Authorities say the ever increasing number of individuals standing on street corners and off-ramps throughout the mid-valley begging for money is becoming a clear and present danger to their and the motoring public’s safety.
(SALEM) - No matter where you travel in Oregon, from Portland south to Ashland, or east to Ontario, or north along the Oregon Coast, somewhere along the way, you will run into an individual standing at an off-ramp or street corner holding a sign asking you to give them any spare change you may have.
For most, these individuals are an eye sore, but homeless rights activists say it’s their right.
Either way you look at it, the problem in Oregon is spiraling out of control, and for authorities and state and local leaders, the Oregon Supreme Court has tied their hands.
Sgt Brian Prevett, who is in charge of the downtown Salem patrol team, deals with many of the panhandlers downtown on a day-by-day basis says the law is fairly clear in that panhandling is constitutionally protected and any law or ordinance against it would violate the Oregon constitution.
Prevett says however that the community is somewhat to blame for the growing problem is the Salem area.
He said people in the community give freely, which speaks very highly of the citizens of Salem.
However, panhandlers often use the money to purchase drugs or alcohol instead of food or clothing as was intended.
Keizer police Sgt. Jeff Isham said on the surface, this appears to be a safety problem for a few reasons.
“The first being that many of these folks look a little rough around the edges and don’t appear to be all that friendly."
"The second concern is them wandering off of the sidewalk or roadside to walk into traffic and meander around the cars finding those who wish to give money. Even though most of these folks appear to be rough around the edges, most of them stay on the sidewalk and don’t hassle the public."
Isham says it can get ugly, "However, I have been at a few intersections where they have been yelling at people in the cars and even fighting between each other over whose corner it was to work."
The biggest concern according to Isham, is panhandlers getting out into traffic because they see someone reaching into their pocket to donate money to them. "If they stayed up on the curb or out of the roadway, it wouldn’t be as big of concern."
Without addressing the problem, the number of panhandlers will likely increase.
"There will be transients that are passing through the area, who decide to stay and panhandle since others are allowed to do the same. If the problem isn’t addressed, we can only suspect that it will get worse” Isham said.
Isham added that this problem is like the broken window theory:
James Q. Wilson and George Kelling developed the `broken window' thesis to explain the signaling function of neighborhood characteristics.
This thesis suggests that the following sequence of events can be expected in deteriorating neighborhoods.
Evidence of decay (accumulated trash, broken windows, deteriorated building exteriors) remains in the neighborhood for a reasonably long period of time. People who live and work in the area feel more vulnerable and begin to withdraw.
They become less willing to intervene to maintain public order (for example, to attempt to break up groups of rowdy teens loitering on street corners) or to address physical signs of deterioration.
Sensing this, teens and other possible offenders become bolder and intensify their harassment and vandalism.
Residents become yet more fearful and withdraw further from community involvement and upkeep.
This atmosphere then attracts offenders from outside the area, who sense that it has become a vulnerable and less risky site for crime.
Marion County Sheriff’s spokesman Kevin Rau said as long as a person is not affecting the flow or traffic (i.e.: on the shoulder or in the lane of traffic) or in a center median, such as at Silverton Road and Lancaster Drive. There is no Marion County ordnance or state law that prohibits them from doing it.
Oregon State Police spokesman Gregg Hastings said it is becoming more and more difficult to find a freeway off-ramp (or on-ramp with freeway access controlled periodically by traffic control devices) where someone is not holding a sign soliciting money, food or something else.
Hastings says the law prohibiting this activity was declared unconstitutional in Oregon several years ago.
"The best advise I can give if Oregonians who want this kind of activity to stop is to ignore these individuals."
He says eye and/or verbal contact opens the door.
If someone becomes aggressive such as stepping in front of the vehicle or banging on windows, report this to local law enforcement immediately because this could be considered disorderly conduct, Hastings said.
An unscientific tally on Friday of panhandlers in the Salem-area by Salem-News.com found 15 standing at intersections, highway and freeway off-ramps, and outside major department and grocery stores such as Wal-Mart and WINCO.
One couple outside Wal-Mart in south Salem held a sign that read “Bet you can’t hit us with a dollar”.
Margaret Anderson of Salem said, “It’s sad that young people are sitting outside a store begging for money, when they should be either in a college classroom or out looking for a job.”
Republican State Representative Vicki Berger of Salem said the Legislature may have to bring the issue up during the next session.
However, with the Oregon Supreme Court ruling on panhandlers, Berger admitted it will be an uphill fight to find a solution to the problem.
Homeless advocates say the panhandling issue has become such a big problem because the state for the past several years, has not been able to come out of economic slump, making jobs, even minimum wage ones, tough to come by.
Oregon’s meth epidemic, along with the increasing numbers of individuals seeking treatment for alcohol, drug, and gambling addictions isn’t helping either.
Matt Jones of Silverton said, “I hate to see people giving them money. Don’t they realize that a majority of them are just going to spend that money on drugs or alcohol? It is no wonder why this state seems to spend so much money on drug and alcohol addiction programs.
Two panhandlers, sitting at the Mission Street/Highway-22 off ramp at Lancaster Drive told me they make anywhere between $50 and $100 per day depending on traffic and people's moods.
They said some days people are very generous, other days, not so much.
When I asked them what they spent the money on they said “no comment.”
When asked why they don’t go out and find a job they replied, “why?”
“Figure it out. If I stand here and make say only $20 a day, that's $140 dollars a week with no taxes. So with good days, and some bad days I figure I make about, or a little more each year than the guy working at McDonalds for minimum wage.”
I told them their sign read that they were willing to work for money or food. They said “That’s the hook. People don’t want to give us work or food so they throw change out to us and that’s what it all about.”
I then asked if they knew of any out of state panhandlers.
They said “yeah there are more and more of them everyday it seems. Guess they figure that the money here is good.”
When asked how they feel about the fact that people's opinions might change after they read this, their response was quite simple. “Newspapers, television and radio stations all over the country have done stories on the homeless who are out panhandling and they haven’t yet stopped giving us money, so I don’t think another story by you is going to change their minds. Oh sure they are going to be outraged for a little bit, but that will pass, and we will be here gladly accepting their donation.”
Both men were very well spoken and seemed somewhat educated so I asked them how much education they had.
Both had a high school diploma, and came from a relativity normal up-brining. When I asked them if either of them had trouble with drugs or alcohol, they wanted to change the subject.
I then asked them what they thought Salem-area residents have given to panhandlers.
"Well for the most part we are a pretty tight nit group.” They said. A lot of us sleep together in camps throughout the area, and talk about the money we have made.
They guessed that in the past year, residents have given close to half a million dollars to panhandlers.
“It’s a better life than you might think.” they said.
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This story was originally published on Salem-News.com August 25th at 10:02 PM.
Salem-Keizer Residents Getting Fed-Up With PanhandlersSalem-News.com