Asheville public safety committee proposes panhandling ordinance changes
ASHEVILLE – Big changes could be coming to the way people ask for and receive handouts on city streets.
In a July 25 Environment and Safety Committee meeting, committee members proposed changes to Asheville’s solicitation ordinances, which includes panhandlers, that have remained untouched for two decades, according to City Attorney Brad Branham.
The original changes to sections 11-5 and 11-14 of the Asheville City Code of Ordinances, Branham stated, are necessary to remain compliant with existing federal law due to recent Supreme Court rulings on soliciting, or panhandling, namely in City of Austin v. Reagan and Reed v. Town of Gilbert. The proposed changes were not meant to expand penalties or create any substantive change to the ordinances, but were rather “primarily a language change,” Branham said.
Yet, in the discussion following Branham’s presentation, motions for multiple notable changes were tacked onto the ordinance following a unanimous 3-0 vote from City Council members Maggie Ullman, Sheneika Smith and Sandra Kilgore, and sent to City Council to be reviewed on Aug. 22. If these motions go into effect, individuals in vehicles will no longer be allowed to give contributions to panhandlers, among other restrictions.
“I know that sometimes the folks who are panhandling are in really dire straits, and the acts that they are taking are uncomfortable and, in many cases, unlawful and infringing on other citizens’ rights," said City Councilperson Maggie Ullman, chair of the committee. "But I also know that just charging them with a misdemeanor isn’t necessarily going to address the root cause.”
She added that she believes these donations are well intended.
“I mean, my 9-year-old daughter wants to hand a snack out the window – it’s coming from a really good place, but I don’t know if it’s helping address the root cause and might be reinforcing what I think are dangerous activities,” Ullman added.
Additional high-traffic zones, which are areas that receive more pedestrian traffic and have stricter laws surrounding panhandling, will be added on Haywood Road in West Asheville and the River Arts District, if the motions take effect. Currently, high-traffic zones are centered around a large portion of downtown and Biltmore Village, Branham said in the meeting. Stricter prohibition applies to these zones, where panhandlers must hold signs, must stay on the sidewalk and can’t beg or solicit after dark, for example.
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“Because of the constitutional protections around the First Amendment, and solicitation is a protected activity under the First Amendment, we have not fully prohibited solicitation even in the high traffic zones,” Branham said in the meeting.
Branham told the committee that many of the complaints surrounding roadside solicitation seem to be occurring outside of what is currently designated as high traffic zones. Regarding the nature of the complaints Asheville Police Department receives about solicitors, Deputy Police Chief Michael Lamb told the committee that these vary from complaints about the traffic hazards created by panhandlers to common law robbery to simple nuisance complaints. Lamb also stated that these complaints come from across the city, from South Tunnel Road corridor to Airport Road to Merrimon Avenue.
The committee also decided to expand the distance panhandlers must stand from restricted areas, from 6 feet to 10 feet, if approved by City Council. This means panhandlers would have to stay 10 feet away from any outdoor dining or merchandise area in active use, as well as transit stops or taxi stands. Panhandlers are also prohibited from directing begging or soliciting toward anyone located within outdoor dining or merchandise areas or anyone located within 6 feet of the transit stop or taxi stand. These restrictions will not apply to buskers, the committee clarified.
Under N.C. General Statute 20-175(e), a person must have a permit to stand, sit or loiter on any street or highway to solicit or accept contributions of any type from stopped vehicles or distribute merchandise to the people in the stopped vehicle, including the use of shoulders or medians. While requiring a permit is not a new thing, this does expand the language past those actively standing on the street and now includes those sitting or loitering.
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"I think you all have taken a fairly significant step as it relates to public safety, for both those who are soliciting and those that are being solicited," said Asheville City Manager Debra Campbell.
"I do think though, like with most things, we are going to need to do an education outreach, and we can use rotary clubs and a number of different nonprofits to help us communicate about this ordinance and the need for us to change behavior. We are evolving, our community is evolving, as well as our need to support this population which unfortunately has to solicit. We need to support them in a different way."
Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. News tips? Email Ryley at rober@gannett.com. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: proposed changes to Asheville's panhandling laws, who's impacted
