safety. The provisions of this article shall not apply to bona fide members of charitable, religious, civic or fraternal organizations which are exempt from the payment of privilege licenses and who receive no compensation of any kind for their services. Those persons excluded under the provisions of article III, section 20-61(b) and (c) are excluded from the provisions of this article.

(Ord. No. 03-81, § 1, 4-15-03)

Sec. 20-66. – Registration and privilege license required.

No person shall sell, or offer for goods for sale, or solicit contributions for their own personal benefit or engage in any other form of commercial speech in the City of Greensboro unless such persons have previously registered therefore and obtained the panhandler privilege license required under section 13-31 and section 13-102.1 of the Greensboro Code of Ordinances.

(Ord. No. 03-81, § 1, 4-15-03; Ord. No. 04-84, § 2, 6-15-04; Ord. No. 06-119, § 1, 6-6-06)

Sec. 20-67. – Privilege license procedures.

(a) Applications for panhandler privilege licenses from individuals under this article shall be submitted to the office of the city tax collector on forms provided by the office of the city tax collector. The applicant shall submit an application and shall submit to a criminal background history check which shall be reviewed by the chief of police or his designee to determine eligibility of the applicant. Thereafter, any panhandler privilege license issued shall be valid until the end of the fiscal year in which said license was issued or for such other period as may be specified on the license certificate or until information is discovered that causes the licensee, in the opinion of the tax collector, to become disqualified. In such instances of disqualification any panhandler privilege license having been issued shall be revoked by the tax collector.

(b) Upon receipt of information or reports of violation of this article or other disqualifying events as set forth in section 20-71 or 20-72, the tax collector may refuse to issue, refuse to renew or may revoke privilege licenses as deemed necessary to safeguard the interest of the public and to carry out the purposes of this article, which are to promote public safety and convenience on the streets and sidewalks of the City of Greensboro.

(c) Any panhandler privilege license issued under this article shall be nontransferable.

(Ord. No. 03-81, § 1, 4-15-03; Ord. No. 04-84, § 2, 6-15-04; Ord. No. 06-119, § 2, 6-6-06; Ord. No. 10-120, § 1, 8-17-2010)

Sec. 20-68. – Time.

Any person who begs or solicits alms for his or her own personal gain after sunset or before sunrise is guilty of a misdemeanor. Any person who begs or solicits alms for his or her own personal gain in a school zone during the time of arrival of students at the beginning of the school day and/or during the time of departure of students at the end of the school day is guilty of a misdemeanor.

(Ord. No. 03-81, § 1, 4-15-03; Ord. No. 04-84, § 2, 6-15-04)

Sec. 20-69. – Place.

Any person who begs or solicits alms for his or her personal gain when the person is in any of the places listed below is guilty of a misdemeanor:

(1) At any bus or train stop;

(2) In any public transportation vehicle, facility, transit stop or taxi stand;

(3) In any vehicle on the street; or

(4) On private property, unless the person has written permission from the owner of the property to beg or solicit alms on the property; or

(5) Within three hundred (300) feet of or in any public or private school property, which shall include but not be limited to primary and secondary educational facilities, job training or continuing educational facilities, or any daycare or childcare facility.

(6) On any sidewalk adjacent to a motion picture theatre, outdoor theatre or palladium, any valid licensed vendor location, or where a line of patrons has formed.

(7) Within twenty (20) feet of the entrance to any financial institution or automated teller machine, regardless of whether or not such automated teller machine is located at or near a financial institution. Financial institution as used in this section means any bank, trust company, savings and loan association, credit union, check-cashing business, any other entity principally engaged in the business of lending or receiving or soliciting money on deposit; or

(8) Within twenty (20) feet of the entrance to any commercial establishment or private residence; or

(9) In any parking, deck, garage or surface parking lot and not within twenty (20) feet of the entrance and exits of these areas and not within twenty (20) feet of any parking meter or parking kiosk; or

(10) While under the influence of alcohol or other non prescribed drug or illegal substance; or

(11) Within twenty (20) feet of the visible barricade of any outdoor café whether such café is on the public sidewalk or on private property.

(Ord. No. 03-81, § 1, 4-15-03; Ord. No. 04-84, § 2, 6-15-04; Ord. No. 09-160, § 1, 9-15-09; Ord. No. 10-38, § 1, 4-6-10; Ord. No. 10-47, § 1, 5-4-10)

Sec. 20-70. – Manner.

