However, there has been a net loss of beds for homeless people in Atlanta in the last year, spurred by the loss of 125 emergency beds for homeless women and children which were closed by Mayor Franklin in 2005, the report finds.
"The reason this all [the panhandling ban] went into affect is, there were scammers hanging out in the tourist triangle, getting money from tourists, and hurting tourism," Woodling said.
"Mayor Franklin’s father was homeless," Woodling added. "And she tells the story, she stepped over him on the way to school. But he was one of the success stories," Woodling said.
"Amid waves of public protest and testimony opposing the Atlanta City Council’s proposed comprehensive ban on panhandling, the city and mayor passed a bill in August 2005," the report says.
"The ban made panhandling illegal within the "tourist triangle" and anywhere after dark. The ordinance also prohibits panhandling within 15 feet of an ATM, bus stop, taxi stand, pay phone, public toilet, or train station anywhere in the city. Many opponents believe the ban outlaws panhandling virtually everywhere, rendering it unconstitutional. The new ordinance also states that anyone who asks for help, both monetary and non-monetary, can be detained until an outreach worker either evaluates the detainee or refers him/her to social services," the report says.
Homeless persons are only arrested after being warned, detained, and brought to the Gateway on two previous instances, Woodling told Atlanta Progressive News.
"There is no on-demand response team, nor should there need to be," Anita Beaty said, however, meaning that there is selective implementation of the law.
"There are outreach people, from mental health workers to our outreach team. There are outreach workers there all the time, but not to respond to the Police Department to respond to someone who said I need a quarter for a MARTA token to go to work," Beaty advised.
"The problem of criminalizing homelessness has been around for a long, long time. It has been increasing since the 1980's. It’s a form of economic profiling. If you look like you’re homeless in downtown America, you’ll be arrested," Michael Stoops said.
"It hurts everyone, worst of all homeless people. Criminalizing homelessness is a waste of time and resources," Stoops said.
"Rather than arresting and jailing homeless people for violation, let’s find out why they’re homeless in the first place. There’s a lack of day shelters, and affordable housing," Stoops said.
"We dedicated this report in the name of Rosa Parks," Stoops continued. "Criminalization of the homeless is the civil rights issue of this decade. When we hear of our homeless brothers and sisters, perhaps we should sit down next to them and see if we’ll get arrested."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) chose not to issue an original story on the report, instead relying on an Associated Press report which talked mostly about Sarasota, Florida, the meanest city on this year’s list. The homeless coalitions tell APN that the AJC called them asking for the meanest cities list prior to the January 11th conference call. The AJC ran the AP story, but inserted a new title relating directly to Atlanta’s "drop" to fourth-meanest-city on the list.
"We have one newspaper in this town and this newspaper and some of the money downtown are behind the mayor. It’s absolutely shameless publicity for her. No one really examines her policies," Anita Beaty told Atlanta Progressive News.
"The report is a little soft I think, even though I was part of the production of it. I don’t know how we can make it clearer to the public that people are being harassed and arrested and legislated against so that their normal or their necessary activities and bodily functions are illegal," Beaty exclaimed.
"I think the panhandling ban is the most recent in a series of thoughtless, mean, and regressive legislation that Atlanta’s resorted to, to keep homeless people excluded from housing, from life in Atlanta, from participating as citizens, as the citizens that they are," Beaty said.
Matthew Cardinale is Editor of Atlanta Progressive News. He has written previously for the Sun-Sentinel Newspaper, Shelterforce Magazine, The Advocate Magazine, The San Francisco Bay View, and the Berkeley Daily Planet Newspaper. He has also written for numerous online publications including OpEdNews, BuzzFlash, CommonDreams, AlterNet, RawStory, and TruthOut.
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