Virginia Beach has a panhandling problem, city council says. But what can be done?
Virginia Beach has a problem with panhandling, and the City Council is struggling to find a method to curb it.
At Tuesday’s meeting, members hashed out a proposal from Councilwoman Sabrina Wooten on whether to install signs at major city intersections that encourage drivers not to give money to people who put their hand out.
Panhandling on a sidewalk is legal and considered a form of free speech. However, individuals can’t stand in a median or obstruct traffic.
Some council members aren’t convinced the signs will make a difference, but Wooten, who brought the issue to the table last summer, believes they will — and is better than doing nothing.
“The signage would be a help in terms of bringing awareness to what we’re already doing,” Wooten said.
The city launched the “Get & Give Help” campaign in 2021, installing 30 signs in the resort area with a crisis hotline phone number that connects people to housing resources and ways to donate. A similar message could be used at intersections, Ruth Hill, the city’s director of housing and neighborhood preservation, said at the meeting.
Mayor Bobby Dyer said the practice is a public safety concern and a health risk, noting he saw an individual with children panhandling at an intersection on a hot summer day.
Wooten said she’s received complaints from residents about panhandlers approaching people in an aggressive manner.
“What I see is the situation getting progressively worse,” Wooten said. “It’s becoming a bit scary in some situations.”
Not all panhandlers in Virginia Beach are homeless. An informal survey conducted by police and a homeless outreach team in the fall of 2019 revealed that 30 to 40% of panhandlers have homes.
The team made contact with roughly 45 panhandlers over the last couple of months. Most declined to be connected to housing services, Hill said. She didn’t say why.
Some reasons for panhandling included obtaining money to pay for a hotel room or to buy alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, Hill said. Another reason: Some preferred panhandling for tax-free money over getting a job, she said.
Hill also said that panhandling signs don’t seem to be helping the situation in other Virginia cities, according to city staff’s research. Henrico County recently changed its signs to include a website rather than a phone number, which may be more effective, she said.
Councilman John Moss said the city needs a practical way to enforce the law when people leave the sidewalk and enter the street.
“Putting up a sign does not solve the ‘professional panhandler,’” Moss said. “We need a different strategy for that and one that we can afford to execute.”
He suggested using cameras, but also offered another option.
“The best solution is to keep your window up,” Moss said. “If your wallet doesn’t come out, and your money doesn’t go out the window, the people will go away.”
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