Any person who begs or solicits alms for his or her own personal gain in any of the following manners is guilty of a misdemeanor:

(1) By coming within three (3) feet of the person being solicited, until that person has clearly indicated that he or she wants to make a donation;

(2) By blocking the path of the person being solicited along a sidewalk or street;

(3) By following the person being solicited after they have walked away;

(4) By using profane or abusive language, either during the solicitation, or following a refusal;

(5) By soliciting in a group of two (2) or more people; or

(6) By any statement, gesture, or other form of communication by which a reasonable person in the situation of the person solicited would perceive to be a threat.

(Ord. No. 03-81, § 1, 4-15-03)

Sec. 20-71. – False or misleading solicitation.

(a) Any person who knowingly makes any false or misleading representation in the course of soliciting a donation or begging for alms is guilty of a misdemeanor. False or misleading representations include, but are not limited to, the following:

(1) Stating that the donation is needed to meet a specific need, when the solicitor already has sufficient funds to meet that need and does not disclose that fact;

(2) Stating that the donation is needed to meet a need which does not exist;

(3) Stating the solicitor is from out of town and stranded when that is not true;

(4) Wearing a military uniform or other indication of military service, when the solicitor is neither a present nor former member of the service indicated;

(5) Wearing or displaying an indication of physical or mental disability, when the solicitor does not suffer the disability indicated;

(6) Use of any makeup or device to simulate any deformity; or

(7) Stating that the solicitor is homeless, when he or she is not.

(b) Any person who solicits a donation stating that the funds are needed for a specific purpose and then spends the funds received for a different purpose is guilty of a misdemeanor.

(c) This section establishes a single offense. Evidence, which establishes that the defendant violated the section, is sufficient for conviction and need not establish which subdivision was violated.

(Ord. No. 03-81, 4-15-03)

Sec. 20-72. – Privilege license required.

(a) No person shall beg or solicit alms for personal gain without first registering and obtaining a panhandler privilege license issued by the tax department. A person who has registered and who has been issued a panhandler privilege license shall keep it displayed on his or her chest, hanging from a lanyard or clipped to their garment, so that the name, type of license and date of expiration is visible at all times while begging or soliciting alms for personal gain and shall show it to any law enforcement officer or tax collector immediately upon request. No person whose panhandler’s privilege license has been revoked shall beg or solicit alms for a period of two (2) years following the date of the revocation. Any person who violates this subsection is guilty of a misdemeanor.

(b) The city tax collector’s office shall issue a panhandler privilege license, without fee, to any eligible person (a person shall be deemed eligible once they demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the tax collector, their ability to satisfy the requirements for licensure as are spelled out in this chapter) who comes to the city tax collector’s office and presents a picture identification issued by NCDMV and one (1) other form of identification.

(c) A person is not eligible for a panhandler privilege license or renewal of a panhandler privilege license if within the most recent five-year period:

(1) The tax collector has received information from the executive officer to the chief of police that the person has two (2) or more violations of this chapter;

(2) The tax collector has received information from the executive officer to the chief of police that the person has been convicted of two (2) or more offenses under the law of any jurisdiction which involve either misdemeanor or felony assault, communicating threats, or illegal use of weapons; or

(3) The person otherwise does not qualify for a privilege license in accordance with this chapter.

(d) The panhandler privilege license shall display the essential rules and regulations of this chapter. Such rules shall serve as a compliance guide for the licensee.

(e) Any person who makes any false or misleading statement while applying for a panhandler’s privilege license under this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor. Upon receipt of information of such a violation, the tax collector shall decline to issue a privilege license to the offending applicant or shall revoke the license of the offending licensee.

(f) If a person applies for or is issued a privilege license under this chapter and the tax collector receives information that the person has violated any provision of this chapter, the tax collector shall decline to issue or shall revoke, respectively, that person’s privilege license for a period of two (2) years.

(Ord. No. 03-81, § 1, 4-15-03; Ord. No. 04-84, § 2, 6-15-04; Ord. No. 06-119, § 3, 6-6-06; Ord. No. 10-120, § 2, 8-17-2010; Ord. No. 10-137, § 1, 9-7-10)

Sec. 20-73. – Violations.

Any violation of this article shall be a misdemeanor and may be enforced by any one (1) or more of the remedies authorized by the provisions of G.S. § 14-4 or G.S. § 160A-175. A police officer observing a violation of this article shall confiscate the panhandler privilege license and return it to the tax department. The licensee may appear before the tax collector and show cause, to the satisfaction of the tax collector, why the license should not be revoked.

(Ord. No. 03-81, § 1, 4-15-03; Ord. No. 06-119, § 4, 6-6-06)

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This replaces an outdated post of the same name.

