Want to donate money to panhandlers? Don’t waste your money, Nampa says

Nampa city leaders want residents to stop giving money to panhandlers and instead donate to nonprofits that help the homeless.

On Monday, city councilors voted unanimously to authorize city police to create 10 anti-panhandling signs to be placed throughout the city to discourage panhandling.

“It wouldn’t stop them, but it’s more of an education for the community to say that you can put your money toward an organization where you know where it’s going to,” said Police Chief Joe Huff.

Nampa’s homeless population has grown in the last year as more people have moved to the Treasure Valley, said Jacob Lang, director of men’s ministries at Boise Rescue Mission, which runs homeless shelters and provides case management for homeless people in Treasure Valley.

Council members Randy Haverfield and Bruce Skaug noted that they regularly see panhandlers up and down Midland Boulevard holding up signs seeking donations.

Skaug and some other council members were skeptical about whether those who claim to be homeless or hungry actually are. Skaug cited a survey that said 93 percent of all money given to panhandlers feeds a drug or alcohol addiction. That number was also cited in a 2014 NPR interview by Robert Marbut, who consulted for Miami on how to deal with its homeless population.

Skaug said the Rev. Bill Roscoe, president and CEO of the Boise Rescue Mission, had endorsed the idea of the signs.

Police would still not have the ability to stop panhandling, Huff said, though an ordinance bars panhandlers from creating a public disturbance or blocking roadways. “We haven’t written a ticket for it in three years,” he said.

Huff estimated that each sign would cost $180, for a total of $1,800.

While many cities have attempted to enact ordinances that ban panhandling, federal judges tend to strike many of them down for violating the First Amendment, which protects free speech, including panhandling.

Boise ran into trouble with an ordinance that attempted to ban people from camping within city limits. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it amounted to cruel and unusual punishment if the homeless had nowhere else to go. The city is appealing.

This story was originally published October 15, 2018 at 11:44 PM.