Our county had a good treatment center which offered detox, outpatient, and inpatient services. The center stayed full, with a waiting list, from the day it opened, but still, it was good treatment, and people got help there. But there were issues with Bridgeway, the operator contracted to provide services, and the state suspended admissions in August. The county is transitioning to a new provider, DayMark, but new patients won’t be admitted until at least late November. So that’s four months with no county substance abuse treatment.

Uninsured/under-insured Guilford County residents in need of substance abuse treatment can go to ARCA in Winston, RTS in Burlington or ADATC in Butner for detox and crisis stabilization. But those services are limited to 14 days. While that’s helpful in some cases, in many cases, it’s like sticking a bandaid on a seriously injured car crash victim and dumping them back into the middle of the interstate. Those in recovery from cocaine addiction, for example, often need significantly more residential treatment. They need to be in a safe, structured environment while their brains begin to heal. And at just 14 days’ clean time, a crack addict’s brain looks like someone turned the lights out.

Much is said about “community-based treatment,” which means non-residential (not in a facility), but in reality, it sounds a lot better than it often works. “Best practices” and “client-centered therapy” are also important parts of good treatment. But the substance abuse treatment available locally to alcoholics and addicts who don’t have good health insurance coverage doesn’t always measure up to those terms.

I’m a realist. I know that the biggest reason why we don’t have the needed treatment is because there’s not enough money to pay for it. Local and state treatment programs are paid for primarily with tax dollars. There’s always been a shortage of treatment beds and treatment options. And the current economy has no doubt worsened the situation. But I also know the cost of addiction that most taxpayers don’t see or think about. It’s “pay me now or pay me later.” When treatment-ready alcoholics and addicts can’t get the help they need, and they continue in their addictions, taxpayers still end up paying for it.

People who can’t access needed treatment services often continue to cycle through emergency rooms (the most expensive form of healthcare) and detox programs. That costs taxpayers money. Active alcoholics and addicts who are on disability may use government benefits, such as SSDI or SSI checks, food stamps or utility vouchers to buy alcohol and drugs. Taxpayers pay for that. Police officers, jailers and judges can tell you about the correlation between addiction and crime. Again, taxpayers pay.

The cost of the destruction of lives — both the addicts’ and their friends and families — cannot be measured.  Alcoholics, addicts, and their friends and families lose time from work dealing with crises. Alcoholics, addicts, and their friends and families deal with mental and physical health issues — some which contribute to the alcoholism and addiction, and some resulting from it. Families break up and relationships end because of alcoholism and addiction. Single-parent families are at a greater risk of poverty and are more likely to receive government assistance. All of this adds up to more taxpayers dollars.

There’s much stigma, misinformation and mythology attached to alcoholism and addiction. This probably contributes to the lack of advocacy for increasing treatment options. But if we were to really look at the bottom line, we’d see that “detox and done” isn’t really serving anyone.

It’s easy to appeal to compassion and make an emotional case for providing treatment for alcoholics and addicts who are ready to do the next thing. But the pragmatic case is just as compelling, if not more so. Currently, adequate treatment is not available because our community can’t afford to provide it. But the truth is that taxpayers are already paying (and likely paying more) for not providing adequate treatment services, which raises the obvious question: Can we really afford not to provide it?

On any given night, 1,064 people find themselves without permanent shelter in Guilford County, new data shows.

The annual “point-in-time” count of the homeless Jan. 27 found that at least that many people were living on the street, in shelters or in transitional housing, according to a report released today by Partners Ending Homelessness.

The annual count is a snapshot of homelessness in the county and officials caution it is not a complete picture of the situation. People often decline to take the voluntary survey and others may not be found during the 24-hour period that it takes place.

In 2009, the point-in-time count found 1,052 people experiencing homelessness in Guilford County.

This year’s count of the homeless also showed:

• a 55 percent increase in the number of military veterans
• a 31 percent increase in the number of domestic violence victims; and
• an 8 percent increase in the number of children

– from ‘Snapshot’ survey shows homelessness on rise : News-Record.com

My experience with our StreetWatch team, as well as observations at shelter and meal locations, and conversations with police officers and homeless people, tell me that homelessness is increasing in our city and county, as it is across the nation. Counting homeless people is a notoriously difficult, and ultimately impossible, task. So I tend to go by trends, based on who we see and who we serve.

Last week, I spoke with Jehan Benton-Clark, director of Partners Ending Homelessness (PEH), about this year’s homeless count totals. We discussed the inherent limitations of a one-day homeless count, and other available data from local homeless service providers which presents a broader picture of the increasing homeless population in our area. I anticipate a more detailed public report from PEH.

image credit: News-Record.com/Nelson Kepley

In the city’s path
Saturday, March 6, 2010
By Lorraine Ahearn

GREENSBORO – Two paths converged in a not-so-distant wood this week: the $26 million Downtown Greenway, and a longtime homeless “tent city” in its way.

Served notice that heavy equipment will soon be brought in for soil sampling, five homeless men and a woman retreated to an adjoining section of woods near the Freeman Mill Road overpass at Spring Garden Street, according to police and Action Greensboro, the nonprofit project manager.

“They told us we had to go — tents and everything,” said Keith Owens, 45, an unemployed equipment operator who has lived at the camp for a year. “They did give us a little bit of warning. Anybody dreads moving. It’s just a little harder out here.”

» Keep reading “In the city’s path” at News-Record.com

Good article by Lorraine Ahearn in the News & Record, about our friends at the Freeman Mill homeless camps moving the largest camp to make way for the next section of the downtown Greenway.

There’s been good cooperation between the homeless camp residents, property owner Elliott Mitchell, StreetWatch, the Greensboro Police Department, the City of Greensboro, and Action Greensboro in strategizing solutions for the homeless people who’ve been displaced by the Greenway. The Greensboro Housing Coalition is helping some of them move into permanent housing using HUD vouchers. I look forward to eventually walking the Greenway with my friends who’ve lived in its path. And hopefully, going to visit them in their homes, not their tents.

FOX8′s Roxanna Haynes came along with me and Derek Dunham on StreetWatch.

Four days earlier, on 11/24/2009, a Greensboro police sergeant had contacted the state agency (and others, including me), seeking direction on how to help a (different) homeless refugee.

“…The City has received complaints about him sleeping there. We hope to get him some help rather than resort to arresting him for trespassing under the bridge…”

On 12/02/2009, a state rep responded, confirming that the man was a Montagnard refugee, and had received resettlement assistance from 2002-2004. She also offered contact info for a group that had worked with the man previously, but by the time she sent her email, the (concerned and resourceful) sergeant already had help on the scene.

Stay tuned…

My ministry partner, Audrie Keen, and I provide a street outreach to the homeless in Greensboro, and we’ve made a lot of friends along the way. We eat together, go to church together and have cookouts. Sometimes our homeless friends stay with us. We visit formerly homeless friends in their homes.

When we say “homeless friends,” we really mean friends.

Two Friday mornings ago, we visited “The Block” at Lee and South Eugene streets. It had been 11 days since my last visit, when we’d talked about the artistic bench installed, then removed, from along the new stretch of the Downtown Greenway in that area. Neighbors said the bench attracted drug addicts and prostitutes.

The guys on The Block dismissed that notion. One said: “The problem is not as serious as they say it is on the news. And the bench has nothing to do with it.”

We’d also talked about how the removal of the bench had turned attention to The Block, which a reporter described as “a magnet for loitering, drugs and prostitution” (News & Record, Oct. 10). But the guys said there were no drugs or prostitutes. A friend who catches a bus near The Block agreed, explaining, “The last place prostitutes want to be is around a bunch of broke people. Drug dealers, too.”

The guys had heard the talk about cleaning up The Block, and they found it to be hypocritical. Speaking of the city’s elite, whom they believed to be behind efforts to clear the block, one man said: “They sit outside on the sidewalks and drink wine. But they don’t want to see us out here on the corner drinking ours.”

Another said, “About 50 of us should save up our money and go drink downtown with them at the sidewalk cafes. They’ll be voting for us to go back to Eugene. Get us some tables and chairs out here, too.”

We had all gotten a laugh out of that, but the day after that visit, things changed.

Zero tolerance

In response to a meeting between residents and Guilford County commissioners Chairman Melvin “Skip” Alston, police Chief Tim Bellamy instituted a zero-tolerance policy on loitering, and officers stepped up patrols.

So, when Audrie and I arrived for street outreach two Fridays ago, we were surprised to see guys on The Block. They weren’t laughing now.

The police hadn’t chased them off yet, they said.

“I don’t have a job, I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs,” Mitchell Wall said. “This is the only spot I can come to get work. I understand them making you leave if you’re doing wrong, but why make you leave if you’re trying to better yourself?”

A gray-haired gentleman told Audrie and me that The Block has been a spot for day laborers seeking work since 1959, when it was called “Five Points.”

On this Friday morning, 19 men waited nervously, hoping to be picked up for jobs before the police came and moved them away. One man even had packed a lunch, hoping he’d be working and not at the nearby soup kitchen at lunchtime.

“I used to make a living from right here,” Milton Williams said. “I was homeless. But I was able to pay for my room. I don’t know how I’m gonna do that now. I haven’t caught a job since they put my picture in the paper. I had no idea they were doing that.

“They take your picture but they don’t talk to you. The paper never says anything good about us. None of us are drinking and drugging.”

Kindnesses from cops

As he finished speaking, a patrol car pulled up. The officer began loudly instructing everyone to leave. The guys started to argue, but the officer said, “I’m just doing my job.” They said they were just trying to find a job.

An employee at the Fastmart on the corner, who was visibly upset, came out to talk to the officer. She complained that the guys were scaring away customers.

They hadn’t scared us away, but seeing all those men yelling in anger, I got her point, even as I understood their frustration.

Audrie and I could see everyone’s perspective, but that wasn’t helping the guys on The Block. They had to leave.

The employee went back into the store. The officer got back into his car and pulled away.

We thought about all of the officers we know who balance enforcement and assistance: A sheriff’s deputy who had to evict a homeless man from a barn, but then, with shelters full, spent hours finding him a place to stay. Police officers who organized a collection box for blankets, hats and gloves, then gave them to the homeless in winter. An officer who took boots to men at a homeless camp. An officer who moved furniture into the apartment of a chronically homeless man who finally got a housing voucher. The officers who served alongside us when we fed the homeless. The officer who found a woman drinking in the park and helped her get into rehab.

Everyone knows that cops enforce the law, but Audrie and I know that the Greensboro Police Department also does a lot to “protect and serve” our homeless friends. Having to move people off The Block knowing they have no place else to go — that can’t be an easy job.

Day center will help

I talked to one of the officers who works the area. He’ll be glad when the new day center opens downtown. Me, too. One of our friends on The Block talked about the sense of community and camaraderie there. I believe that the day center will provide that as well.

And the day center can become the new place for employers to come looking for day laborers. It can also be a place where those who drank on The Block can come and find community, support and resources to begin the road to recovery.

After our visit to The Block, Audrie and I headed toward the Freeman Mill homeless camps, whose residents soon will be displaced by more greenway construction. One of our friends there is a homeless woman in a wheelchair. I thought about what one of the guys had said during my last trip to The Block: “Handicapped people living in the woods, and they’re worried about people drinking on The Block?”

Ironic, isn’t it? I guess the folks at Freeman Mill will be moved along soon, too.

Most people assume that there are enough shelters and housing programs to house the homeless, and that mental-health and substance-abuse treatment is available.

The truth? Demand greatly exceeds supply. That’s why people sleep in those camps downtown. And why some of those guys sat on The Block and drank all day.

As the greenway winds its way through areas of downtown that most folks don’t see, some harsh realities are being revealed.

And some friends of mine are asking themselves: Where do you go when there’s nowhere to go?

WHY CARE?

“Why do you do what you do?”

I follow Jesus, and He says to care for the poor, homeless and hungry.

It’s not a suggestion.

He says that when we care for “the least of these,” we’re caring for Him. I tell people, “You want to see Jesus? Go to the street. You’ll find Him there. I did.”

I have struggles in my own life — chronic, often debilitating depression, attention deficit disorder, a spinal injury and a digestive disorder — so I understand what it’s like to live with pain and limitations.

I’m a single mom, and without the support of family, I myself might have been homeless.

My own experiences give me a greater sense of urgency to reach out to those in need. My income says I’m poor, but my life says ‘m rich. I have a place to live, food to eat, clothes to wear, health coverage and supportive family and friends.

Not everybody has that. I want to pass on the blessings in any way I’m able.

I love to do street outreach, to visit people “flying” signs on corners, to go see friends living in homeless camps. I like to feed people, to pray with people, to listen and laugh and cry with people. I like to bring things that people need, like blankets, boots, socks, tents, etc. I like to help people find resources to get the long-term assistance they need to end their homelessness.

But I get the better end of the deal. I’ve met the strongest, smartest, wisest, most resourceful, creative, generous, faith-filled people living outside in Greensboro. They’ve taught me, encouraged me, prayed for me and blessed me beyond measure.

This is why I do what I do. And I’m thankful for every day that God keeps allowing me to do it.

Michele Forrest of Greensboro operates a homeless outreach and blogs about homelessness at Chosenfast.com